do i need to replace my hard drive?

Question

I dropped my dell inspiron laptop and now the laptop only boots to an error screen status 0xc00000e9. The laptop will not let me start up in safe mode, restore to an earlier point, go back to factory settings or anything like that. Have i no alternative but to replace the hard drive?

Answer 1

There could be any number of things wrong with it. Changing the hard drive could be a waste of money. Having said that, its one of the easiest parts to change, and if you can get one cheap, or borrow one, you could always try it, and if you are lucky, thats all that will be wrong with it.



Have you tried re-seating the memory etc? It could be just something come loose (or it could be a smashed motherboard).

Answer 2

If the laptop was on when you dropped it and you were running a programme that was writing or reading to the hard drive, then the drive could be damaged and this could be causing the error.



The easiest way to establish if it is the hard drive, is to simply remove the hard drive from the laptop and turn it on. If you get to a 'cannot find boot disk' error, then it is most likley the drive. you can try and replace the drive and try and see if it will boot into windows, as sometimes removing the drive and starting the machine and then replacing the drive makes the bios think it is a new drive.



If this fails and you have the windows installation dvd (which normally does not come with laptops) then try and run chkdsk from the repair options from the dvd, (don't know if this still works in Windows 7).



There should also be recovery options for your laptop from the boot up stage, I remember my HP laptop used to be F10 or F8, but pressing it as though you want to get into the bios menu. If the start up recovery options don't work, then you may need to replace your hard drive, but only if you can start your laptop and get to the .cannot find boot disk' error!



Good luck!

Answer 3

You can try to reseat the memory stick(s) and make sure the hard drive is properly connected, but the hard drive is probably damaged.



Here's a thread on this: http://www.pchelpforum.com/xf/threads/0xc00000e9.103075/

Answer 4

Go find a bootable disk or bootable flash drive and see if your computer can boot, (any windows disk, any Linux, or antivirus boot disk) if you can boot then it may be just the hard drive.

If you can't get it to boot, very likely it won't be worth fixing.

Answer 5

Hopefully that's all that's wrong with it. If you can and know how, remove the hard drive and install it in a external hard drive encloser and see if you can read it. If you can still read it then it may something else.



If you can read it, then you fried your hard drive. Purchase a new one and reinstall your OS. Hope you have a reinstall CD\DVD. If not see if you can borrow one. You can also purchase reinstall software on Craigslist. Get the correct version. Look on the bottom of the computer and you should find the product key and version sticker. You can get a reinstall CD\DVD for about $10-$20.00.



It will not install the drivers, just the OS. You will have to download the correct drivers from the Dell Web site. Locate your model and download and save the files to a CD or flash drive.



Good Luck



Joe

The Old Computer Guy



PS: Please remember to vote for the best answer even if it may not be mine.