SageMason

Well, i went to the electronic store, and the person working there showed me something called an HD enclosure saying it was all they had. Is that what I need? Or is it more than what I need?

Thank you, I will try to go to the electronic store and buy the adapter and then try what you suggest over the break!

Would this involve losing my data as well? It'd be nice to keep it but I'm not terribly worried about what is on there. How would I do what you suggested? I'm sorry, I'm a real newbie whenever computer terms like OS and hooking drives up.

I went ahead an tried to do what was suggested above, but after I hit R for recovery console it got stuck on this: Examining 476938 MB disk 0 at ID 0 on bus 0 on atapi... :(

Thank you so much to the both of your for your help! Yes, I still do have my XP disk, but before I do anything, I was wondering whether I would lose all of my data?

Thank you, I really appreciate your help! Yes, even after Safe Mode it will reboot. There is a lot of lines that appear and it stops at: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows\system32\drivers\Mup.sys It stays there for a few seconds and then eventually reboots back to the Dell page again.

This morning my brother tried to log on to my computer but couldn't figure out the password so he shut it down by just pressing and holding the power on button. A few hours later, I went to log on but after I get the Dell screen i get options like run in safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt etc. however whenever I click any of these, my computer goes to the Windows XP logo, and then a quick flash of blue and it reboots all over again. I had just used the computer late at night yesterday and everything was working perfectly fine! Anyway, the flash of blue was much to quick so I recorded it in an attempt to read what it says: A problem detected so windows shut down etc etc. Disable or Unstall any anti-virus, disk defrag or back up utilities. Check hard drive config. and any updated drivers, run CHKD. I'm a complete computer newbie and don't know what to do. I have a Dell Inspiron 530 with BIOS 1.0.10. Any help would be greatly appreciated!