"no boot sector on internal hard drive"

Have you installed the Windows OS on the new HDD? Insert the new Windows OS in the DVD rom drive, shut down, Unplug, remove battery, plug in, at boot the new OS DVD should start and ask Press any key to boot from CD/DVD, tap key.

format HDD nad make active partition

Hi,
Here is a link where you can check the manual of your DELL VOSTRO 1088. Please this DELL VOSTRO 1088 manuals and this link is for HDD.

You can run ChkDisk utility to fix Bad sectors on the hard drive(If its fixable).
This utility actually marks the bad sectors on the Hard drive and Isolate from the being accessed thats why 33% of HDD space is unreadable.(Which is very high)
There is no option to fix this HDD, so suggest you to replace it with a new one.
Hope this helps Let me know if you have any query on this.

your HDD may be corrupted, re-installing windows vista is one option. Your best bet is if you have/ can obtain a copy of windows vista run setup and try the repair wizard in the windows vista setup, the wizard automatically finds errors and missing files and replaces them therefore solving any errors in your HDD. you can also try to use the recovery wizard from your recovery disc. best of luck

Error 0146 is a failed hard drive or bad drive sector, you have a bad hard drive,

This is related to the boot sector file.So it wont work in the safemode also.Try and see that the hdd is detected in the system.If yes,then try booting thru th XP disc and run a repair

fixboot c:\
fdisk /mbr

my e-mail address is [email protected] add me to your msn will take u throw et i have same problem

plz check the hard disk cable if its ok then your hard disk may be bad.