Advice Needed After Scare With Pc Tonight!

ksh123

jaws77 wrote:

Boot to the Windows CD and chose "R" for a Repair. This
takes you to a screen that gives you two more choices,
the Recovery Console or a Repair Installation of Windows XP.
Choose "C" for Recovery Console.
At the Recovery Console prompt, run:
CHKDSK /R

I think this is what I did last night tho I did not put in CHKDSK /R just followed its intructions. It was after completing this check that I got the message that the C drive is corrupted and could not be repaired.......

Should I try it again???

ksh123

A-Wing wrote:

OK, I am making a lot of assumptions here without knowing what is inside you computer, but here goes:
When booting you computer, and the first screen comes up (usually a load of text) press [DEL] (although it could be [F1] or [F2] depending on the computer. You will shortly be brought to a text based menu that usually has a list of keys you can use at the bottom. Now, the smart setting is usually in the Advanced settings menu, but have a browse around to see if you can find it (just don't change anything else). If you make a mistake you can always cancel and start again. After you have turned it on, press the key to save your settings and exit.

You should then have SMART switched on. If it sees a drive failing before the machine boots it will stop and warn you there. If this happens you need to change the drive as soon as possible.

The alternative method is if you find who made the drive (open the box and look at the label) you can go to the drive manufacturers website, download a diagnostics boot disk or cd (very small), boot the machine from that and it will test the hard drive (although it can take up to an hour).

Ok well I can give this a go later when I have more time.

The big question is: IF THE C DRIVE IS CORRUPTED - WHAT THEN????

A-Wing

ksh123 wrote:

Ok well I can give this a go later when I have more time.

The big question is: IF THE C DRIVE IS CORRUPTED - WHAT THEN????

Buy a new hard disk (dirt cheap for that kind of capacity) and get some form of cloning software to copy your OS and data over such as Norton Ghost.

Gib_Gib

ksh123 wrote:

.....and my mouse is acting strangely, instead of scrolling it sort of moves down in waves, very odd for the eyes, same thing happens if I use the scroll bar.

It sounds like your drivers have gone.

Personally I would just copy all your important files off the computer on to a cd and reinstall windows.

The hard drive might have died, but chances are doing this will solve all problems, problem is it takes an evening to do.

albertross_2

Run chkdsk c: /F/R now, and reboot, it will check the filesystem for any logical corruption.

A-Wing

albertross wrote:

Run chkdsk c: /F/R now, and reboot, it will check the filesystem for any logical corruption.

chkdsk is fair enough but it doesn't test the on-chip diagnostics of the drive, hence why I think the manufacturer's diagnostics disc is a good idea.

fgaughan

ksh123 wrote:

you've lost me a bit here - are these programmes ones you can download? Or do they have to be purchased? Not heard of either before.
Will backing up help the running of the machine?

thanks

Basically what he means is saving all your important files photos onto a disc if you can. do it now before it happens again. then read up on links posted before.

symy@nufc

you could downlaod pc wizard for here
PC WIZARD 2006 is a powerful utility designed especially for detection of hardware, but also some more analysis. It's able to identify a large scale of system components and supports the latest technologies and standards. This tool is periodically updated (usually once per month) in order to provide most accurate results.

ksh123

if not always completely understandable! I'm with the consensus now that the hard drive has gone....I really hope they are "dirt cheap" as I am lving a few fathoms below the poverty line here......but then the only way I make a bit of money is through my pc so........

anyway, that's not a problem for this board.

I have set about copying the stuff I need and look forward to tedious hours re-installing everything.

You have all been very kind and generous with your time. Thanks.

albertross_2

There are two types of corruption, logical and physical. Logical means the magnetic recording is corrupt, so Windows can't read a file or two, which is not fatal, especially as the PC is working. Physical means the hard disk is on it's way out.

I haven't seen any post which suggests this is a physical problem yet, so don't go blowing money on new hard disks yet.

Have you tried chkdsk yet? If so, what did it say?

This software will give you an indication if the disk is really dying or not:

http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm

If your raw read error and write error counts are zero, the disk is probably ok.