What happened to my hard drive?

[DavidoFoo]

It began when I was messing around with Azureus, turning downloads on and off. While I was doing that, a blue screen popped up telling my to uninstall any recent software or hardware, some stuff about a physical memory dump and to restart. I restarted(which took extremely long) and then windows checked for drive consistency, I don't know why but I canceled it. I just powered it down after I got into windows as I didn't know what the hell happened to my computer. Any ideas?

 

[Gloryfieldzi]

lesson: don't mess around with stupid stuff

 

[DavidoFoo]

Originally posted by: gloryfieldzi
lesson: don't mess around with stupid stuff

WOW, you're as useless as fattyks4u and dothan. All I was doing was turning downloads on and off in Azureus(a bittorent client).

 

[Mrvile]

Sounds like classic Windows data corruption to me (if you visit these forums much you'll know that it happened a lot to me a few weeks ago). It can be many different things, usually it's either bad ram, bad HDD data cord, or overheating CPU. Run Memtest86, swap out SATA or IDE or whatever cords your hard drive uses, and check your CPU temps though BIOS.

 

[DavidoFoo]

Can I save my hard drive and the data on it by doing this? I have a lot of anime(which took a while to download) and some cd-keys on it.

btw: thanks for the non-worthless reply

 

[Gloryfieldzi]

Originally posted by: DavidoFoo

Originally posted by: gloryfieldzi
lesson: don't mess around with stupid stuff

WOW, you're as useless as fattyks4u and dothan. All I was doing was turning downloads on and off in Azureus(a bittorent client).

you proved my point

 

[Mrvile]

Originally posted by: DavidoFoo
Can I save my hard drive and the data on it by doing this? I have a lot of anime(which took a while to download) and some cd-keys on it.

btw: thanks for the non-worthless reply

Well it depends. When I found out it was my SATA cord gone bad I didn't have to reinstall Windows (although I did anyway). However, if it's really Windows data corruption then I'm afraid you're out of luck...swap out the cord and see if it's just the cord first.

But seriously, I'd be much more afraid of hardware failure than losing some pirated anime...

 

[DavidoFoo]

Well it depends. When I found out it was my SATA cord gone bad I didn't have to reinstall Windows (although I did anyway). However, if it's really Windows data corruption then I'm afraid you're out of luck...swap out the cord and see if it's just the cord first.

But seriously, I'd be much more afraid of hardware failure than losing some pirated anime...[/quote]

If it comes down to it, I'd rather lose my crappy 80 gig maxtor than all the anime on it. Alright, I'll try replacing my ide cord first and see it that fixes the problem.

It technically is illegal to download, but since it's not licensed in the US, I consider it okay to download. I gladly buy R1 DVDs of the anime I watch when they come out.

Originally posted by: gloryfieldzi
lesson: don't mess around with stupid stuff

I turn downloads on and off everyday you worthless fattyks4u.

 

[DavidoFoo]

bump

 

[yaleblor]

have you tried starting in safe mode and running scandisk?

 

[DavidoFoo]

Originally posted by: yaleblor
have you tried starting in safe mode and running scandisk?

Nope, I've been waiting to replace my ide cord. I'm afraid that if I try to use the drive it'll worsen my situation. I guess it won't? How do I run scandisk? I'll google if you're too lazy to tell me

 

[yaleblor]

when the machine starts to boot tap f8 for options ,choose start in safe mode,then run the diagnostics,if i remember correctly you'll be asked to restart again, you may need to type c:\ run scandisk/all (better google; it's been a long time since i did it and i dont want to steer you wrong)

 

[Addikt]

It's checkdisk you want to run not scandisk...chkdisk /f I think...but again check the microsoft support pages.

 

[DavidoFoo]

Thanks guys, I'll try all your suggestions and get back. Watch for updates. =/

edit: okay I've run chkdsk and it marked some file sectors unreadable-about 10(something like that)) and deleted some indexes and stuff. What does this mean?

 

[DavidoFoo]

What am I supposed to look for when I run memtest86 and chkdsk??

 

[SrGuapo]

memtest will just spit out errors. I would let it run for quite a while (at least 50 passes of each test) and if there is a problem with the RAM, it will start spitting out errors.

 

[DavidoFoo]

Oh-kay

1. IDE cable
2. Memory
3. CPU Temperature
4. Run chkdsk

1. Will swap when I get one
2. Will run memtest for at least 50 passes
3. CPU at 50-51 C
4. Ran it but really didn't know what was going on. Will run after memtest. What do I look for?

 

[CrispyFried]

checkdsk/scandisk.. they try to find errors and correct them, or ar least minimize any damage. The results you get depend on what happened.

After running it check you files, if they seem like theyre all then play a bunch. You may of lucked out.

Also look for files or folders called "found000" the zeros may be numbers instead. This is where scandisk puts stuff it found but doesnt know what to do with. If they are present, they may have parts of files, directories, or just junk in them. Dont delete them at this point, untill you know all your files are OK.

Its best to always let windows scan your drives after a bad shutdown or crash, let it finish.

 

[katwomansz]

In my opinion it isn't worth the risk to your machine to try and get free music. Threats of virus, corruption, dialers, malicious destructions of dats just isn't worth it for me. Plus maybe I'm old fashioned but I like to support the artists I listen to by buying their CDs. If you have invested thousands in your computer you can buy a CD. As a matter of fact I use the $30 difference between dial up and broadband to buy at least 2 CDs a month.

But then again I don't need broadband to play games online. Maybe cheating has been solved but last time I tried to play the latest games it just really ruined the whole experience. As did the trash talking kids who play hours more than me a day and don't seem to need to work to buy their computers. Plus I just don't have the reflexes to match those of a 15 year old... end of rant...

 

[yaleblor]

now that you ran chkdskk and found errors ,hopefully they've been repaired, did you try to restart again?
what are your system specs?

 

[DavidoFoo]

Originally posted by: yaleblor
now that you ran chkdskk and found errors ,hopefully they've been repaired, did you try to restart again?
what are your system specs?

I didn't. I immediately ran memtest86. It's at 40 passes no errors. I'm running it till 50 passes to be sure it's not my ram.

ST61G4
Shuttle FT61 / Silent X 250W
Northwood 2.66
Kingston PC 2700 512MB

Originally posted by: CrispyFried
checkdsk/scandisk.. they try to find errors and correct them, or ar least minimize any damage. The results you get depend on what happened.

After running it check you files, if they seem like theyre all then play a bunch. You may of lucked out.

Also look for files or folders called "found000" the zeros may be numbers instead. This is where scandisk puts stuff it found but doesnt know what to do with. If they are present, they may have parts of files, directories, or just junk in them. Dont delete them at this point, untill you know all your files are OK.

Its best to always let windows scan your drives after a bad shutdown or crash, let it finish.

I ran it once by booting into safe mode and running "chkdsk /f" Should I run it again for best results?

 

[DavidoFoo]

Alright, I ran chkdsk for a second time and everything was okay, so I think everything was was repaired the first time around. I ran memtest86 for 14+ hrs so I'm sure my memory is okay. I haven't replaced my IDE cable, but I'll get around to doing that as I need to get one from a friend. I restarted and it seems all my files are intact, but everything still seems to run very slow. Any ideas?

 

[DavidoFoo]

I ran Maxtor's diagnostic tool "PowerMax" and it said that my drive is failing. Could this be due to an IDE cable or is my drive really failing.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: DavidoFoo
I ran Maxtor's diagnostic tool "PowerMax" and it said that my drive is failing. Could this be due to an IDE cable or is my drive really failing.

You mentioned that "it marked some file sectors unreadable" - sounds like bad sectors. I have yet to see a faulty cable cause a drive to think it's got bad sectors. They're usually the result of physical damage on the drive platter. RMA time it seems. If you can get an advance RMA, Maxtor will send you a drive first. That way, you can copy all data off of the original, if it's still accessible, and then send it back. They want a credit card number though for that, as collateral, otherwise you send your drive first, then they send a replacement.

 

[Gerbil333]

Originally posted by: SrGuapo
memtest will just spit out errors. I would let it run for quite a while (at least 50 passes of each test) and if there is a problem with the RAM, it will start spitting out errors.

50 passes?! I can only do one pass in about 45 minutes on this machine (2x1GB). That would take two days.

Most of the times I've tested bad RAM, errors have appeared within the first pass. I let it run for at least 3 hours new computers, or 12-24 if I notice a problem