I brought a brand new hard drive for Dell Inspiron E1505 and installed it a few weeks ago. Everything was fine until I turned my new hard drive on and it wouldn’t start. It keeps asking me whether I wanted to start in safe mode or last good configuration. I ran diagnostic and got hard drive error code 2000-0142.What should I do now?
Firstly I want to let you know brand new hard drives can fail both after a short and long period. An HDD contains an electric motor, so they don’t like fluctuations in power supply and don’t like being jolted. Secondly, I want to inform you that a fully failed drive won’t appear in your BIOS setup, I would like you to check whether all connections are nice and tight especially all SATA cables and IDE Molex connections.
You should run a through diagnosis on the hard drive with a utility that could be made available from any of the existing manufacturers. You can ignore DELL as their source of utility is itself from others manufacturers. If you find that same problem is occurring again, then you have to buy a brand new hard drive again.
In Dell computers, an error code of “2000-0142” indicates a failed hard drive self-test and the cause of the problem can be a cable or the connector. If you performed that test on your hard drive on a Dell computer, that’s normal. Dell computers’ BIOS include a self-test for hard drives or the Dell Pre-boot System Assessment or Dell PSA.
You simply need to go to the pre-boot screen or press F12 during boot up to access the boot menu. Restart your computer then press F12 when you see the Dell logo. Scroll down and select “Diagnostics” then hit Enter. Follow the instructions on the screen. If the test fails on the hard drive, the most likely reason is bad sector.
I have a Dell computer before with a hard drive free from bad sectors. That time whenever I perform the diagnostics test, everything turns out right. All tests passed. But when my hard drive had a bad sector, I always receive a failed result on the hard drive even if the bad sector has been repaired or patched.
It seems you will only receive a “passed” result when the hard drive doesn’t have a single bad sector. If you receive a failed result, go check your hard drive for bad sectors. You can download PC Tools Performance Toolkit. Once installed, start PC Tools then go to “Recovery” tab and click “Repair Drives”.
On the next screen, select the drive you want to test then select “Surface Scan” among the options and check “Perform on reboot” and then click “Start” to begin the test. Click “Continue” then restart the computer. The test will be performed on startup. If the test detected bad sectors, repeat the test over and over until it no longer detects bad sectors.
Even if your hard drive developed bad sectors, it doesn’t mean that you can no longer use it. You can still use it but you have to replace it before more bad sectors start to appear.
