? for Computer Guys

[Gman]

My guess would be a failing HDD. If you can get into it, run "eventvwr", expand Windows Logs, and check the System log for disk or controller errors.

I've seen diagnostic apps say a drive is fine, but you can tell by the unusually high activity that isn't the case. The manufacturers of the drives usually will have a utility to thoroughly test the drive for excessive bad blocks.

[GilpinGuy]

Well, looks like the hard drive doesn't have "much" damage...or am I wrong? Trying the other suggestions now. You guys rock!

[GilpinGuy]

My guess would be a failing HDD. If you can get into it, run "eventvwr", expand Windows Logs, and check the System log for disk or controller errors.

I've seen diagnostic apps say a drive is fine, but you can tell by the unusually high activity that isn't the case. The manufacturers of the drives usually will have a utility to thoroughly test the drive for excessive bad blocks.

Damn. Looks like you may be right.

[Zundfolge]

Might try backing your data up (which you need to do regardless of the problem). Then wipe the drive, reformat it and reinstall the OS. If the hard drive is physically fine, it might be a file system problem (which would be cured by the reformat).

[BuffCyclist]

Well, looks like the hard drive doesn't have "much" damage...or am I wrong? Trying the other suggestions now. You guys rock!

No, that looks perfectly fine to me. I have a hdd with more damaged sectors on it than that, and it operates perfectly fine. The "eventvwr" log does show warnings, at this point I agree with zundfolge, backup your data and reformat hdd, reinstall windows and see if it continues to misbehave.

Hopefully you have access to a second computer that you can continue to look up things online and report in.

[Gman]

SATA controller errors and disk errors. I've seen that a "few" times (I manage over 22,000 Windows systems for a living). Sorry about that. I'd hate to see someone go through the trouble of a system restore on a bad HDD to only find that the problem didn't go away.
How much bacon did I win?

The slowest part of a system is usually a HDD. The most delicate part of a notebook is the HDD. The HDDs are built to try and cope with errors on the fly, but the same technology often hides the real problem. The only other moving parts that wear out are the cooling fans and maybe an optical drive. The manufacturers have attempted to deal with the combined problem of portability and the tiny tolerances in the notebook HDDs, but it's a tough mix to successfully combine those mutually exclusive elements.

I'm really happy to see SSD prices coming down. Whatever you want is just a millisecond away. Couple that with lower power consumption/reduced heat to dissipate/better battery life and no moving parts.

If you're comfortable swapping the HDD on your own, that's probably the most economical approach. I'm not sure of the performance spec's of your notebook, but another option is to pick up a new cheap laptop or figure in what your costs to repair would be into a newer system.

I definitely wouldn't recommend doing your taxes on that laptop this year.

If you now the manufacturer of the HDD (Seagate/Western Digital/Other), I'd recommend downloading their diagnostic tools. I've had a number of bad personally owned WD desktop drives over the past couple of years. They quick test indicates the drive is fine. Running the thorough test usually results in my having to cancel the test after 24 hours with a smoking hot drive, and only after cancelling does it burp out the error that there were too many bad blocks on the failed drive.

[brutal]

Try clearing the page file and reboot.

It may be overlaying a bad sector.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2533911


We got my wife a new (refurb) stinkpad. Even with an older tech SSD drive it screams. That reminds me, I need to go wipe and restore he old tablet and get rid of that POS Vista install.

[Gman]

The paging error is usually a symptom, not the cause. You're not often writing or modifying files on the system as most of the activity is read, but it's pretty much constantly paging OS code which includes write/modify. The drive is built to automagically move data from bad blocks to good and mark the bad blocks so that they aren't used again.

...but sure, give it a try. I personally wouldn't trust it any further than I could throw it.

[hghclsswhitetrsh]

Made it this far and no one said quit watching porn? Really? I'm disappointed...

[Ridge]

Made it this far and no one said quit watching porn? Really? I'm disappointed...

Because it's just. not. an. option.