Hi all, I am a long time Dell owner and new to the forum.
I recently had a series of 0142 and 0146 hard drive error codes that eventually lead to a hard drive replacement on my Studio XPS 8100. I want to thank all of you who contribute to this forum as your advice in the various threads over the past few days while working through this issue has been invaluable.
After removing the old hard drive, I was able to access and save all of my data using an Apricorn Universal Hard Drive Adapter (a tip that I picked-up from one of the threads).
Windows 7 Home Premium along with all other drivers and programs (and my data), is loaded onto the new drive and properly backed-up now. Other than a small glitch with my blu-ray player (which also was resovled by reviewing another post), everything is up and running smoothly.
I ended up replacing my Dell-installed 750GB hard drive, (a 7200, 32MB cache which turned out to be a Seagate Baracuda), with a 1TB Western Digital 'Caviar Blue' 7200, 32MB Cache. So far I am very pleased with the install. The minimal amount of noise made by the new hard drive is about the same as the Seagate, but I believe the WD runs quite a bit cooler.
I do have one question for all of you experts: When accessing the Baracuda through USB with the Apricorn, all of the data seems fine - - Would this drive be useable for data storage if I format and clean it up? I hate to see that much space and a relatively new hard drive go to waste (it was shipped with my 8100 back in March 2010).
Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this...
