Laptop HDD failure - Recovery Partition

[MaxArk]

I have an out of warranty Dell Inspirion 1545 with a suspected HDD failure. (Error Code 2000-0142). It is my plan to replace the HDD.

However, the recovery information (Vista etc) for this computer is on a partition on the failing drive. Without that recovery information, how can I install a new drive and the Vista OS found in the recovery?

If I'm lucky, I can access the partition in safe mode and see the contents.

 

[USAFRet]

I have an out of warranty Dell Inspirion 1545 with a suspected HDD failure. (Error Code 2000-0142). It is my plan to replace the HDD.

However, the recovery information (Vista etc) for this computer is on a partition on the failing drive. Without that recovery information, how can I install a new drive and the Vista OS found in the recovery?

If I'm lucky, I can access the partition in safe mode and see the contents.

That recovery partition is used to bring it back to factory condition.
The drive must be functional to do this.
Last week, or when the system was new...you could have used that Factory partition to create your own DVD set which would do the same thing.

Now, as the drive seems to be broken, it may be too late.
Look in the user manual to see how to invoke the Reset function.
It may work, it may not.

And looking inside that partition to 'see the contents' is of no value. It is just a compressed install, to bring it back to out of the box condition.

If the drive is truly borked and does not work, your only recourse is to contact Dell for a replacement DVD set. This may cost a few $$.

 

[captaincharisma]

the first thing you should do if you are able to boot into windows is look for the recovery utility that will allow you to copy the recovery software to a USB drive or DVD. if the drive has already failed and cannot do this then the only thing you can do is contact dell to see if they can still sell you a copy of the recovery media. if not then the only other option would be to find a copy of the version of windows you have and use the windows key that is on the bottom of the laptop to activate it