Dell hard drive diagnostics
Dell has two utilities to run diagnostics on the hard drive.
Quick 90-90 hard drive diagnostics
90-90 diags take 2 to 5 minutes to run and gives a result on the hard drive. The test will either report the drive passed or it will report the drive failed and give a code. The diagnostics is not foolproof. The test can pass on a failing hard drive, so don't rule that possibility out during troubleshooting. There is two ways to start the diagnostics
Start diags by pressing CTRL -ALT - D keys
When you first turn the system on, press the CTRL - ALT - D keys over and over again till it tells you the diags are running. If you get "Keyboard failure", you pressed the keys too soon and will have to try again. If you get the windows splash screen, you missed the window and will have to shut down to try again.
Start diags by pressing F12 key
When you first turn the system on, press the F12 key till you get a boot menu. Choose hard drive diagnostics, you will get message that the diags are running. If you get "Keyboard failure", you pressed the keys too soon and will have to try again. If you get the windows splash screen, you missed the window and will have to shut down to try again.
You can run diagnostics on the hard drive with this utility. There is several different versions of the diagnostics that it is impossible to cover the steps on how to run the diagnostics using this utility. You will have to consult Dell for the instructions.
To start the diagnostics, you will boot to a CD with the diags on it, Boot to a floppy with the diagnostics on it, or boot to the utility. If you boot to the utility, you can reach it when you press F12 and get the boot menu.