When the computer tells you that the hard drive is going to fail, that it is defective, crashes when you boot up, or does not recognize the hard drive as the "C:" in your "my computer" file then most likely your hard drive is dysfunctional/broken. You can refer to [[Dell XPS M1530 Troubleshooting|Dell XPS M1530 Troubleshooting]] and see if any of your issues correspond to one of our guides. Personally, you should look at the Hard Drive as well as RAM, both of which seem to correspond to your issue.
See our guides attached to both for steps to replace them. Additionally, look into our Hard Drive upgrades at [[Topic:Dell XPS M1530|Dell XPS M1530 Device Page]] which will give you the needed specs for a new hard drive.