Dell Inspiron 6000 HDD Error

[modestmouse]

Hey guys,
I've got a laptop from my sister that has a HDD Error, drive not detected. It's a DELL Inspiron 6000. From what I know, the thing had a hard drive crash before, and she received another from Dell, and this is now crashed (after awhile). I hear all the time that Dell is crap...however, I was not consulted prior to the purchase....so don't give me too much grief .

I ran a diagnostics on it and everything checked out as passed, except this:
"Start DST Short Test: Fail
Error code: 1000-0141
MSG: No drive detected."

Well, not being a tech savvy family, they told me to do what I want with it. I'm wondering if I purchased a new IDE (required) hard drive, would it work again?? What do you guys think? I realize I will need to install another OS, so i will probably experiment with Ubuntu.

 

[MindoverMaster]

You can get a hdd on other sites or retail. You don't have to buy it directly from Dell for it to work.

 

[modestmouse]

thanks for the reply. i'm aware that i have other options, and will definitely use those instead of dell. my question is if you think there is more to it than the HDD? if not, and you think it is probably just a crashed drive, I will go ahead and check out newegg or tigerdirect.

thanks again for any help you can provide.

 

[modestmouse]

bump...<<-- only b/c i need to act somewhat fast before my wife tells me to get rid of it (too many ongoing projects). anyway, the only piece of info I can add to the above is that it does some bad clicking and sounds when pushing start. It goes to DELL screen, then HDD Error is displayed. Like I said, I can go to BIOS, ran a diagnostics at boot, and the only thing that didn't "Pass" was the hdd drive.

So, do you guys think its probably just a failed drive? I don't want to spend a bunch of money on a drive if its likely more than that, as I have little computer expertise. THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY HELP.

 

[Overbear]

Time to replace the HDD,

As to dell being "crap" your wrong on that, they are good machines that work well, but it sounds to me like you got a hold of a bad run of drives is all.