Dell laptop w/Vista won't boot

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

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/window...disc-download/

How to Use Startup Repair from the Vista DVD or the Repair Disk you make:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...torial142.html

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...f3f351033.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.windowsreins...airstartup.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/88...all-vista.html

Hi Chad, Thanks for the reply. I have a key "fn" and I think it starts the
hd diagnostics tests you suggested. At a certain point during the testing,
is when I got that 2000-0142 msg.
I have tried the repair option with no luck. I powered up with the dvd in it
and I got to a point where I could reinstall Vista, I cancelled because it
said nothing would be saved, I guess that may have been a format?
I got a command window up now, are there any commands I could try?
Earlier, I asked about an enclosure, do you know what that is?

Hi, JS.

I've never had a Dell or any kind of laptop so I can't be of much direct
help. But a quick Live Search on 2000-0142 led me quickly to this page:
How to Run the Hard Drive Disk Self Test (DST) on a Dell™ Computer
http://support.dell.com/support/topi...g=&toggle=&dl=

This has detailed instructions for the Ctrl+Alt+D test that Chad mentioned -
and what to do next if you get that code.

Like Chad, I'm amazed that Dell keeps replacing that many drives! Why don't
you just ask them to replace the whole laptop? It sounds to me like
something somewhere else in the computer is causing the drives to fail.

Yes - maybe. One way, of course, is to send the drive to a professional
data recovery business. I've never used one, but I've heard they are
usually effective - and quite expensive. Only you know how much your "lost"
data is worth. Another way is to install that drive into a different
computer and see if it can be read at least well enough to recover your
data, even if it can't be revived completely. There are several recovery
programs available, some (such as R-Studio) for under $100.


He probably meant a piece of hardware that simply allows you to attach your
drive's power and data cables to a different computer; again, I've heard
about these but never used one.

Good luck. And please report back when you find the answer.

page full of enclosures:
http://tinyurl.com/2w5zmf

One example:
http://tinyurl.com/bwmqh8

This was a very quick and dirty look at Tiger Direct just to show you.
There are other brands and other stores...

Thanks for your help guys! I got an enclosure, and the hd seems to work in
it, however, I am at a loss for the proper procedure to use in transfering
data to the new hd. I have tried the "easy transfer" wizard, and I have
transferred the "gadgets" to the new hd, but what about the
email,(addresses,messages, etc) and IE Favs. Can someone give me some tips
in that area?
Thanks.

You are asking for a lot!

In general, for the browser and e-mail, use their export functions or read
their help files. Other apps will have other methods, some easy, some not.

The most basic thing is just to copy appropriate folders to the new drive.
Documents and similar system folders are not so easy.

That's all I want to (or can) say about that.