Error Code: 0F00:0650 Msg: IDE Failed.

Some of you may have read my twitter updates about technical trouble with my PC, and I thought I would post the solution here.

After many hours trying to figure out why my computer was coming up with the error:

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
 
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM"

I still had no solution. The Windows XP CD install just hung on ‘Searching for previous Windows XP Installations…’ and the Windows Setup recovery tool just hung as well after selecting which Windows installation I wanted it to fix.

I then had to get on to Dell support, which is never very pleasant. After running the Dell diagnostics CD, it reported the error:

"Error Code: 0F00:0650.
Msg: IDE Failed: The self-test failed the read portion"

They then sent me 2 new hard drives, which for some reason we double the size of the original :) After installing these and trying to install XP again it still didn’t work. I ran the Dell diagnostics again, it reported the same error. I was stuck.

Then I went into the BIOS settings and turned RAID control off on the 2 hard drivers. You do this by selecting the drive, and changing it status from ‘Raid on’ to ‘On’. This seemed to solved the problem. I am now thinking that it was not really necessary to get 2 now hard drives as well! It so happened that my warranty had run out 10 days earlier so I had to pay for these! >(

I know this isn’t related to the web, but seeing as I couldn’t find a solution I thought I would post it here.