My Dell Didnt pass the test?

Question

OK my dell laptop isnt passing a certain part of the dell system test thing what could really be the problem i think its a harddrive problem ive had it for like 6 years now below are the type of laptop and under shows the part that it failed . Tell me what you think it is will i have to be getting a new laptop or is it just some thing i can fix by reinstalling windows and jumping my computer back to when i first got it .




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Vendor: Toshiba
Model Number: TOSHIBA MK5056GSY
Serial Number: 00000000
Firmware Revision: LH003D
Size: 465.8 GB
Cache Size: 16 MB
Temperature: 40 C
Physical Sector Size: 512 B
Logical Sector Size: 512 B
Logical Sector Count: 976773168
Supported Standards: ATA8-ACS, ATA/ATAPI-7, ATA/ATAPI-6, ATA/ATAPI-5
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Targeted Read Test
Test Started 2/24/2013 1:11:16 AM
Error Message: Error while reading sector 20600. 2/24/2013 1:11:55 AM
Error Message: The test found 1 sector errors. 2/24/2013 1:12:01 AM
Test Finished: Failed (Error code: WHD20-JNR)

Answer 1

Hi,



That looks like a hard drive sector error which may be nothing to worry about or it could be an indication that the hard drive is on the way out.



As long as you don't start getting more bad sectors then I wouldn't worry but if you start getting more make a full backup of your system then fit a new hard drive and restore from your backup.



Use chkdsk to check the hard drive :-



http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265#method2



Arnak

Answer 2

First - do a back up of your personal information (Easy Transfer takes more space but will get more of your files & settings to a "new" factory image installed on a new hard drive). After saving the back up (or Easy Transfer - which comes on Vista & Windows 7 but didn't come on XP - although you can download & install it, I think).



Then, if you have the recovery disks - I'd suggest getting a NEW hard drive and using the install disks to do a factory image install on the new hard drive and use the back up to transfer all your personal settings & files to the new hard drive.



A six year old hard drive might still work for a while as a place to save a back up image - but it isn't in good shape to be used day in and day out in the laptop.....



If you don't have the original recovery disk sets - see if you can get a replacement from eBay or Dell - or download a free cloning program and clone the existing hard drive NOW, before more than one sector starts going bad.

Answer 3

I would run chdsk /r to fix the error it might take a while but should fix the error, could set it back to factory settings still might not fix the error problem it seems like it's within the drive itself , some of us will forget about that small error and keep on using the drive to me in the long run it would cause problems