it put all of the data related to the computer and it's parts on it. When you reformatted all of that data was lost. The Dell system is looking for the data at the location that they keep it on the drive [probably a hidden partition], therefore it assumes that the drive is corrupted.

Replacing or reformatting a drive on a proprietary computer, Dell, Compaq, Gateway, HP, et al always creates this problem. The don't give one the Op Sys CD they give a CD that can format et al the way that they want [it has the cab files on it, but some of the cabs are modified to Dell's desires. All of the correct drivers are also on that CD. Compaq has the access to the BIOS on the Hard drive, not sure about Dell. You may be able to go to the Dell website to find out how to recover from this. The Donor of the computer should have given you Dell's restore/recovery CD.