XP sudden crash diagnosis ideas

[Chet]

I have a Dell M700 laptop with XP Home on it. I was using it yesterday
and it suddenly crashed today. It won't go into safe mode, and the
diagnostics say things like erro code: 1000-1042 Drive Self test failed
status byte 79.

I called Dell tech support and they say it is either a corrupted
operating system or the HD has failed. The odd thing is that the only
message was that "the hard drive was nearly full". There was no
buzzing of the HD and plus the laptop is only 1 1/2 yrs old. I realize
the HD could fail even at 1 1/2 yrs.

It just seems odd that there would be no symptoms prior to total
shutdown and failure of the laptop. Is it likely that the hard drive
being full could cause such symptoms? I would think there would be
warning messages that you can write to the HD if it was in fact full to
capacity.

I used the original cd's to try to get into 'repair mode' on win xp but
I just get a dos prompt when I do that. I thought maybe one can use
the 'restore' mode to actually do a fix but when I do that XP seems to
want to 'format' the HD. (Which I could do.)

Is there any other way to fix this and restore it to it's prior
condition since I'd rather not have to reinstall all the pgms I had on
it. One would think XP would be self-healing and auto detect defective
files and then just be able to repair itself. The Dell techs think
that often you get msgs saying the HD is bad when it's really just a
corrupted operating system.

Any thoughts?
Thanks Chet

 

[Kelly]

"> Is there any other way to fix this and restore it to it's prior

condition since I'd rather not have to reinstall all the pgms I had on
it. One would think XP would be self-healing and auto detect defective
files and then just be able to repair itself. The Dell techs think
that often you get msgs saying the HD is bad when it's really just a
corrupted operating system.

"

Ask them how to do a repair install.
That said, with the proper CD's you will have the previous programs
installed.
You are questioning XP with the Dell support you are getting?

Good luck!

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Tool
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

 

[Pennywise]

I have a Dell M700 laptop with XP Home on it. I was using it yesterday
and it suddenly crashed today. It won't go into safe mode, and the
diagnostics say things like erro code: 1000-1042 Drive Self test failed
status byte 79.

For the future, Hard drives have S.M.A.R.T. technology
http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/smart-technology.html

This can be switched on/off on most computers in the BIOS,
and you will receive alerts when you boot up if something is amiss.

Other programs can also read this info, like HDD Health for one
http://www.panterasoft.com/

 

[Guest]

For the future, Hard drives have S.M.A.R.T. technology
http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/smart-technology.html

This can be switched on/off on most computers in the BIOS,
and you will receive alerts when you boot up if something is amiss.

Other programs can also read this info, like HDD Health for one
http://www.panterasoft.com/

I've always wondered if the BIOS will give a S.M.A.R.T. alert when booting.
Many, many opinions I have seen on the web say that this feature only works
with software to use it since it merely switches on a mode of a capable HDD.
There are varying opinions with modern drives as to whether you should bother
getting that software. If you do not have it most recommend switching off
the feature in BIOS to reduce informnation sent from the drive - i.e. a
miniscule improvement of performance.

Does it definitely work with BIOS? I can't see that BIOS can react to a
packet of info from the HDD and if it does why do we need seperate programs?

 

[Pennywise]

I've always wondered if the BIOS will give a S.M.A.R.T. alert when booting.
Many, many opinions I have seen on the web say that this feature only works
with software to use it since it merely switches on a mode of a capable HDD.

I've seen a smart warning once - during boot up you get "S.M.A.R.T.
warning"

There are varying opinions with modern drives as to whether you should bother
getting that software. If you do not have it most recommend switching off
the feature in BIOS to reduce informnation sent from the drive - i.e. a
miniscule improvement of performance.

HDD Health is a pretty good program and freeware, I use it every now
and again, (not always running, just when I want to read the stats)

It has a useless feature (I feel) that gives the date the HD will die
it can cause needless concern.

Does it definitely work with BIOS? I can't see that BIOS can react to a
packet of info from the HDD and if it does why do we need seperate programs?

S.M.A.R.T. is a running history cache keep on the hard drive, you read
that cache by accessing the HD.

AFAIK the bios just queries the HD on bootup and displays a HD error
if one is reported by the HD - that's all it does, S.M.A.R.T. is a
function of the HD.

Another program I use mainly to monitor temps systems is Everest
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html will also read the HD and
an excellent program to have on hand.

 

[Guest]

I've seen a smart warning once - during boot up you get "S.M.A.R.T.
warning"


HDD Health is a pretty good program and freeware, I use it every now
and again, (not always running, just when I want to read the stats)

It has a useless feature (I feel) that gives the date the HD will die
it can cause needless concern.


S.M.A.R.T. is a running history cache keep on the hard drive, you read
that cache by accessing the HD.

AFAIK the bios just queries the HD on bootup and displays a HD error
if one is reported by the HD - that's all it does, S.M.A.R.T. is a
function of the HD.

Another program I use mainly to monitor temps systems is Everest
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html will also read the HD and
an excellent program to have on hand.

Thanks for that. The BIOS querying the HDD on startup and actually
presenting a meaningful message was the info I was looking to be confirmed.
That is if there are error messages in the HDD with S.M.A.R.T turned on then
the status of the HDD will be reported as an error "next" time I reboot. I
might have a look at software to read the full info though. Thanks again for
the info.