[mavinster]

Hi, I have no idea what to do here. I turned on my computer (Dell Latitude D410 running XP Professional) and it went to the Dell screen, then nothing. I was able to press F12 and get to the boot menu. I ran the diagnostics, everything fine except that it said something about not finding partitions and suggested I booted from the original disks. As I do not have any disks for the computer (second-hand from a company) I couldn't do this, but I used the first item on the boot list, HDD boot, and it started up.
My question is, what went wrong with the computer, is there anything I should do to start this happening again and really, is my computer going to die on me? I am not a techie type of person and don't really understand what is going on. Many thanks for your help!

[Scleros]

The hard drive may be starting to fail or incurred data corruption. First back up all important data to another device. Then check the drive with the drive manufacturer's diagnostic software available on their website. The drive manufacturer and model can be determined in Windows Device Manager (Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware tab) or by removing the drive using Dell's instructions and looking at the drive's label.

If the diagnostic reports errors, the drive can be replaced with a new drive however without the disc for Windows XP the operating system cannot be reinstalled. Suggest you take the machine to a reputable local technician who will thoroughly check the laptop and reinstall any Dell specific diagnostic or other software/firmware if the drive is replaced.