This may sound crazy but I want to know if this really is possible or so. My friend was running his Dell Inspiron 1300 (Celeron, XP Home, 40gb) & an icon for Microsoft update popped up so he simply clicked it for update. After installation, he found out that it had installed IE7 & was asking to shut down the machine & restart. So not immediately, but a few minutes later after finishing his pending work, he shut down the laptop. After restarting what he found was a black startup screen (which comes if Windows can't start properly) & gave safe mode options. We tried all three options but it doesn't help. Only thing happens after any of these options is it starts with Windows logo & gives up immediately with a blue screen saying 'Unmountable_boot_disk'. I already talked with Dell & they only said, that they wouldn't recommend IE7 & they are replacing the hard-disk as the laptop is still under warranty.
Now I want to know if this problem is because of IE7 or not? I heard a few problems with new IE but certainly not about hard disk crash. What's the case here?? Should I try to confront this with Microsoft????
Are there any similar experiences?? He is junior researcher & has lost important data from his work. So few worries. Any help or suggestions appreciated. Thanks.