Solve : Is my hard drive dying??

1.	Solve : Is my hard drive dying??
Answer» Lately it has been more and more difficult to turn my computer on. The usual procedure is for the 'Acer' screen to display briefly where I can enter setup if I need to, then goes to a screen where I can CHOOSE the normal OS or the Windows Recovery Console. The pc has either been freezing at the 'Acer' screen or when it gets to the next screen, or instead of the 2nd screen displaying instead I just get a black screen with "veryifying DMI pool data" right at the top. I have to keep turning the pc off and on until it finally works (which is getting longer and longer - today took me 20 goes). I have followed the steps at CH000474 to no avail. Is this a sign that I need a new HDD? (I have backed up all my data just in case). I have an Acer Aspire T180-UB7Z, running Windows XP Media Centre Edition Service Pack 3, HDD is a ST3160812AS. Many thanks in advance for any help. You've followed all of the steps at CH000474 including a format and reinstall? Actually no, that is the one step I didn't do. I am not really very computer savvy and have never done such a thing and wouldn't really know where to start. I really want to avoid if poss just in case my backup fails (I know it shouldn't, but am nervous about relying on it just in case) - is there a way I can test my back up is ok without loading it? Would like to try all possible alternatives first really.Just to make sure, you've checked the drive cable, made sure there was no disk in the floppy or CD drives, ran fixmbr from the recovery conslole. Is that right? Have you tried loading BIOS default SETTINGS? How did you go about making your backup?Do I have to open up the pc to check the drive cable? There is definitely nothing in the cd drive, floppy or sd card slots. Don't know what fixmbr is - how do I find it please once I enter the recovery console? Re BIOS settings, when I went into the set up I entered the CMOS settings and BIOS settings and selected the reset to default F7 key (nothing seemed to change) - is that what you mean? Used Nero BackItUp to make my backup of each drive (compaq, C and D) to an EXTERNAL hard drive. Should i use kaspersky that I have installed to scan the external hard drive, or is there another way to scan it to make sure there are no errors? I wouldn't worry about loose cables right now. It could be PRETTY much anything, but for now I'd suggest you boot to your XP Cd and choose the first repair option. That will take you to the recovery console. Once there, run chkdsk /rQuote from: Allan on September 26, 2010, 06:53:35 AM I wouldn't worry about loose cables right now. It could be pretty much anything, but for now I'd suggest you boot to your XP Cd and choose the first repair option. That will take you to the recovery console. Once there, run chkdsk /r Thank you, I will try that. I don't have an XP CD, but screen with the option to enter the recovery console comes up when I boot (gets really annoying but guess I may be glad of it now). Fingers crossed I will be able to get that far once I turn off the pc again. Will post again once I have done it.Actually, everyone with XP should install the recovery console as a boot option, but hardly anyone does. Now you know why it's a good idea.Quote from: Allan on September 26, 2010, 04:30:05 PM Actually, everyone with XP should install the recovery console as a boot option, but hardly anyone does. Now you know why it's a good idea. May have been a good idea that I did so, but is not much use when the screen freezes on the boot option page and won't let me select it! Have now borrowed a CD from the IT dept at work, so will try that. BTW, the IT dept at work suggested could be a RAM issue, any thoughts on that?Could be any number of things at this point. I'm not big on guessing. Let's do checkdisk and go from there.Ok, have done checkdisk - said it fixed one or more errors but I have still have the same problem. Interestingly have found out that if, when the screen is frozen, I switch off at the plug rather than holding down the start button on the pc, when I switch the plug on again 90% of the time it boots ok. Don't know whether that tells you anything?It's almost certainly a hardware issue. Next step would be to check your ram. Download, burn and run memtest and let's see what that says (http://www.memtest.org/)Sorry for delay but have now run the test and it said "PASS complete, no errors". What next?Next would be to try a new power supply. If you can borrow one, that would be great.

Answer»

Lately it has been more and more difficult to turn my computer on. The usual procedure is for the 'Acer' screen to display briefly where I can enter setup if I need to, then goes to a screen where I can CHOOSE the normal OS or the Windows Recovery Console. The pc has either been freezing at the 'Acer' screen or when it gets to the next screen, or instead of the 2nd screen displaying instead I just get a black screen with "veryifying DMI pool data" right at the top. I have to keep turning the pc off and on until it finally works (which is getting longer and longer - today took me 20 goes). I have followed the steps at CH000474 to no avail. Is this a sign that I need a new HDD? (I have backed up all my data just in case). I have an Acer Aspire T180-UB7Z, running Windows XP Media Centre Edition Service Pack 3, HDD is a ST3160812AS.

Many thanks in advance for any help. You've followed all of the steps at CH000474 including a format and reinstall?
Actually no, that is the one step I didn't do. I am not really very computer savvy and have never done such a thing and wouldn't really know where to start. I really want to avoid if poss just in case my backup fails (I know it shouldn't, but am nervous about relying on it just in case) - is there a way I can test my back up is ok without loading it? Would like to try all possible alternatives first really.Just to make sure, you've checked the drive cable, made sure there was no disk in the floppy or CD drives, ran fixmbr from the recovery conslole. Is that right? Have you tried loading BIOS default SETTINGS?

How did you go about making your backup?Do I have to open up the pc to check the drive cable? There is definitely nothing in the cd drive, floppy or sd card slots. Don't know what fixmbr is - how do I find it please once I enter the recovery console? Re BIOS settings, when I went into the set up I entered the CMOS settings and BIOS settings and selected the reset to default F7 key (nothing seemed to change) - is that what you mean?

Used Nero BackItUp to make my backup of each drive (compaq, C and D) to an EXTERNAL hard drive. Should i use kaspersky that I have installed to scan the external hard drive, or is there another way to scan it to make sure there are no errors?

I wouldn't worry about loose cables right now. It could be PRETTY much anything, but for now I'd suggest you boot to your XP Cd and choose the first repair option. That will take you to the recovery console. Once there, run chkdsk /rQuote from: Allan on September 26, 2010, 06:53:35 AM

I wouldn't worry about loose cables right now. It could be pretty much anything, but for now I'd suggest you boot to your XP Cd and choose the first repair option. That will take you to the recovery console. Once there, run chkdsk /r

Thank you, I will try that. I don't have an XP CD, but screen with the option to enter the recovery console comes up when I boot (gets really annoying but guess I may be glad of it now). Fingers crossed I will be able to get that far once I turn off the pc again. Will post again once I have done it.Actually, everyone with XP should install the recovery console as a boot option, but hardly anyone does. Now you know why it's a good idea.Quote from: Allan on September 26, 2010, 04:30:05 PM

Actually, everyone with XP should install the recovery console as a boot option, but hardly anyone does. Now you know why it's a good idea.

May have been a good idea that I did so, but is not much use when the screen freezes on the boot option page and won't let me select it! Have now borrowed a CD from the IT dept at work, so will try that.

BTW, the IT dept at work suggested could be a RAM issue, any thoughts on that?Could be any number of things at this point. I'm not big on guessing. Let's do checkdisk and go from there.Ok, have done checkdisk - said it fixed one or more errors but I have still have the same problem. Interestingly have found out that if, when the screen is frozen, I switch off at the plug rather than holding down the start button on the pc, when I switch the plug on again 90% of the time it boots ok. Don't know whether that tells you anything?It's almost certainly a hardware issue. Next step would be to check your ram. Download, burn and run memtest and let's see what that says (http://www.memtest.org/)Sorry for delay but have now run the test and it said "PASS complete, no errors". What next?Next would be to try a new power supply. If you can borrow one, that would be great.

Solve : Is my hard drive dying??

Discussion

No Comment Found

Related InterviewSolutions

Reply to Comment