Security Descriptor Problem or is it hardware?

[Guest]

Hi,

I'd greatly appreciate some help... I upgraded to Nortons SystemsWork 2005
early in the month, and everything seemed to be working fine for a little
while. Then, one morning I switched on the machine and start up took some
10-15 minutes when it used to take less than 1 minute. From then on, the
hard disk would only read/write in short brusts (i.e., <1 sec).

At first I suspected it was the good work of Nortons (I still think they'd
something to do with it), Disk Doctor reported problems with the File Index
and the Security Descriptors. I asked it to fix the problem at the next
start up, but it didn't quite work. (Reinstalling NSW made no difference.)

After reading threads here, I tried chkdsk /r/f and it fixed the File Index
problem - Disk Doctor said it's fine now. But DD still shows problems with
the Security Descriptors, something chkdsk /r/f can't seem to fix. While the
performance of the disk is better, it's still nowhere near what it used to
be. BTW, I ran chkdsk /r/f twice, each taking some 24 hours.

I'm putting it through a defrag at the moment (and I wasn't able to even do
that before chkdsk), and it's going exceedingly slow.

Since the problem started, there's a strange 'bing' (almost metallic
sounding) from the system. It's making me nervous that it's hardware
instead... But then, the machine makes all sorts of bings and beeps all the
time...

Some background information:

Toshiba M10
Win XP Pro SP2 (with all updates)
A 20Gb (partitioned from a 40Gb as when bought originally)
Nortons Systemworks 2005 (with all updates)
Antivirus indicates the system is clean

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

S

 

[Malke]

Hi,

I'd greatly appreciate some help... I upgraded to Nortons SystemsWork
2005 early in the month, and everything seemed to be working fine for
a little
while. Then, one morning I switched on the machine and start up took
some
10-15 minutes when it used to take less than 1 minute. From then on,
the hard disk would only read/write in short brusts (i.e., <1 sec).

At first I suspected it was the good work of Nortons (I still think
they'd something to do with it), Disk Doctor reported problems with
the File Index
and the Security Descriptors. I asked it to fix the problem at the
next
start up, but it didn't quite work. (Reinstalling NSW made no
difference.)

After reading threads here, I tried chkdsk /r/f and it fixed the File
Index
problem - Disk Doctor said it's fine now. But DD still shows problems
with
the Security Descriptors, something chkdsk /r/f can't seem to fix.
While the performance of the disk is better, it's still nowhere near
what it used to
be. BTW, I ran chkdsk /r/f twice, each taking some 24 hours.

I'm putting it through a defrag at the moment (and I wasn't able to
even do that before chkdsk), and it's going exceedingly slow.

Since the problem started, there's a strange 'bing' (almost metallic
sounding) from the system. It's making me nervous that it's hardware
instead... But then, the machine makes all sorts of bings and beeps
all the time...

Some background information:

Toshiba M10
Win XP Pro SP2 (with all updates)
A 20Gb (partitioned from a 40Gb as when bought originally)
Nortons Systemworks 2005 (with all updates)
Antivirus indicates the system is clean

Disk Doctor is dreadful software and you shouldn't rely on it (I'd
uninstall it). However, the "bing" noise is worrisome. Download a hard
drive diagnostic utility from the drive mftr.'s website. Usually you
will download the file and make a bootable floppy with it. Boot with
the media and do a thorough test. If the drive has physical errors,
replace it. You cannot fix basic hardware problems (dying hard drive)
with software solutions.

Malke