Dolph46 said:
Yes I have followed those instructions. I have done this a few times before
on other machines and never had a problem like this.
If it was my computer, I'd probably attempt to run the
hard drive diagnostic.
One problem with that, is not all manufacturers provide
a diagnostic. Seagate has one they provide for their
customers. I just checked Toshiba, and I cannot find
one there. The Seagate one is self-booting (I have
a copy on a floppy). There is also a version in the
form of an ISO9660 file, and you can burn a CD using
the contents of the ISO (I use Nero for that). That
CD could then be used to boot the computer.
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools/seatooldreg
If Windows was still running, you can use HDTune.
Version 2.55 is free. You can run the benchmark test,
and if substantial portions of the disk give "low bandwidth",
that could be a sign of a large number of substituted sectors.
There is also an error scan, which will scan the surface of the
drive, looking for sectors with CRC errors.
http://www.hdtune.com/download.html
The normal result, would be as shown by the blue line in
the picture here. Disk bandwidth is highest near the
beginning of the disk. And gets lower near the end
of the disk. In the picture here, you can see the
"zoned" nature of the transfer characteristic. Notice
there are no downward spikes in this picture, so this
disk would be brand new.
http://www.hdtune.com/benchmark_read.png
A few spikes in the graph, is not cause for concern, but
if you see signs the test is not advancing, that can mean
a large number of retries are being attempted by the drive.
But if you've erased Windows, and your brand of drive
is one for which diagnostics don't exist, then it is
going to be more difficult to test the drive.
DBAN can erase a hard drive (use the "quick erase", so
you won't have to wait all week). If the computer
shuts down, in the middle of DBAN running, I guess
my next move, would be to put a spare 2.5" drive
in the computer, to see if you can make it functional
again. This is assuming, that problems only occur when
attempting to access the entire disk surface, and not when
other activities are being carried out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBAN
Note that DBAN will attempt to erase all connected disks,
so before booting up with DBAN, *only* the target disk
should be connected. It is possible the author has
added finer control over the erasure process, but there
have been cases in the DBAN forum, where people have
accidentally erased their backup drive that happened
to remain connected to the computer. And the DBAN
style of erasure, isn't going to leave much for
a data recovery company to work with. DBAN can erase
up to 99 connected drives, simultaneously. In this
case, you're using DBAN as much as a test vehicle,
as for the fact it is erasing the disk for you.
http://www.dban.org/download
Paul
