We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.

This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Computer keeps crashing - keep getting dreaded "Blue Screen"

13

Comments

  • -TangleFoot-
    -TangleFoot- Posts: 4,673 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Yes, highlighted in Yellow is "(05) Reallocated Sector Count".
    That's probably a bad thing.
  • gaming_guy wrote: »
    check the S.M.A.R.T. data on the hard drive as if it is over the threshold (140 i think it is on western digital drives) it could be a sign of a defective hard disk.

    Can i check this within HD Tune. If so,......where?
  • gaming_guy
    gaming_guy Posts: 6,128 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 8 February 2010 at 8:35PM
    I've never used HDtune (1. Partly because i've never heard of it before and 2. I don't really use MS Windows any more) but looking at a few screenshots it should be under the health section

    edit - if its highlighted in yellow, then it probably is over the threshold (which can vary between manufacturers)

  • Hmmm, yeah it doesn't sound good.
    But what does all that mean exactly (in plain English ;))?
  • -TangleFoot-
    -TangleFoot- Posts: 4,673 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    It means your HDD is dying of old age. No telling precisely when it'll go though. :(
  • enigma52
    enigma52 Posts: 642 Forumite
    That's probably a bad thing.

    it means it has re-mapped a bad sector, not that bad as long as there isn't a lot of them
  • gaming_guy
    gaming_guy Posts: 6,128 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 8 February 2010 at 8:40PM
    Hmmm, yeah it doesn't sound good.
    But what does all that mean exactly (in plain English ;))?

    Hard drives store data in sectors (ie. a shelf in a cupboard) and if a sector goes bad (eg. the shelf snapping in half), the drive can no longer store data on that sector (just like you wouldn't be able to store stuff on a broken shelf).

    edit - and to add a bit about the remapping mentioned above, the hard drive will find a spare sector and place the data there (just like you'd move the stuff from a broken shelf to a new shelf which isn't broken).
  • It means your HDD is dying of old age. No telling precisely when it'll go though. :(

    So obviously, that's the cause of the Blue Screen & clicking noise then.
  • -TangleFoot-
    -TangleFoot- Posts: 4,673 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Probably the latter more than the former. Blue screens have a wide variety of causes, but the default behaviour of Windows is to restart automatically giving you little time to read the message it displays. That's when tools like WhoCrashed come in handy.
  • gaming_guy
    gaming_guy Posts: 6,128 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    ....clicking noise then.

    if the hard drive is making a clicking sound, then back up any data now as the drive probably won't last much longer at all
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 352.1K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.6K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 454.2K Spending & Discounts
  • 245.1K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 600.8K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177.5K Life & Family
  • 258.9K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.