I was trying to do a system restore on my dell inspiron 1501, it got halfway done then stopped and said it couldn't finish. When I try to reboot my computer now it says a disk read error occurred press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart. any ideas hao to fix this.
Thanks

Sounds like the hard drive has a serious problem. You're best bet would be to order the recovery CD from Dell for your specific computer, though Dell, like many vendors is dropping this capability for older computers.

If you provide the model number I can help you look for it on the Dell site (as can other folks here).

You can also try running chkdsk, see if that fixes any file system errors.

Since you don't have an XP CD, download and run ARCDC by Artellos. It will download the required files from the Microsoft Web site and create a .iso file. It will also offer to burn the iso image to a CD for you. If you don't do it then, there is a good freeware burner called ImgBurn which will do it at a later time. If you're unsure how to do this, you can follow the tutorial here: How to Burn an ISO File

Note: You can do this on any computer you have access to.

Boot the CD and at the first opportunity, enter R to start the Recovery Console.

Next, choose which XP installation you want to login to. Normally this will be 1.
Lastly you will be asked for the Administrator password. Just press the Enter key as the Administrator does not have a password (unless you gave it one, then you would enter it).

From the command prompt, enter: chkdsk /r
Allow it to complete undisturbed. It can take an hour or more depending on the size of the hard drive.

Remove the CD, type exit and the computer will reboot. Hopefully that will have fixed the problem (corrupted file system).

my laptop is an inspiron 1501, is there any thing else you need let me know.

I don't see any place on the Dell site any more to order XP Recovery CDs. I had the same problem recently and ended up ordering a set from restoredisks.com.

For your 1501, see here: :: Dell ::

$26.99 with free shipping if sent via Post Office. $20 for overnight delivery.

You could also try a Dell online chat and ask them if the Recovery CD is available for your system.

Thanks, I'm going to try ordering the restore cd from recoverydisks.com