Ken545 told me "You have options, one would be to restore your system back to factory defaults, this of course is after you back up all your important documents and pictures to either a CD or Thumb drive, the other option would be to do a system repair, what this does is installs windows on top of the current copy and any files and such that are corrupted will just be replaced, the 3rd would be to do a complete format and reinstall of windows, but I hate to see you go through all that work if your hard drive is failing, but maybe its not, I really dont know."
Can someone help me run some tests to check my hard drive health and general windows tests?
The first thing we need to do is run a hard drive diagnostic to see if it is failing. Each manufacturer has it's own diagnostic. See here:
Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
Bootable Hard Drive Diagnostics
The hard drive diagnostic is definitely a good test and something I would recommend under this circumstance. But, the errors don't actually indicate any physical problems on the hard drive. They just indicate file system corruption. The corruption could be caused from hard drive physical problems, but could be easily fixed with a CHKDSK.
However, there is a small possibility that even a CHKDSK will not fix the problems. I don't know what it is, but sometimes no matter what I try there is no fixing the file system corruption and certain areas of the drive remain corrupt and unreadable. The only resolution, after determining there are no physical problems, is to reformat and reinstall in this case.
Z - Do you have any hard drive surface scan instructions in the tech tips? I'd sure like to see an in-depth document to perform a thorough surface scan on a hard drive. I've been avoiding it because the tools I use are not free.
Sea Tools diagnostic can be used for all hard drives.
Hmmm, never noticed that before, nor have I ever tried SeaTools on other brands. I note Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostics utility does not make a similar claim. I also note WD's tool will identify the WD model and serial number - would SeaTools? I bet not.
I also note WD's Tech support will instantly honor a RMA request if you report a WD drive failed WD's diagnostics. Not sure they would with SeaTools.
So for me, I will use the diagnostics provided by the drive maker - at least when there is the possibility the drive may need replacing under warranty.
Here are the results of my scan, which seemed to be the most recently modified one from Western Digital
Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD2500AAJS-75B4A0
Unit Serial Number: WD-WCAT11510731
Firmware Number: 01.03A01
Capacity: 250.00 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 10:29:55, January 01, 2012
Since I have an internet connection on this PC, I didn't go through the boot-by-CD process listed in the 2nd link from Ztuker.
Sea Tools diagnostic can be used for all hard drives.
Hmmm, never noticed that before, nor have I ever tried SeaTools on other brands. I note Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostics utility does not make a similar claim. I also note WD's tool will identify the WD model and serial number - would SeaTools? I bet not.
That looks promising Paws. Thanks. I'll work with it a bit to see how it works and see if it is a suitable tool to use in the forum.
I've looked for something like this in the past. I'm not sure if I overlooked it, or if this is fairly new (within the last couple of years).
Looks like the hard drive test is fine.
Go to an elevated command prompt, and use the command CHKDSK /F and press [ENTER]. Go ahead and schedule the scan for your next restart then restart the computer. It likely may be all you need to fix some file system corrupt.
Elevated command prompt means to right-click it and select "Run as administrator". Command prompt is found in your programs listing under accessories.
I ran the CHKDSK /F as an administrator on a reboot. Then I ran OTL, since that's the program that originally signaled some disk errors. The problem is that the errors originally showed up in the "Extras.txt," but OTL did not create this text file as far as I can tell (it didn't pop up, and a C:drive search doesn't turn it up). Originally, this was the error that got the Malware helper concerned:
***Error - 12/16/2011 8:42:37 AM | Computer Name = Crystal-PC | Source = Ntfs | ID = 262199
***Description = The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume .
But obviously, I don't have an Extras.txt to see if this same error exists or not. Maybe no Extras.txt means that everything is fine?
The OTL.txt is below.
OTL logfile created on: 1/1/2012 12:23:28 PM - Run 2
OTL by OldTimer - Version 3.2.31.0 Folder = C:\Users\Crystal\Desktop
Windows Vista Home Basic Edition Service Pack 2 (Version = 6.0.6002) - Type = NTWorkstation
Internet Explorer (Version = 9.0.8112.16421)
Locale: 00000409 | Country: United States | Language: ENU | Date Format: M/d/yyyy
1.99 Gb Total Physical Memory | 0.74 Gb Available Physical Memory | 37.02% Memory free
4.22 Gb Paging File | 2.75 Gb Available in Paging File | 65.31% Paging File free
Paging file location(s): ?:\pagefile.sys [binary data]
%SystemDrive% = C: | %SystemRoot% = C:\Windows | %ProgramFiles% = C:\Program Files
Drive C: | 222.78 Gb Total Space | 128.01 Gb Free Space | 57.46% Space Free | Partition Type: NTFS
Drive D: | 10.00 Gb Total Space | 6.43 Gb Free Space | 64.33% Space Free | Partition Type: NTFS
Computer Name: CRYSTAL-PC | User Name: Crystal | Logged in as Administrator.
Boot Mode: Normal | Scan Mode: All users
Company Name Whitelist: Off | Skip Microsoft Files: Off | No Company Name Whitelist: On | File Age = 30 Days
@Lee - Seatools identifying Seagate (Maxtor and now Samsung) drives I assumed was a given. What I was questioning was whether or not Seatools would identify a non-Seagate drive like WD or Hitachi, by model and serial number too. I still bet not.
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