My laptop's hard drive might be ready to crash...

Hello, a while ago, I got a message when i first started up my computer - SMart hard drive error - and told me that my hard drive is very unstable and to back up all my drives… I did some reserch and I know this messege is just a warming to be prepared for a hard drive crash… Well…. Its been almost 2 months now and still no crash… SO i guess its not as bad as I thought… I would still ilke to know what is wrong so I can fix it before it crashes. I want to know if there is any software out there that i can attempt to fix my computer with… or If i should just take it in and get it looked at or even replacing my hard drive. ALl i know is that when i start my computer, it does not boot as fast as it should and programs tend to be crashing all the time or freezing up. Its getting annyoing. So you have any ideas i would greatly be thankful thanks!!!!

Hi drnelson, sorry to hear of the problem with your hard drive…if you are getting the SMART warning about imminent hard drive failure with the advice to back up everything on your machine….then it's best to heed the warning…… and do it now…. as it may not boot at all shortly.

It generally means exactly what it says….. your hard drive is showing the signs of its imminent demise…. sometimes they can go on for a while but its failure is only a matter of time….. the symptoms you describe are fairly normal with this sort of problem.

As long as you have a bootable CD and a good disc image, kept safe on removable media, made when all was running well with your machine then you can install your new hard drive and reimage it ,generally in less time than it takes to walk the dog!

However if by any chance you haven't made a disc image when things were running well, its probably too late to take a disc image now as there are likely to be too many errors.

There is little point in trying to repair the hard drive, once they start to fail, replacement is the answer.

Fortunately hard drives are very inexpensive now, and simple to fit, hopefully you will have a good disc image, but if you don't then here's a checklist of things to do:

1 Install the new hard drive after removing old one ( remember to take all personal safety and ESD precautions)
2 Install Windows using the correct Microsoft Windows Installation disc and product serial key
3 Load all required drivers for chipset, video, audio, and most important your network adapters
4 Configure Windows for your personal settings, ( Email, Internet etc) but do not Activate it or connect to the Internet yet
5 Install your antivirus/antispyware products
5 Install or configure your firewall
6 Once these steps have completed you can set Windows Auto updates to "on" and connect to the Internet, but only for the purpose of downloading and installing Windows Service Packs and updates
Note there will be lots of updates to install (for example with XP you can expect well over 100 and these will take 3 or 4 hours to complete, and you may need to reboot your computer several times.
7 You can now install your favourite applications, Microsoft Office perhaps and your image manipulation applications, Java, Flash, a .PDF reader etc.
8 When these have been done run Microsoft update again to ensure you are as protected as possible.
9 You can now start to copy over all the stuff you backed up from your old hard drive, documents, photos, music, spreadsheets, your Phd thesis or whatever. ( you will be thankful that you had everything important to you safely backed up…) as otherwise you could be in dire straits…..
10 Once you are happy that everything is running well then its time to Activate Windows (you can usually do this online) and then the next important job it to take that first very important disc image, using either, products like Ghost, Paragon, Acronis etc or one of the free disc imaging applications that are available online or the native versions that are in some versions of Windows (Win 7 and some versions of Vista) if you have XP then there is no native support and you will need to use one of the disc imaging applications referrred to above.
11 Don't forget to make sure you have a bootable CD ( for use in the event that sometime in the future Windows will not start) and that you have an extra copy of your disc image kept safe, offsite on removable media and that you have verified it.
12 If your computer came with manufacturers System and driver discs capable of use on a new hard drive then these can lessen the time needed to complete this.
Regards and good luck
paws