Okay, I called Dell yesterday because I received an error message when I first started up my laptop. The error message was stating that it couldn't find my profile and was giving me a temporary profile to use. When I was finally on my desktop, the orginal "Dell" wallpaper was back and half of desktop icons had disappeared. I decided to go to "Start", turn off my laptop and restart it again. I received the same message again and then it gave me a "temporary" profile again.

I called Dell afterwards and the tech told me to turn off my laptop. He then told me to hit the start button and F12 at the same time. It started scanning for errors and it finally detected an error in the disk drive. I believe the error is in Drive C. I told the tech what the error and said and he then told me that my hard drive was "dying". That's as far as he went. The tech didn't do anything else and he said there was no need to.

Since I have the lifetime warranty, my hard drive is still covered. A Dell tech is coming to my home on Wednesday to put the new hard drive in my laptop and that's covered, too. The tech told me that it would have Windows XP SP2 already installed on the hard drive. The tech had asked me if I still had the recovery disk that came with my Dell. I told the tech that a recovery disk was never sent along with my laptop when it was shipped. The tech said that was their mistake and that I would be receiving a recovery disk among some other software when the tech comes to my home.

When the tech first told me that my hard drive was dying, he also said that I had probably lost some of my programs, too. He never checked to see if that might be the case. I decided to start up my laptop today to see for myself. When I started it up, it finished giving me the results of the scan that the tech did. The scan showed that my disc drive was "dirty". I believe it means Drive C.

I turned off my computer again and restarted my laptop again. This time, I didn't receive a message about it giving me a temporary profile. It started up and took me right to my desktop. I decided to check, myself, to see which programs are missing. The majority of the programs are still on my laptop. The only one that is actually missing is MSN. The icon is still there for MSN, but it's for installation of MSN. I also have an older version of MSN/Windows Live Messenger. A couple of my pdf documents are gone, too, but my sample pictures file is still there. All of my other programs are still on my laptop ... even the mintywhite toolbar. LOL!

I did a Google search regarding the "dirty" bit or the "dirty" disc. It mentioned that it can happen if the computer isn't shut down properly plus a number of other things. Well, I turned off my laptop properly before this happened.

Is there a way to correct the "dirty" bit or drive? All I know is that other than MSN missing and my pdf files missing that everything else worked fine when I started up my laptop today. Other than the look of my desktop (I was using the Zune theme) everything is working fine and I'm posting on this message board right now. I looked in my programs and files and my Zune theme is still installed, too.

I right-clicked on "my computer" and also checked the properties. All my information is still showing including the license and that I'm using Windows XP SP3. I'm just wondering if I use the tool to check for disc errors and the tool to check for bad sectors and "repair" them if that will work.

I'm glad that I'm getting a new hard drive for free, but it's going to be just like reformatting again. I'm going to have to reinstall all my programs and updates and I'll have to get the latest drivers again for all my hardware.

Right now, everything is working fine and Microsoft Security Essentials just took an automatic update. I'd appreciated any suggestions!

Okay, here's where I'm at now with the situation. None of my programs were actually uninstalled. I have MSN back (my ISP) and Windows Media Player is still on my laptop. I have my desktop back to what it originally looked like. My zune theme was still installed.

I went ahead and ran the tools for disc errors and the tool that checks for bad sectors. It's now showing that the disc is clean. I called Dell and they're still sending a Dell tech to my home. I told them that was fine and I would go by whatever the Dell tech decides. The tech is still bringing the new hard drive in case there is still a bad sector found. At least the hard drive is free and I won't have to pay for anything.

Well, the Dell tech showed up Wednesday. He couldn't believe that I had been able to boot up and get online. He freaked when I told him that I was also able to reinstall my MSN and browse the world wide web. I told the Dell tech I wasn't sure how I was able to do it, either, and my hard drive wasn't even listed in the device manager. My WDC external hard drive was listed instead and I didn't even have the external hard drive plugged into the USB port. The tech said that I shouldn't have even been able to boot up at all because of the location of where the bad sector was.

Anyway, I have a brand new hard drive now. The hard drive is also larger in size because Dell no longer carried a 60 GB. I now have an 80 GB hard drive! I'm happy because I now have 20 extra GB of space to play around with. The hard drive came with Windows XP SP2 installed and the latest drivers were also installed. Dell also sent me a CD installation of Windows XP SP2 and a driver CD.

Since I have DSL now, it didn't take as long to download all the updates. It took around 3 hours compared to the 3 days that it took with dial-up. After all the updates, it took about another 2 hours to reinstall all my programs plus get the latest flash players and Java. I was very happy this time because there was no bloatware to uninstall with the new hard drive ... only the OS was installed on the hard drive.

check for chkdsk in cmd. clean up ur resgitry files, use reginout to defrag ur disk , it has a tool to quickly defragment

Thanks but I won't be using a registry cleaner since there wasn't anything on the new hard drive but Windows XP (no bloatware). I'll be using Revo Uninstaller should I decide to uninstall any of the programs that I added back to my laptop. I also use the Windows tools to clean up disk space regularly, clear my cache, cookies, etc. and use Windows tools to defragment, check for errors & bad sectors. I use the defragment tool about once every two weeks. I also use the tools to check for errors & bad sectors about every two weeks.

I'm glad Dell came and fixed it for you.

Thanks, Rich. I was glad too! Well, the hard drive lasted 4 years. I think that was pretty good considering all the wear & tear I put it through ... upgrading to Vista and then, having to reformat, reinstall and upgrade everything for XP again. I'm trying to treat this new hard drive a little better than what I did with the old hard drive.