Restarting my entire corrupt dell 9200 pc - Wont load windows vista

[Jaredm]

Hi there - i appreciate anyone who can help me with this...

I have a dell 9200 running windows vista. About 2 weeks ago, the whole thing crashed. I wouldnt boot up at all.  It would load the dell bios screen, but would stop loading after te "all rights reserved" screen, just before attempting to load my windows.

Ive gone through 3 hard drives, as i run windows media center, but i was really pissed to see it crash all over again.

I have all of the boot cds but i fear that my hard drive might be corrupted again. I dont care about recouping any of the info on my hard drive anymore, i just want to get it running again.  Ive gone through system settings, and tried to boot from my cds, but cant figure it out.  Should i put the "drivers and utilities" cd in first and try to boot from cd. Or the windows vista cd? Ive tried tons of variations, and no luck.

I just want to wipe my hard drive completely (provided it still works) and reinstall everything, but i can get past the system setup in the dell bios screen.

Ive even unplugged my hard drive, (so that it would actually reach the system setup without freezing), but i cant seem to get to a point where i can actually wipe my hard drive.

I have memory sticks, all the cds, blank dvds, etc....  I just really need help.

Im writing this from my ipad (thank god).

I would appreciate any help i can get guys - thank you tons

[Geek-9pm]

You computer looks a lot like mine. But mine is older.
My personal experience with my Dell laptop E1705 is the hard drive went dead when the machine overheated doing a transfer of video files to my home server. My shop is not air conditioned and the laptop could not take the heat.   So from now on the Laptop stays in the house. Even the router in the barn has to have a fan on it!
Anyway, I recommend you get a replacement hard drive. Don't try to use a failing drive as a system drive. High risk of annoyance and irritation.
I found a decent  SATA drive with 320GB for about $44 on Amazon. So far, it works good. To date I have not got recovery of even a bit of data from the dead drive. Had to use month old backups to get my stuff back. Lost of month of notes I made.

I am now making backups more often. Or at least sync my documents to the remote machine in the barn.  I use an external USB for an image backup. With this Dell laptop image backup is the only way to go. It will not clone directly to an external drive. I have to do image and restore.

Get a replacement drive, start over. Maybe get some of your stuff off the old drive before it fails  all the way.

[Jaredm]

Thanks a million for the advice -
Ive been tentatively waiting on here for someone to get back to me with something.

Ive been scoping out drives online, trying to find one for cheap.  If thats my last resort, then no problem, i was just looking to know if mine is busted (as i am very stubborn).

I just hate the idea that in 3 years ive gone thru 3 drives (now 4) ugh.

Thanks a ton for your time

[Geek-9pm]

I think the heat kills them.   
You may like this Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSZ0qfY2Vf0
Laptop cooler for under 5 dollars!!!!