[mark40511]

My friend has a Dell Inspirion laptop (about 2 yrs old) with Windows Vista...She thought she had a virus and left her computer with me to try to figure out what was wrong with it. Here is what is happening.......Anti virus finds nothing....Malwarebytes finds nothing. I also ran ccleaner.. The computer loads fine, connects to the internet, I can surf with it, it doesn't seem slow at all, then suddenly the hard drive makes a click and the thing completely freezes up. I ran a diagnostic test at start up and the test finds an error 2000-0146..I googled this error and found that the hard drive needs replacing.....

No problem. I can buy a hard drive.....But my question is, if you buy a new hard drive, install it, will windows vista already be on it? If not, I have the three discs....(Vista OS)......(drivers).......(applications).....After installing a new hard drive, do I just install these discs in that order? Thanks

 

[oscer1]

I would format the new hard drive first then install the os then driver

 

[sobeit]

if there is a click and the error messages says the drive needs replacing, then most likely the drive will need replacing soon. You should not trust it for anything important and you should start backing up the stuff that is too important to lose.

windows will NOT be on the new drive. you could possibly back up the old drive. You may want to ask if your friend if they have their restore cd that should have created when they first got the computer. If they did not, there is a chance you can still create it.

As far as using your disks to install the os - really not that wise unless they are oem and you could use your friends key.

 

[mark40511]

Thanks! Luckily, there's nothing majorly important on her computer...She just wants it back to running again.......My main question is, when I take the old hard drive out and install the new one, where do I go from there? Do I just simply put the windows vista operating system disc in the CD/RW and boot from that, followed by the drivers, then applications? I thought that was "formatting" the drive. I should format the drive before I install the OS? I don't know what you mean by formatting the drive "before" I install the OS? I've never worked with a blank hard drive before so I wasn't sure if it was basically the same as reformatting or not.....She said she doesn't care if it's restored back to factory condition...

 

[sobeit]

depending upon the new drive, it could come with cloning software where you can replace the drive and just basically clone the old drive without any lost of data. you should also be able to get the cloning software from the drives manufacturers website. It usually has pretty good instructions.

as far as just completely reinstalling, just place the disk into the drive and reboot. it is normally as simple as that.

 

[mark40511]

OK thanks. I purchased a drive today. I'm pretty sure it's just a blank drive....If I run into any questions (hopefully I won't) .....I will post....Thanks for your time. You can close thread if you want

 

[mark40511]

Problem I installed drive........Put operating system disc in (Vista home) that came with this computer. Installed it........I can't connect to the internet. In device manager the wireless and several other things are in yellow exclamation marks...What am I doing wrong?

 

[DT Roberts]

You need to manually install the driver in order to use the internet with some cards. Use a driver CD or download the correct driver onto another computer, then transfer it via USB flash drive or a CD.

 

[mark40511]

Yes......Thanks. After I posted this I installed the driver cd, which I had done prior to that but it wasn't installing anything......I just saw a lot of different drivers and some that had check marks beside them. I wasn't sure what to do I ended up installing several drivers, but not all of them. I don't think all of them were needed

 

[joeten]

Hi take a look in device manager if you have any error flags then you need to install the driver for that device error flags are either a yellow ! or red X if there are none then you should be good

 

[mark40511]

Joeten, thanks!!!!

Actually, I was under the impression that when installing the operating system that, after that, you installed the drivers disc and it installed everything automatically.....That's what confused me........For example, when I put the drivers disk that came with the computer, it was giving me 4 different wireless drivers and they all said they were for the dell inspirion 1545...I'm thinking (which one do I install)....I picked the first, and wireless immediately came on. I went to device manager....and the only thing that's STILL in a (yellow exclamation mark) is Sys bus controller.....Everything else is fine.....The computer is working great.....I surfed a little with it.....Downloaded Firefox, ccleaner..malwarebytes.....Avast free.....Did the windows updates......Everything was working perfectly.......I don't know what sys bus controller is......But apparently it's not needed.......If it is...I didn't see anything relating to that in the driver cd with the list of drivers.....Please advise....Thanks

 

[DT Roberts]

The system bus controller is part of the set of chipset drivers. Have you installed the chipset driver from the CD?

 

[mark40511]

NO but I just did.........I loaded the drivers cd back in and saw the Intel Chipset so I installed that............Now no exlamation marks in device manager at all .....So I am all set....Thanks

 

[DT Roberts]

Well we're always glad to help. Come back if ever you need more assistance. :wave: