Desparate for help on installing an OS on my dell inspiron e1505

ok here's the story, i tripped and dropped my laptop. the battery fell off so i decided to check for any physical damage i could see, like the screen. after that i turned on the laptop to see if it would turn on and it did. now when windows was loading it couldn't find the files to actually start windows. so i decided to format cause nothing worked, i also used the repair and system restore from the vista install disc, but nothing work and i got errors. anyway i ran diagnostics to see if anything was broken, and no problems. so when i try to install windows vista i get the 0x8007045D error.

So long story short i can't install vista and i get teh 0x8007045D error.

possible reasons why it wouldn't install, i only have one.

I recently installed a new DVD burner because my stock one broke, so i just installed a new one, and it worked very well, and the drive still works even though i dropped it.

Anyway if anyone has an idea on how to fix it and install vista please help.

I also tried doing the USB install, but that didn't work

 

It sounds like when the laptop was dropped the hard drive was physically damaged. Does the BIOS still see it? You can normally goto the manufacturer of your hard drive and download an ISO with diagnostic tools. If all else fails a new drive is cheap at newegg.com ... about $70 for a 320gb 5400 drive and $10 for a 7200rpm.

 

the harddrive still works cause there wasn't any problems with diagnostics i ran and it would show the windows loading screen, but say it couldn't load something and then shutdown

 

I don't recall how in-depth Dell's diagnostics are on checking hard drive health, it's still worth it to try the software from the manufacturer.

If the computer was fine before but now crashes the only thing I can think of is there was a head crash that physically damaged the disk where some critical system files were located. Most of the other components in the system are not as susceptible to problems ... ie no moving parts. Perhaps something like the memory coming loose.

Only other thing I can think of is did the BIOS get reset? Perhaps something like the hard drive getting reset from SATA/AHCI mode to IDE or vice versa ... Vista is better at this, but it can still cause a crash if your OS was installed in IDE mode and it switched to AHCI mode without doing some registry hacks.

 

you were right my hdd is dying now eventhough the laptop was pretty much idel when it fell

anyway do you know what type of hdd i need for the e1505 cause i'll buy from newegg again to replace yet another broken part T_T

 

I believe you just need a standard 2.5" SATA drive ... something from this page:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E&N=2010150380 1035915133&bop=And&Order=PRICE

Your drive was probably a 5400rpm

 

The 7200rpm either WD or Hitachi seem to be the better ones going right now. They do have 500GB now too if you are looking for a lot of space.