PC "Bad Clusters" Error

mleonard79

Hi Everyone,

Whilst restarting after an update my computer came up with an error message and went into a long process of checking the computer. The message was as follows:

A disc check has been scheduled
The type of the file system is NTFS
Volume label is HP_PAVILLION

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)

Windows replaced bad clusters in file 43269 of name\I386\NTPRINT.INF.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 433318 of name\I386\OEMBIOS.BI_.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 45523 of name\PROGRA~1\Arcsoft\SHOWBI~1\showbiz.exe]

From doing a search online about "bad clusters" I'm now very concerned about my computer as some pages were basically saying this is a sign the hard drive is dying

I've had the PC for just over 4 years but over the last year it's been getting slower and slower and more and more "IE is not responding" and error messages have been appearing. It is extremely slow starting up in particular and often when it just gets too unbearably slow I find shutting it down for a little while then starting it up again helps. Most of the time it's an ok speed though. I'm also now getting problems when I use word - it freezes and I get a message about global and normal template changes.

I've been trying to get my important files, photos and music onto discs for a while but I can't get it to burn discs - I don't know whether it's the Record Now program or the disc drive. I've tried different types of dvds and cds so I think I can rule it out being the discs. I have made recovery discs a long time ago and I've managed to creat a back-up for files and settings from the back-up wizard to 2 memory sticks today just in case but any advice on what I should do from here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Regards

Michelle

DatabaseError

don't worry, often a sign of a reboot whilst files still being written to the hdd, but unless you have thousands, or errors on every reboot, just carry on as normal

John_Gray

If you get this CHKDSK activity at power-up time happening more than once you should be even more diligent about backing up your data files, checking you have all the installation disk - and serial numbers - for your software.

And prepare to reinstall Windows on a replacement hard disk.