Windows 7: Windows won't boot, system repair fail, error 2000-0146, knoppix cd

Last night I shut my Dell Inspiron N5010 down and came home. When I got home, windows wouldn't load. It stuck on the starting windows screen. I tried to boot in safe mode, it got stuck in mid boot. I tried to boot it with system repair, it said it was loading files and then it got stuck on a screen that said copyright Microsoft Corporation and had a green loading bar. My husband's laptop is exactly the same as mine, so I used it to create a system repair cd. I set the laptop up to boot from cd and tried it, but I got the same thing with it sticking on the green loading bar. I ran a diagnostics on my computer and everything passed except a hard drive test in which I got the error 2000-0146. I checked that error on the dell support website and it told me to take the hard drive out and plug it back in. I have not done this yet as the instructions to do so required me to disassemble the whole computer just to get at the hard drive. After some online research, I created a Knoppix (Linux based os) 6.7 boot cd and booted from the cd drive. This worked beautifully and I am now in the process of transferring all my important data from the hard drive to an external hard drive.

So here are my questions. Everything I read about error 2000-0146 says it's a hard drive failure but if that were the case, why does the hard drive seem to work fine when accessed from a Linux OS? Also, how would disconnecting and reconnecting the hard drive fix the problem? I really don't want to take it apart if I don't have too. Could the windows boot files somehow be corrupted causing it not to boot, and if so could I access them with Knoppix and replace them with good files?

My computer is out of warranty, and I would just as soon fix it myself f possible. Any help and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.



Additional info, system is about a year and a half old, running windows 7 home professional 64 bit, OEM factory installed.

Try running other hard drive tests. I suggest the Seagate Seatools and the Hitachi DFT. Instructions are at this post: Hard Drive Diagnostic Procedure

Hard drives are funny creatures and depending on how they are failing they can produce different problems.
I have no idea of how Linux works, so I'll just guess that it uses different functions when accessing the hard drive.

The main point of a dying hard drive isn't why it works using different techniques/OS's - but rather one of "When is it going to completely die?" So backing up your stuff is the most important thing to do (which you are doing).

Disconnecting/reconnecting may help if the connection between the hard drive and the motherboard is bad/dirty. And this sort of problem will give many of the same symptoms that a dying hard drive will give.

FWIW - The other day we took a Dell Inspiron N5010 apart at work. It's not an easy task, but there are plenty of directions available on the web.

If that were the case, then you'd be able to boot to the System Repair disc. System Repair is a tool that checks and repairs (if needed) the Windows boot files.

In the US a hard drive will cost you between $50 to $90 (shop around for a good price on a brand name drive on the web) - and it'll take you a couple of hours to take the system apart in order to get at the hard drive, and maybe a little less to put it back together (depending on your mechanical aptitude).

My shop charges approximately $200 (+ the new hard drive) in order to diagnose the problem, install the new hard drive, and then install/update Windows (using your Dell recovery disks). Quite frankly, because of the difficulty in disassembling the system - this is a great deal!

A new computer is $400 to $600 for an entry level model.

It's your choice, go with what best suits you.
Good Luck!