Resolved Conflicting Diagnostics

Hi, I was given a Dell Inspiron 1440 Laptop that had come to a standstill with only the curser blinking on the top left of the screen. No boot options no Restore points available nothing.
Dell Diagnostic program was ringing Alarm Bells when it came to diagnose the hard drive: Error Code 0146 Msg: Error Code 2000 -0146.
A search on the Dell Forum revealed a bucket full of the same errors on Inspiron Laptops, Faulty hard drive, dieing hard drive, but also some who managed to get them to stay alive temporarily at least.
I contacted my relative and informed them to be prepared to look at a new HD.
Much of the usual story, can you save my pictures my Music and so on, we have no backups.
Fortunately I have a HD dock and had no problems backing up.
Now comes the interesting part, I decided to run a chkdsk and a clean pass no errors three times, I then run the Seagate Sea Tools on the drive as it is a 320 GIG Seagate run all tests 3 times including the extended one no errors all pass. I again run the Dell Diagnostic and bells ringing again Error, Error Code 0146.
I then decided to reinstall Vista Home Premium 64 bit, that was installed previously before it packed up, from the Dell Restore Disk and it installed without any problems, downloaded the drivers from the Dell website and installed them, plus 130 MS Updates and it has been running for 3 days now, problem free, no freezes crashes or anything.
My question now is, should I advice them to buy a new HD anyway, or take the chance that the Dell Diagnostic is wrong.
Anyone with a similar experience, keen to hear opinions and suggestions.
hawk22

 

If I read it correctly DELL only advises remove and reinstall for 0146, I'm assuming the drive became loose at some point and reinstalling it should sort things out.

Anyway, I'd advise your relative that the issue is resolved (seatools shows the drive as undamaged) but to be more gentle with the laptop in future.

EDIT: I'm basing my advice from the Dell support site

 

Thank you wildfire, that makes me feel better.
I couldn't decide on what to make of it, but my question here is still hanging in the air somewhat. After removing and reinstalling the drive into the Laptop I still get the same Error Code 0146 from Dell.
Just between you and me, I have never had a Dell never liked them and never would buy one.
On the positive side though for Dell, I think their Monitors are great.
By the way wildfire, did you end up keeping the Monitor with the red dead pixel.

 

You said earlier you reinstalled Vista without any problems

Yep, I ran a few pixels fixers but at the end of the day a flick with my thumb done the trick, the stuck pixel never came back (I think it's scared )

 

Yes I did, only thing I could do, to see if it would work at all.
Yes I have been running Vista 64 bit for 3 days now and no problems so far, touch wood ( my head).
Good to hear you got the Monitor fixed ( sounds like you are an ugly brute )

 

My mum never said so but I believe when I was born the midwife slapped her face instead of my backside

 

you're a Card wildfire