Dell Dimension 9100 stuck in CHKDSK loop

[Gigante888]

I have this 10 year old Dell Dimension 9100 that we hardly had been using for the last couple of years. Last July, we packed it up and moved to a new house. It as been sitting in the garage since that time because we have newer laptops that we are using.

This morning I opened up the Dell and cleaned out the dust and try to boot it up to get some files off the HDD before taking it to the recycling center. When I turned it on, it went through CHKDSK and deleted/fixed a bunch of sectors. Then it rebooted and went into CHKDSK again, then restarted, then CHKDSK again, etc. It went through the cycle a few times but nothing was fixed after the first time. I shut it off and went to work.

Is there a way to get out of this mode?
How can I recover the files from the two HDDs? (was planning to move what I needed to flash drive)

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... basically... 1) it doesn't boot to an OS desktop... just CHKDSK?
2) what OS was on it?
3) Try reloading the OS over just the OS files... or to another Hardrive?
4) What type of files are you trying to recover?
5) Plug into another Desktop would allow access to the files.

 

[Gigante888]

OS is Windows XP.

After the Windows splash screen, it goes into CHKDSK mode.
I don't think I have the disk from Dell anymore to reinstall Windows. And I dont have any spare HDD around.
Can I take my 2.5" from and old Dell Laptop, put it in a 3.5" case, and boot from there?

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... YES...
For about $10 you can get a USB to about anything KIT... what type of drives are they?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-to-SATA-PATA-IDE-2-5-3-5-HDD-SSD-Hard-Drive-Adapter-Transer-Cable-Kit-/131646285859?hash=item1ea6bae823:g:3zUAAOSw7FRWZeYb

I can connect a DVD/CD player IDE/SATA to this thing for OLD HD Data recovery on another Computer.

 

[Gigante888]

Oh nice!
I will order that kit since it supports all the different drives and extract what I need from my laptop.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Gigante888]

I was able to run the diagnostic last night. Got fail return code 7. It looks like the drive is dead. Hopefully I can extract some files off of it using it as external drive with the cables above.