JS said:
If this needs to be on another NG,please tell me.
I have a Dell laptop with Vista that is on it's 4th or maybe 5th
hard-drive, in about 6 months. They keep crashing and Dell sends another.
This time I am getting a 2000-0142 error code, which I believe is hard
drive not found. Needless to say, it will not boot. It just has one of
those endless cycles where it tries to boot and reaches a certain point,
then tries to shut down and then reboot, it fails then....over and over
again. I cannot get into safe mode. I can get into bios setup, which I am
not sure is any help. But my question is this. Is there any way of saving
the data that is on the hard drive, whether it is in the laptop or not?
The Dell rep said something about an "enclosure?" What is that? With 98
and before, there was a "boot disk" Is there such a thing as a boot cd ?
Would that help? What else can I try.?
I appeciate any suggestions.
JS
Hello JS--
You may be headed for a Ripley's Believe it or Not record in buying a new
Dell and having 4 successive HDs not work. I'm wondering if every time it
was the hard drive and not a software problem.
You can certainly do a test for the Dell HD that is as much as 80-95%
reliable by restarting and holding down Ctrl+Alt+D (you might have to press
those 3 keys repeatedly) which is a Dell Hard Drive diagonostics test
nicknamed the "90-90" test because it's purported to find 90% of problems in
a Hard Disk in 90 seconds.
You could also download and run Seagate Tools by searching for them in a
search engine.
The ctrl+alt+d is quick. I'd do that and even if it does find problems in
your hard drive, I've been able to get Vista booting and working by using
Startup Repair or the boot rec switches from Startup Repair in one instance
which makes you realize these diagnostic tests may find problems but not
necessarily problems that means the HD is fried.
In one case, I used the bootrec commands to fix when Dell Diagnostics said
the HD was essentially gone, and the HD lasted nearly a year which gives
someone plenty of time to back up. The tools below are in the order I'd try
them.
Here are the Startup Repair Tools, the F8 Windows Advanced Options Menu,
and Instructions for an In Place Upgrade:
First try 3 options from Startup Repair. If you have a Vista DVD then
restart with it in the drive>press any key to boot from it and run Startup
Repair. From Startup Repair you have 3 good tools with an excellent chance
of fixing your system. If you don't have a Vista DVD from which to boot to
Startup Repair, no problem, Download the .iso from the link below and
burn it, and you'll have the Microsoft Vista Repair Disk with Startup
Repair.
Download Vista Repair Disk
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/
How to Use Startup Repair from the Vista DVD or the Repair Disk you make:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial142.html
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/5c59f8c1-b0d1-4f1a-af55-74f3922f3f351033.mspx
2) If Startup Repair does not get your Vista back, then use the 3 bootrec
commands from the command prompt available on the Statup Repair Menu:
The menu I refer to is in this set of directions with a grey background.
http://vistahomepremium.windowsreinstall.com/repairstartup/repairstartup.htm
Those are:
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuild BCD
3) If my second option doesn't work, then try System restore from the
Startup Repair list.
4) If you have a Vista DVD, you can do an inplace upgrade (repair install)
this way:
How To Perform a Repair Installation For Vista
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html
Good luck,
CH
