Dell Inspiron 15-3521 will not recover

swc65

The laptop will not boot up.  I inserted USB recovery drive, powered on and hit F12 until I got o recovery option.  Drive Diagnostics indicated errors were found preventing recovery and indicated an attempt to back up data.  I am not concerned with data as it is saved on cloud.  Current screen says Recovery and Restore in large font, then Smart Repair Progress Summary then Analyzing the Drives with a status bar.  The status appear ~40% however has not progressed in at least an hour.  How long is too long to wait. 

Are there any other alternatives to try and get a response.  Waiting on Tech Support hold for 10 minutes as of this post.

I a previous attempt I tried to restore the disk to a previous  time and got message "Windows has detected file system corruption on OS(C:) You must check disk for errors."  I checked the disk and ran into similar issue.  I had a dialog box stating "Scanning and repairing"  I let it run for ~ hour with no progress beyond ~25% completion so I gave up and powered down.
Was hoping to get a quote on services to consider taking into Micro Center or paying $99 to Dell for support for out of warranty.  Any response would be appreciated.  I was hoping to avoid taking into store just to get a quote on cost to troubleshoot.

TSPhillipT

Hello @swc65
This laptop came with Windows 8.1, did you ever update to Windows 10?  


For our service, we would start with a $39.99 diagnosis to check whether it's a hardware issue with the drive or if it's an issue with a corrupt Windows Installation.  You will then be contacted about what the diagnosis is and the cost for repair past the diagnosis. 

swc65

I do not believe it was updated to Windows 10. It’s my son’s so not totally sure.  I’ll plan to bring in for diagnosis. 

swc65

I did some additional work and ran Dell ePSA diagnostics. It identified the following error with Hard drive  I also did a check disk and results are poste below  so I think my hard drive is gone  


I’m capable of replacing hard drive but not sure what to do with OS. Computer originally purchased with Win 8.1. But my son claims we upgraded to 10. Is there a way I can check that?  The OS on the ePSA indicated OS test passed but didn’t tell me what is was. 

How can I determine what OS I had. Am I correct that the license is in the BIOS and will apply license when I successfully reload OS?

i know how to make a bootable USB and have tried both Win 8.1 and Win10 before I found the EPSA diagnostics.  However I’m unsure of how the USB should be formatted NTSF or exFAT. 

Do I try load both OS after I replace hard drive? And see which one works. 

  

TSTonyV

That error is a pretty clear indication the hard drive is about to go.

The license would be digitally embedded in the BIOS, you are correct about that, and it should be detected automatically. We don't have to way to see if the license was previously upgraded, but if you can remember what the OS looked like, I could tell you if it was running on Windows 10 before. When you were on the main desktop screen and clicked the start button on the bottom-left corner, did it just open up a menu with a list of apps you could open, or did it take you to an entirely new window with a bunch of tiles for different apps? If it's the former, you were on Windows 10, if it's the latter, you were on 8.1. 

swc65

Thanks for your help. It’s my son’s computer so I can’t answer. I’ll run that by him. 

If you’ll indulge a few more questions I’d appreciate it. 

Current 4MB Ram Pic below. 

Current HD pic below. 

Processor
338-BCWJ : Intel Pentium processor 2127U (2M Cache, 1.9 GHz)

Son uses for some games and Music scoring. 

Dell Inspiron 15-312,~6 years old. 

Question is what
1) HD would you recommend I go back in with?

2) Does processor support more RAM?  I have another slot open. Would that change performance much?  

TSTonyV

That's a normal  2.5" SATA drive so any 2.5" SATA HDD or SSD would work. Personally I'd recommend getting an SSD since that'll be a big performance boost for the system and make it generally run a lot faster. 

More RAM can help if you're currently maxing out your RAM usage. If you're only at 4GB currently, I'd say it'd be worth it to upgrade to 8GB since 4GB is pretty limited even for normal use because of how RAM hungry modern web browsers can be at times. 

swc65

Great!  Thanks for quick response. Any particular brand of SSD to avoid?  

swc65

Oh and one more question, when formatting USB do I pick NTSF or eXFAT?  When making bootable USB drive. 

TSTonyV

When making a bootable USB drive it should automatically reformat itself anyway but if it asks you to pick one choose NTFS since that's the native Windows filesystem. 

As for the SSD, I'm not aware of any SSDs that are known to be particularly bad. I would look at Samsung, Inland and Crucial brand SSDs. 

swc65

Thank you so much. I formatted USB NTFS initially as that was default but then read it should be FAT32. My only other choice was exFAT. 

Even with corrupt HD should I be able to boot up to a properly formatted USB drive?

TSTonyV

Yes, if you're booting directly to a USB then the HDD is not involved at all. 

swc65

Ok thanks. I’ll try again because I never got windows to to boot. Since I don’t know for sure which OS then I’ll try both. 

Anything on Set up I should be aware on BIOS boot mode when attempting to to boot to USB? 

Legacy Boot Mode or UEFI?

TSTonyV

You'll want to be set to UEFI mode, otherwise just make sure that you set the USB as your primary boot device instead of the HDD. 

swc65

Got it