Targeted Read Test Failed

Hi,

It appears to be an issue with the hard drive. You can run a diagnostics on the hard drive of your computer following the steps below:

• Please restart the system.
• As soon as you see the blue Dell logo, start tapping the ‘F12’ key on top of the keyboard.

Note: If you wait too long and the Microsoft Windows appears, then continue to wait until you see the Windows desktop. Now shutdown your computer and try again.

• After we have pressed ‘F12’ key then a new window would appear. Now highlight the “Boot to utility partition” and press ‘Enter’.

Note: (If Boot to the Utility partition option is not there then you will have a “Diagnostics” option to select which starts the diagnostics directly.)

• When you get a prompt 'Were color bars displayed?’. Press 'Y' in case the color bars are displayed else press 'N'. 
• Continue running the test till you get the message: No errors found so far. Would you like to continue the remaining memory steps? It might take more than 30 minutes. Press 'N' and restart the computer.  
• Make a note of error code if any.

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Please reply with the findings. 

I am also having this issue when I run the diagnostics from the Dell website.  The interesting thing is that it only applies to the two external hard drives I have attached, every other component and areas tested passed.  Can you offer some advice here?  One note, once the diagnostic test completes, I get an error message "Unexpected error occured".  interestinglyI am unable to find any link to "View your diagnostic history in the last 90 days above" as stated. 

Thank you for your time and effort to respond.

The test should only be used on internal hard drives. The test cannot analyze external drives properly. Open Windows Explorer, right click on the external drive and choose Properties, Tools, Check drive for errors.

Hi mtcotton,

Let me suggest you go to the support site of the drive manufacturer. All of them have tools for diagnosing problems with their external drives. For example. SeaTools would be a good utility for your drives if they were made by Seagate. These tools can run from a bootable CD so that any problems with the OS do not convolute the results.

Good luck!

I am having a similar problem with my Dell 8600.  I ran the Diagnostics and received a message with the error code 2000-0142.  This is supposed to indicate a condition?

Hi Little Old Prof,

Yes, that error indicates your hard drive is failing. Your Inspiron 8600 (I assume) is fairly old and takes an IDE type drive, which you should be able to find on Ebay.

As an alternative, you might consider upgrading your PC. If you don't want to make the jump directly to Windows 8, there's a good market for recent vintage, refurbished laptops that run Windows 7.

Thanks.  I misstated my product.  It's a Dell XPS 8300 desktop that is three years old.  Any recommendation for a new hard drive?

Thanks.  I misstated my product.  It's a Dell XPS 8300 desktop that is three years old.  Any recommendation for a new hard drive?