Error and blue screen of death

[Guest]

The event manager has an error in the system event properties thest stated
there is a bad block on the hard drive.

Is this a hardware failure that requires a new disk or can I format and
reinstall Windows XP porfessional?

 

[Rock]

The event manager has an error in the system event properties thest stated
there is a bad block on the hard drive.

Is this a hardware failure that requires a new disk or can I format and
reinstall Windows XP porfessional?

Boot from the windows installation CD. Choose the first R to enter the
recovery console, enter the administrator password for the built in
administrator account. It might be blank if you didn't set one so just
hit enter. At the command prompt type:
chkdsk /r

Make sure you have a full backup of important data. If not consider
slaving the drive in another XP computer and copying the essential data.
Then do the chkdsk.

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Not necessarily it may simply be a bad cluster. First thing to do is visit
your hard drive manufacturers web site and see if they have any diagnostic
software for testing the drive. Most manufacturers do. look under support
(it's usually free anyway). Download the diagnostic utility and run in. You
really need a full scan which may take some hours if you have a large drive.
This will tell you if the drive is okay or not. If it passes the test then
everything should be ok.
You can also run chkdsk /f to see if the error can be fixed. The disk does
need to be 'locked' so you will need to schedule a chkdsk for the next
reboot.