Occasional problems starting - hard drive going?

[Mike C]

In the past month, my computer wouldn't boot maybe 3 times. It shows
the progress bar thing when Vista is loading, sits there for a few
minutes, and then reboots.

I ran the system recovery frrm the recovery partition (Hp laptop, no
install disks). I run the chkdsk on the windows partition. This takes
over 4 hours. It fixes a few problems, and then windows boots fine.

My question is, isn't there something I can do to mark the sectors as
bad and not have this problem again? Are more and more sectors going
bad? Should I just replace the HD (laptop only 1 yr old)? Should I
run a manufacturer or 3rd party utility?

 

[Malke]

In the past month, my computer wouldn't boot maybe 3 times. It shows
the progress bar thing when Vista is loading, sits there for a few
minutes, and then reboots.

I ran the system recovery frrm the recovery partition (Hp laptop, no
install disks). I run the chkdsk on the windows partition. This takes
over 4 hours. It fixes a few problems, and then windows boots fine.

My question is, isn't there something I can do to mark the sectors as
bad and not have this problem again? Are more and more sectors going
bad? Should I just replace the HD (laptop only 1 yr old)? Should I
run a manufacturer or 3rd party utility?

You should run through some hardware troubleshooting. Yes, you should
include the hard drive testing but there are other components that could be
at fault besides the drive.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

Standard disclaimer: I can't see and test your computer myself, so these are
just suggestions based on many years of being a professional computer tech;
suggestions based on what you've written. You should not take my
suggestions as a definitive diagnosis. Testing hardware failures often
involves swapping out suspected parts with known-good parts. If you can't
do the testing yourself and/or are uncomfortable opening your computer,
take the machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local
equivalent of BigComputerStore/GeekSquad). If possible, have all your data
backed up before you take the machine into a shop.

Malke

 

[Mike C]

You should run through some hardware troubleshooting. Yes, you should
include the hard drive testing but there are other components that could be
at fault besides the drive.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

Standard disclaimer: I can't see and test your computer myself, so these are
just suggestions based on many years of being a professional computer tech;
suggestions based on what you've written. You should not take my
suggestions as a definitive diagnosis. Testing hardware failures often
involves swapping out suspected parts with known-good parts. If you can't
do the testing yourself and/or are uncomfortable opening your computer,
take the machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local
equivalent of BigComputerStore/GeekSquad). If possible, have all your data
backed up before you take the machine into a shop.

Malke

It is definitely the hard drive. I ran the WD diagnostics. It took 6
hours and said there were bad sectors. When I tried to repair them, it
failed. I think I will just replace the drive. I figure it could work
for years or could go any day and I wouldnt mind upgrading the size
anyway.