dell inspiron 600m won't boot

china57

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Feb 1, 2014
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I have a dell inspiron 600m. It won't boot. It is no longer supported by dell. It says NTLDR is missing. I don't have the utilities CD to run diagnostics & fix this. Should I just switch out the HD & start from scratch?

I have an old Latitude HD I'd like to encase & reformat to clean it. This is the one I'd like to install in this inspiron. They have similar specs. I would like to install windows 7.

I'm having much fun learning right now, but need some advice.
 

china57

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Feb 1, 2014
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both were working just fine. My sis went on a site on both computers and they both crashed. The worst part, it wouldn't boot anything. She had her drivers and utilities cd. This cd has diagnostics on it. With her cd I was able to run diagnostics on her laptop. it fixed itself. I installed windows 7 on it.

For mine I don't have the corresponding cd for my inspiron 600m. There was no USB connected. I pressed F2 to try to run set up, but it won't boot anything. I was trying to install ubantu. It runs the windows logo, but then a black screen with NTLDR file missing.
 

scottiemedic

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Feb 10, 2010
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18,960
Sounds like Windows is dead on the 600. And if it's going to the Windows screen, then it's not booting to CD. You'll have to go into the BIOS and change the boot priority to CD drive and boot to the Ubuntu CD to install it.
 

china57

Honorable
Feb 1, 2014
4
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10,510
Dells are interesting creatures. I was not able to change the boot order in bios, until I used the utilities cd on my sister's latitude.

I just ordered the necessary cd off ebay specific to the inspiron. Thank you for helping me to understand the OS was corrupted. I couldn't understand why I couldn't boot an OS on either dell computer without that Utilities CD. I suspect this is probably an inherent weakness in these computers

I enjoyed this puzzle. Again, TU immensely for your help. I have much to learn, but I'm having fun.