Win98 bizarre

[3a244]

I've been getting repeat (almost daily) crashes on my Pc for last few weeks
... bootups get hung with messages about SMART mode, always corrected
eventually by running scandisk. This in turn usually finds a mix of
symptoms .. invalid long names, truncated FAT chains, invalid Dir entries,
folder damage etc. Recent updated anti virus programs show nothing.

Sorry for patchy info .. but does any of this point to trojan activity or
other possible causes?

3a223

 

[Zvi Netiv]

I've been getting repeat (almost daily) crashes on my Pc for last few weeks
.. bootups get hung with messages about SMART mode, always corrected
eventually by running scandisk. This in turn usually finds a mix of
symptoms .. invalid long names, truncated FAT chains, invalid Dir entries,
folder damage etc. Recent updated anti virus programs show nothing.

Sorry for patchy info .. but does any of this point to trojan activity or
other possible causes?

The symptoms are clearly those of a hard drive about to fail.

Backup immediately your important data and replace the drive.

You may wish cloning the drive onto the replacement, that way you'll spare
yourself the hassle of reinstalling everything. Cloning software that will do
the job is available from http://resq.co.il/resq.php (look for CloneDisk).

Regards, Zvi

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

The symptoms are clearly those of a hard drive about to fail.

Backup immediately your important data and replace the drive.

You may wish cloning the drive onto the replacement, that way you'll spare
yourself the hassle of reinstalling everything. Cloning software that will do
the job is available from http://resq.co.il/resq.php (look for CloneDisk).

<piggybacking>

Just to add that if you go to www.aida32.hu you can download (free) the
AIDA32 utility, which (among 1001 other useful things) can read the
SMART data from your hard disk (assuming SMART has been enabled in the
BIOS).

However what the rest of the posters have said is true .. the disk is
headed South, SMART (the hard disk self monitoring firmware) has (just
for a change) noticed, and told you about it, and if you are very lucky
you have a few hours left to retrieve whatever critical data you haven't
backed up already.

The disk manufacturer probably has a diagnostic utility (IBM/Hitachi's
is called DFT) which you can download and run, preparatory to RMA'ing
the disk back for replacement (if it's still under warranty).

 

[Sugien]

CloneDisk).

<piggybacking>

Just to add that if you go to www.aida32.hu you can download (free) the
AIDA32 utility, which (among 1001 other useful things) can read the
SMART data from your hard disk (assuming SMART has been enabled in the
BIOS).

However what the rest of the posters have said is true .. the disk is
headed South, SMART (the hard disk self monitoring firmware) has (just
for a change) noticed, and told you about it, and if you are very lucky
you have a few hours left to retrieve whatever critical data you haven't
backed up already.

The disk manufacturer probably has a diagnostic utility (IBM/Hitachi's
is called DFT) which you can download and run, preparatory to RMA'ing
the disk back for replacement (if it's still under warranty).

I don't rely on the HD SMART feature; because I have one 27GB HD that was
given to me that the SMART has been saying the HD is about to fail every
since it was given to me(that is why it was given to me even though I told
the guy it could last for some time yet; but he didn't want to trust his
data to it). I use it as a slave drive and keep non-vital data on it; but
it is a pain in the ars to have to press F1 when booting because the SMART
feature halts boot up. But then it is in my youngest daughters system, and
I told her to be careful what she saves there; but I am not so sure she
should be worried about loosing stuff off of it; because as I said it has
been giving that warning now for almost a year.

 

[optikl]

I've been getting repeat (almost daily) crashes on my Pc for last few weeks
.. bootups get hung with messages about SMART mode, always corrected
eventually by running scandisk. This in turn usually finds a mix of
symptoms .. invalid long names, truncated FAT chains, invalid Dir entries,
folder damage etc. Recent updated anti virus programs show nothing.

Sorry for patchy info .. but does any of this point to trojan activity or
other possible causes?

3a223

If I had to place a bet, it would be your hard drive is failing. Backup
important data quickly.