PC Crash..Is It Hardware Or Software?

LouLou

Heeellp! My PC went doolally earlier. Internet Explorer opened 28 or so times of it's own accord as I was idly surfing the Net. I couldn't control it, so I rebooted.

Cue clicky noises (from the hard drive?)..the PC wouldn't let me beyond the Windows XP Log In screen.

Six attempts at rebooting and getting stuck at the Log In screen, (and clicky noises) it finally worked normally.

As far as I know I don't have any corrupt files on here, I do regular scans of AVG antivirus, also, Ad Aware, Spyware Blaster, Spy Sweeper, Sygate Personal Firewall Pro on here too.

I haven't installed anything recently, all I did was transfer a file of mp3s from a pal on MSN last night, and they're fine.

The last thing I did before bedtime last night was a defrag (O&O Software) in Stealth Mode. I'm a bit stumped as to whether it's hardware or software to blame.

Can anyone help me determine if something bad is going to happen? I've had a hard disk crash before, and it isn't fun :rolleyes:

My PC is a Packard Bell 1705, AMD Athlon 64 3400, 1GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Disk, 5 months old.

Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Russ66

You could try running a disk check which should highlight and fix any problems.

Probably take a while with such a large disk though.

phil999_2

O&O is evil i had problems with that in the past.

intel

Get shot of O and O you dont need it on NTFS drives.

Also do you know the HDD Make and Model Number as
then you can run a manufactures specific driver tests.

Have you got any HDD Instructions or the reciept as that may tell you make and model.

LouLou

Not sure what you mean by O&O being evil, I always thought it was a well-respected utility? Maybe I'm wrong.

The Hard Disk is Seagate ST3250823A (250 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100). I don't have any instructions or receipt for it, but I'll try the Seagate website.

In the meantime I'll reboot and do a Disk Check, I just hope I make it back online! :rolleyes:

intel

http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html

Do a test first with sea tools as you may have problems rebooting.

wolfman

LouLou wrote:

Not sure what you mean by O&O being evil, I always thought it was a well-respected utility? Maybe I'm wrong.

I'm with you. O&O is by no means evil! It's highly regarded and one of the better if not best defraggers you can get. Run the Seagate software as suggested first.

intel wrote:

Get shot of O and O you dont need it on NTFS drives.

The standard Windows Defragmenter won't defragment the Master File Table whereas O&O will, which is important regarding performance.

intel

wolfman wrote:

I'm with you. O&O is by no means evil! It's highly regarded and one of the better if not best defraggers you can get. Run the Seagate software as suggested first.



The standard Windows Defragmenter won't defragment the Master File Table whereas O&O will, which is important regarding performance.

Let me just say this In my Own experience of O and O I found it a load of
rubbish so I was biased in an unfair way so to wolfman and OP sorry
but it did really bug the pants of me.

And for Win Defrag I thought that would be enough

wolfman

Wasn't really responding to your thread, more the "evil" comment made earlier. And I guess I'm the same, I've had a good experience with it, so am biased in that sense.

How come you didn't like it? I find it great, it runs so much faster than the Windows one, and there are a lot more options, notably Stealth mode so I can still work without any slow down.

It's good to have I'd say although not entirely necessary. The fact that it defrags the MFT (like the File Allocation Table in FAT32) is a bonus, the Windows one doesn't do that.

Ideally though, if I had the cash, I'd rather get Acronis True Image. Install everything perfectly in one go, then take a nice clean image (that won't be very fragmented). Then every month or two fall back to the image, do any updates, then re-image. Much more efficient and I have something to fall back on instead of spending the countless hours re-installing Windows.

LouLou

Thank you everyone for your advice.. I've tried the Seagate Tools and no errors were picked up. I've ran a Windows Disk Check and the volume was clean. So I've no idea what the earlier hiccup was

I'll phone Packard Bell's technical support people in the morning and see what their opinion is.