bad drive?? FAT32 WinXp

[Guest]

Friend's Gateway 3yr old computer acting up - freezing, restarting by itself,
etc. I did a lot of system maintenance - they never did - and also NAV
updated and AdAware installed, updated & scanned. After all that, we
re-installed WinXp (a repair install? It seemed to go very fast, but had to
do it 3 times 'cuz computer kept restarting on its own.
On restarts, it runs error checking. Bunch of times, had errors that
supposedly were fixed. "First allocation unit is invalid - truncated", some
others - "cross-linked files" that were copied to correct places. Also, the
report (when it showed up) said that there were 32KB in bad sectors.
Today, also checked the Gateway Utility and ran hard drive test - first 3
portions passed, then the surface scan failed. CPU test and memory test
passed.
Will try to get to manufacturer's disk utility to test hard drive, but I'm
wondering if there is any other possibility here. It really seems to be
pointing to the hard drive. On some restarts, a window would come up that
Windows has recovered from a serious error. Also the Analysis report said
that there was an "unrecoverable hardware error". I saw this a few times.
Another question: This WinXp computer was sent with FAT 32 file system.
Ithought Xp was always NTFS. I don't htink the file system is causing the
problem, because it was sent from factory this way, and was OK for 3+ yrs,
but it makes me wonder when I see first allocation unit errors.
On other post, some replies asked to check for dust, etc. I had already
blown out the computer with canned air, but I did check both the fans. They
are running fine; never appeared to slow down.
This lady says that the comp appears to restart when she's been on about an
hour+. She feels it seems to be when she's on Internet (DSL) and goes to
"weather.com". I don't know if that's a coincidence or just that she goes to
other sites and then gets to weather site after an hour. Any ideas?? There's
no obvious thing to point to overheating - I'm leaning toward bad drive.
Suggestions gratefully accepted - thanks.

 

[Usman]

What I understand from your post is already in your mind, don't waste any
more time in replacing this hard drive, yes, before you do so, the only
option feasible is to check out for the manufacturer's disk utility program,
and before you run any tests, zero fill the drive. It will make the drive
new, then run the tests and check the results.

 

[Ron Martell]

Friend's Gateway 3yr old computer acting up - freezing, restarting by itself,
etc. I did a lot of system maintenance - they never did - and also NAV
updated and AdAware installed, updated & scanned. After all that, we
re-installed WinXp (a repair install? It seemed to go very fast, but had to
do it 3 times 'cuz computer kept restarting on its own.
On restarts, it runs error checking. Bunch of times, had errors that
supposedly were fixed. "First allocation unit is invalid - truncated", some
others - "cross-linked files" that were copied to correct places. Also, the
report (when it showed up) said that there were 32KB in bad sectors.
Today, also checked the Gateway Utility and ran hard drive test - first 3
portions passed, then the surface scan failed. CPU test and memory test
passed.
Will try to get to manufacturer's disk utility to test hard drive, but I'm
wondering if there is any other possibility here. It really seems to be
pointing to the hard drive. On some restarts, a window would come up that
Windows has recovered from a serious error. Also the Analysis report said
that there was an "unrecoverable hardware error". I saw this a few times.
Another question: This WinXp computer was sent with FAT 32 file system.
Ithought Xp was always NTFS. I don't htink the file system is causing the
problem, because it was sent from factory this way, and was OK for 3+ yrs,
but it makes me wonder when I see first allocation unit errors.
On other post, some replies asked to check for dust, etc. I had already
blown out the computer with canned air, but I did check both the fans. They
are running fine; never appeared to slow down.
This lady says that the comp appears to restart when she's been on about an
hour+. She feels it seems to be when she's on Internet (DSL) and goes to
"weather.com". I don't know if that's a coincidence or just that she goes to
other sites and then gets to weather site after an hour. Any ideas?? There's
no obvious thing to point to overheating - I'm leaning toward bad drive.
Suggestions gratefully accepted - thanks.

1. Make sure that the S.M.A.R.T. capability is enabled in the
computer's BIOS. If you get a S.M.A.R.T. warning about possible drive
failure then it is time to run, not walk, to the nearest computer
store and get a replacement drive.

2. Get the hard drive manufacturer's testing utility and check out the
drive with that. Also check on the possible warranty status of your
hard drive. Sometimes the drive in a computer will have a factory
warranty that exceeds the one placed on the whole computer by the
assembler. Not always, but it is worth checking, especially if the
drive is less than 3 years old.

3. Probably the best utility on the market for repairing/recovering
wonky hard drives is Spinrite from Gibson Research (www.grc.com). The
new version 6 has improved capabilities for handling large drives and
also works on NTFS partitions (previous versions could only handle
FAT16 and FAT32). However the cost of Spinrite is pretty close to the
cost of a new drive and it cannot be guaranteed to repair the drive.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."