View Dell Hardware Diagnostics On Boot Images. Dell computers include a diagnostic software tool that tests your computer's hardware for errors. Then the hardware diagnostics screen comes up while loading some software.
Also i haven't noticed any problems with the hard drive.
To burn the diagnostics bootable cd on windows download the *.exe and to burn the cd on linux download the *.bin file. Also i haven't noticed any problems with the hard drive. On startup of my pc it boots to diagnostic boot test on it's own without me pressing any button on startup. L if you are running diagnostics on a system introduced with dd os 5.4 or later, a boot menu.