HELP!! Volume Unrecoverable Errors

[Guest]

QUESTION: is this laptop fixable? Will re-formatting the hard-drive do it?

SITUATION: Not my laptop, just trying to help out. I understand how to
operate computers VERY WELL--I have used office, Photoshop, dreamweaver, and
many other programs for years. Installation, running, minor troubleshooting,
no problem. But I am dumb when it comes to REAL hardware or software
problems and troubleshooting.

SETUP: 2-yr old pentium III, 256 RAM IBM thinkpad, windows xp home

ORIGINAL PROBLEM: The owner started seeing errors about 6-9 months ago with
"no operating system found" errors. He ignored & "used go-arounds" by
fooling with a "screen" that looks like the BIOS setup utility (same
interface look). He also heard "clicking noises" (hardware) coming from the
laptop sometimes.

PROBLEM NOW: won't boot anymore

WHAT I DID: At first, he only told me it was slow and crashed all the time.
So, for the first 2.5 hours of troubleshooting, I installed McAfee, installed
DSL modem software and borrowed his friend's modem connection to update his
McAfee and virus index. His very slow computer dragged this process out way
too long.

I encountered several errors during this process (mostly near the end) and
wrote them down. It is only when I started running the virus scan that the
computer completely would not boot anymore.

ERRORS I ENCOUNTERED:
1) This was a full page error. Here are the hilights:
kernel_data_inpage_error
stop 0x0000007A
atapi.sys - address F91B8384
disable bios memory options such as caching or shadowing
Beginning dump of physical memory.
I restarted the system, booted up fine.

2) PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM
I restarted the system, booted up fine.

3) IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
and a whole page of text that soon disappeared
I restarted the system, booted up fine.

4) Basically the same as error #1, but the error referenced ntfs.sys
I restarted the system, booted up fine.

5) missing or corrupt isapnp.sys.
It told me I could run windows repair console from the setup disk.
Rebooted the system, never got back up.

After this last error, I looked up the fix on microsoft support site. it
said to rename the file isapnp.sys and expand the replacement file to the
location from the cd.

I could not rename the file. I could not copy the file. I could not delete
the file. the repair console listed the file in the directory, but could not
find the file when it came to using a command on it.

I did not know what to do. Scandisk would not run, so I ran chkdsk. Chkdsk
progress got to 50% and then said: "the volume appears to contain one or more
unrecoverable problems." And that is where I am now.


Is this computer savable?

thanks,

mari

 

[Roberto]

Seems like the HDD is toast, but before you replace it D/L diagnostic
software from the manufactures web site and see what it comes up
with, get back with your findings please

rgds
Roberto

 

[Guest]

Thank you, Roberto.

I called IBM and they said they no longer have recovery cd's for anything
except computers that shipped out with Win XP. This laptop shipped with
2000, so the owner obviously had someone install XP on it. But they did say
that installing new O/S should be no problem. I am just worried the disk is
still bad.

If I format the drive & do thorough scan and a lot of bad sectors are found,
I will assume it is not a good idea to use the drive.

If not a lot of bad sectors are found, do you think it is a reasonable risk
to try to use that disk still?

Thank you,

mari

 

[Roberto]

Mari
With the low cost of HDDs these days if any bad sectors are reported,
don't waste time just replace it

rgds
Roberto