Help with hard drive data recovery / repalcement (Inspiron 6400)

Hi

I am trying to help my uncle who has blue screen error with registry hive (error code C0000218). Can someone pl help with following queries:

1- We called dell and were told that only option is to replace hard drive. When i googled this, i found it may be possible to recover the system through XP boot CD and restore the hard drive. is it sure that the hard drive is gone?

2- I am looking to transfer the hard drive data to new computer using a USB caddy, but not sure what exact spec is the hard drive. i was told its SATA? Do i need any more details of the hard drive or can i order one of the following to help recover the data:

2.5" SATA TO USB HARD DRIVE CADDY HDD ENCLOSURE CASE | eBay UK

2.5" SATA to USB 2.0 HDD Hard Drive Disk Enclosure Case | eBay UK

3- if i were to order a repalcement hard drive can someone please point me to spec of the hard drive that i need or is it just 2.5" SATA specification enough? Is it SATA or SATA II. I asked DEll to give me exact speci but they refused as it is out of warranty now.

i.e. which one of the following shall i order?

160GB 2.5" SATA Laptop Hard Drive Dell Inspiron 6400 | eBay UK

Seagate ST9250315AS 250GB 2.5" Hard Drive SATAII.. | Ebuyer.com

Thanks

X

 

I would first

- Run Dell Diagnostics on the hard drive and see if it is in healthy condition. Many times a failing hard drive can cause BSOD (missing system files, etc)

If everything checks out, then you have a software issue.

1) You can boot from an XP disc and try to repair your operating system. You also could try connecting the drive to a working computer and running chkdsk /r on it.

2) Yes both of those will work. Any 2.5" 9mm notebook SATA enclosure will work.

3) Any 2.5" 9mm notebook SATA drive will work, and they are dirt cheap these days. You can get a 500 GB Scorpio Blue drive for ~55-60 USD.

 

Thanks for your reply. I havent got my hand on the laptop as yet as he lives in anotehr city. am going to see him this weekend and will get more details.

but what has happened is that apparently you cant get the dell diagnostics which are on the hard drive hidden partition to run. and he doesnt have XP boot CD to run. i will try to boot up from CD and then see if i can repair the XP install.

few more things after your reply:

1- How can i connect it to a working computer? If i get the USB caddy and connect to my laptop, can i then run chkdsk?

2- If so, how do i do it? is it right click on USB drive and then repair or do i have to do through comamnd prompts? i dont know much about using command prompts. Is it simply Chkdsk d: /r (assuming external drive is D)?

3- If there are bad sectors found on the drive by chkdsk then what happens? can those be isoloated to continue using the rest of the drive capacity as normal?

4- Can i run diagnostics from a CD rather than from PC and can i do this without having XP unable to start from hard drive?

5- If hard drive is bad then can i still recover data using USB caddy? any other ways to recover data?

sorry for too many questions but i want to gather as much info as possible as i will only have one day to fix problems when i visit him,.

thanks