Member Avatar for atlanticdaddy

My son dropped my laptop today. I have an Inspiron 1545 which, now will POST and I can get through BIOS setup with no problems. But, all it will do when trying to boot id give me the microsoft screen with the sliding bar. I'm running Vista Premium (well, was running it) SP1. I tried running the startup repair with no change, also tried booting from the OS CD. All the same. System appears to freeze on the microsoft screen

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Notes and next steps after the recovery report from — practical checks that reduce the chance of a repeat failure and protect data.

A fall while the drive was spinning (as noted) can create new bad sectors or surface damage that startup repair masks temporarily. Treat the drive as potentially unreliable even though Windows now boots. Immediate priorities: preserve data and confirm whether the drive is mechanically healthy.

Create a full backup or disk image right away to an external drive (do not rely on the system disk). Then run an offline file-system scan from an elevated Command Prompt or the Recovery Environment:

chkdsk C: /f /r

Schedule it if prompted and reboot. After a successful image and chkdsk, run sfc /scannow to check system files.

Run hardware diagnostics next. Trigger Dell’s built‑in diagnostics at boot (F12 → Diagnostics) and run the extended tests. Check SMART attributes with a utility (look for non‑zero reallocated, pending, or uncorrectable sector counts). If SMART errors appear or reallocated/pending sectors increase, plan to replace the drive. Also try reseating the 2.5" drive and its caddy — a loose connector can cause intermittent failures (a quick check aligned with ’s point).

If the data is critical, avoid repeated repair/reformat attempts since writes can accelerate failure; consider professional data recovery or creating a read‑only image with specialist tools (professionals commonly use tools like ddrescue). For longer-term reliability and resistance to shock, consider replacing the OEM HDD with an SSD and enable regular backups plus SMART monitoring once the system is stable.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

hi, it likely broke something in the fall .What broke, will be nothing but a guess with out looking at the laptop upclose

Member Avatar for mjdodd

was it running when dropped, although this is not a certainty it rather sounds as though you have had what is known as a head crash, that is the read>/write head of the hard disk has actually been force (by the drop) to touch the actual surface of the hard disk(normally it flies over it and lands in a safe place (or is lifted off). in such cases the touching of the head against the disk damages the disk surface and it cannot read any files at that point and it is quite possible that this point is the start up files!

If this is the case then a reformat and re-install is the only option as in the reformatting it will mark the damaged part as unusable and not use it again. Hope his works

M

Member Avatar for atlanticdaddy

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking the same problem. After the system sat for almost an hour trying to boot, the startup repair utility came on and started fixing drive errors. This seemed to fix the problem cause now it works.

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