Problem with Dell Inspiron N5040

[JobCreator]

So, I got this Dell laptop from my future... sister in law? I'm not even sure what she is to me... my brother-in-law's brother's wife. Whatever that is, lol. Anyway, the story goes, "she slammed the laptop shut real hard." And, now it won't boot.

When I power it on, I'm given the options of repairing startup or running normally. Both do the same thing. Regardless of what I choose, it will "Load Windows Files" from that black screen with the white progress bar as if it's installing Windows. It will apparently load all the files and jump to the next screen which is the classic blue Windows 7 background (the one where you would normally choose which partition and so on. However, it stays there. Just the background, no dialogs, no active windows, just the background. It stays there until you manually power it down. The lights indicate that the hard drive is working, but believe me, it doesn't go anywhere. Any thoughts?

Background reference: http://www.psdgraphics.com/file/windows-7-wallpaper-1280x1024.jpg

This is what I would expect to come next, but it never gets to that point... http://www.andrewtechhelp.com/images/stories/install7/7install4.jpg

 

[aatje92]

Sounds like that HDD is busted

 

[JobCreator]

Sounds like that HDD is busted

That's kind of what I figured...

My question really is whether there's any way to be sure? I'm not allowed to wipe the drive (if at all possible in the first place) because she, of course, has things she doesn't want deleted. But, I'm wondering if popping in the install disc might help the situation? At least get it running again?

 

[aatje92]

Well if that hdd is busted she's lost her files anyway, if anything important was on it that she didn't back up it's her fault .

You could give Hiren's boot cd a try and try to fix / check the disk maybe copy files from mini xp