Dell Inspiron HDD error code 0146 despite replacing HDD

[drsleep]

Hello,

I am trying to fix my wife's Dell Inspiron 1520.

It began not booting up, I ran a diagnostic and it came with errors saying hard drive was malfunctioning. I tried to repair vista but it was no use. I bought a replacement hard drive from New Egg, a 750 Gb 7500rpm Western Digital black. I put installed it and then used clonezilla to close the old one hooked into a USB into the laptop with an adapter on the old hard drive. It cloned but with errors. I could not boot off the new one cloned, not could i repair it with the Dell windows vista CD. It was would start the installation and then cancel itself due to errors.

Next, i did a quick format of the new drive and erased whatever partitions were on there. Again, I tried to install the Dell windows vista 7 CD and it got hung and cancelled itself again.

I have read many many many forums, and found that Dell may have something hidden in those partitions not allowing it to install. So i have a Windows 7 64 bit CD, also with a Dell making on it, that was bought off ebay, and that i had used to install Windows 7 on my home built desktop.

Windows 7 installed and seems to be running OK but with an ominous warning that my hard drive is about to fail. This is the brand new one.

I run the western digital diagnostic software and get "status code= 04 (unkown failed test element) and failure checkpoint= 96 (unkown test)

I run the Dell diagnostics at boot up, the "Dell Pre-Boot System Assessment Build 4106" and get error code 0146 error code 2000-0146

I am at my wits end here, what is wrong and how do i fix it?

Signed,

Very very frustrated Husband.

 

[Kisianik]

Can you return hard drive to newegg? Or the time is up? Looks like this code indicates hard drive failure, I know it is new, but it is what it is, for now, just Google your error code and look for the clues, laptop model is not important.

 

[drsleep]

Hi, I did google the error codes a lot and just came back with vague "hard drive failing/ bad" type answers, nothing specific. I am sending the hard drive back for a replacement with New Egg as the drive was only a day old and had an errors immediately and nothing i did would make them go away. (updated everything including bios, tried both ATA and AHCI modes) ran chkdsk, ran dell utilities, ran western digital utililities, ect.

I have never had anything fail right out of the box before, so I am concerned that i am missing something else.

 

[Kisianik]

While you are waiting for replacement drive, it would be a good idea to flash CMOS - clear you BIOS, go to https://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1520/en/sm/coinbatt.htm#wp1179839 when battery removed press and hold power button for 20 seconds, replace battery after about 15 minutes to ensure complete reset, now you will have virgin laptop, no previous errors left. Please post back after replacing hard drive, even if everything is ok, so we know. Also, it is a good idea to have S.M.A.R.T. utility installed to monitor your hard drive status I cannot comment on the specific one so look at this review and choose http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-disk-health-monitoring-utility.htm

 

[drsleep]

Before i sent the broken new drive back, I did flash the bios but did not leave the battery off for that long. I have done it again now leaving the battery off overnight. I also flashed the bios updating it to the latest version. I do not know if that is the same as clearing the bios or not. My defective drive has been recieved and processed by New Egg and am awaiting a replacement. I had used a SMART utility by the drive maker, Western Digital, and it showed errors but not specific; plus i don't really know what the SMART thing checks.
I will report back with any news when i get the drive in the mail.
Thanks again, very much.
Brett

 

[drsleep]

Best answer selected by drsleep.

 

[Kisianik]

So, what is the update? Did you got new hard drive and everything is OK?

If yes, my sincere congratulation, I don't want to be in the same situation, so far I did not get anything DOA (dead upon arrival) or degraded that fast.

 

[drsleep]

Yes, I tried to post earlier but the website went down.
I got the new replacement hard drive in the mail and it worked. No errors on the Dell pre boot testing and no errors on the Western Digital version of Acronis and it's SMART test. I installed Windows Vista that it came with the laptop and it also showed no errors. I tried using the acronis cloning ( from windows), but it refused to clone. (before i had tried to clone from dos with Clonezilla, but this time i wanted to make sure the new drive didn't have any problems first). I was able to pull all but one file off the old broken HDD, so my wife didn't lose much. I lost a ton of my time however, I wish i could bill Western Digital for my lost time! I could have bought a new laptop for her.

Thanks for your help!

 

[LisaRay1]

Hi,

Dell Error Code 0146 occurs because of malfunctioning hard disk. The solutions you can apply for this error are easy and simple. A video tutorial published by a technology solution provide company https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drAze8FrSr8 makes you able to resolve the error. In fact, I have also resolved the problem after applying the solution steps given in the video tutorial. Go to the video and apply solutions you will get rid of error for sure.