Okay, the "diagnostics" option is on the 'boot from' menu, and it does a fully-passed "boot test" before automatically pulling up the utility. There are two reasonable options from the utility: Symptom Tree ("Cannot boot the OS") and Test by Device ("Hard Drive"). The "Symptom" test consists of Cache, Clock, Timer, Interrupt, System Memory, abd IDE tests. The random numbers I referred to were "addresses" in OCT) for the memory tests and "blocks" for the IDE tests (testing ########## of 0078140159 blocks").
Ide Read Test:
Error Code 0F00:0244
Msg: Block 31156075: Uncorrectable data error or media is write-protected.
IDE "Verify Test":
Error Code: 0F00:1A44
Msg: Block 31156075: Uncorrectable data error or media is write-protected.
If that message actually means what it says (and since it's from Dell rather then Microsoft I'm thinking there's a chance of that!), it should be worth noting that there actually is a possibility that said "block' is "write-protected", I
think, because this is one of those PCs that originally came from an office and gives you all kinds of random, unfixable errors about how you "can't do that" (ex: After using msconfig) because "the nonexistant previous owner of this laptop on some other netowrk said so", but usually makes the change anyway (in the case of msconfig, it does).
The computer I am currently on does not have a CD drive. I will have to wait until I find a computer and a CD to try a burn. I am not optimistic because the Recovery Console was of course on the other CD, but, if this image is somehow 100% free of any Windows OS ideas (other then that of replacing files strictly through DOS, BIOS, or whatever you would call runnning a computer this way), I would only then assume it will work. (Not that I'm not going to try it upon the advice of someone I assume is more knowledgable then me!)