Edited by Bryan A, 08 January 2013 - 04:43 PM.
Bad disk errors and constant shut downs
#1
Posted 08 January 2013 - 11:29 AM
Register to Remove
#2
Posted 08 January 2013 - 06:32 PM
Braindead
#3
Posted 09 January 2013 - 12:07 AM
#4
Posted 09 January 2013 - 04:07 AM
The output from your screen dump of the Crystal disk info indicates that you have a Seagate hard drive fitted to your laptop and my data sheets indicate it's probably a
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3750528AS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive
If this is the correct manufacturer then you can go here:
http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
and download the Seagate disc checking and repair utility, burn it to CD (it must be bootable) and run first the short test and if it passes then run the long test (you can skip the accoustic test)
This will provide extra information for us to help you
Warning
please do not run these tests until you have followed the advice of 8210GUY and backed up all your data files and imaged the recovery partition at least of your hard drive.... if you can, then image the whole of the drive.
As to back up media and its suitability the advice we provide to our customers is to back up all important stuff on your computer daily,(dont keep all your back ups on the hard drive concerned as if it fails you will be in trouble) and we go further and say that if the stuff is important to you then you should have at least 3 back up copies of it, with at least one copy kept safe offsite on removable media
Remember a back up or image that has not been verified for accuracy, completeness, and reproducibility is not a reliable back up at all...
Checking disc integrity by use of this sort of software gives a good clue as to its condition however it can never be taken as conclusive...or indicative as to the future situation.... sooner or later all hard drives will fail at some time.
Post back when you have done these steps and one of us will advise the way forward.
Regards
paws
#5
Posted 09 January 2013 - 06:39 AM
I don't know if it's just me, but when I click the links that the site you gave gives (if that makes sense lol), some of them don't work, they can't find the file\page they target.If this is the correct manufacturer then you can go here:
http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
But from the screenshot it is definitely a Seagate drive, Go Here, then input the following details; Serial Number: 6VP2C5XE and Model Number: ST3750528AS, complete the other parts and it will take you to the specific page for that drive, I also note they have a firmware upgrade for the drive, now I do NOT suggest doing that upgrade, not unless others think it would be beneficial, but I mention it as I had a Seagate drive once, and it was the one that had a flaw, and required the firmware updating before it became unusable. it was a big story all over the place, I didn't do mine in time, and they had to send it for recovery of my files (Finland I think it was), who then did the required upgrade and sent it back, it was all free as it was such a big flaw, but I have no idea if this could be something that makes a difference here.
And I am painfully aware of living off of disability myself, the good news is drives are not that expensive these days, and prices are falling nicely again after the floods caused a major shortage of them, where prices went through the roof for a while, but nearly all systems these days have DVD burners on them, and bulk packs of disks are not too expensive, probably $20 to $30 US, and that's for 50, so you could probably get a pack of 10 (assuming you don't have that much to store), to get an idea how much data you want to store, highlight file(s)\folder(s) that you want to save, then right click any highlighted file (if multiple files you only need click on one for this if the rest are highlighted as well) and select properties, it will then list the file size you want to save, repeat as needed and add the numbers together, then you can see how many disks you may need.
Then once you have some disks, follow This Guide to clone the system, then IF the drive does fail, you have what you need to get a new one working again, the other guys can guide far better than I can there, but it depends just what you need to clone, given all the probable corruption you have just cloning the recovery should be all you need, but out of interest click on Start - Computer, right click on the hard drive and see how much space is used\left on it, we can get a better idea of the amount of data you have to deal with.
Braindead
#6
Posted 10 January 2013 - 03:52 AM
#7
Posted 10 January 2013 - 06:55 AM
You didn't mention which utility you tried to run but failed, there are 2 available which do the same thing, one runs in windows like an installed program does, the other needs burning to a disk, then booting to that disk and run in DOS mode, this is the version paws suggested above, probably because it can't be influenced by any other processes that would be running in windows, the file you want to download is "SeaTools for DOS Diagnostic" which will download as an ISO file.
This file will need burning to a disk to use, if you have disk burning software it should be as simple as double clicking that ISO file and the software should jump up and burn it for you, just accept and follow any prompts it comes up with.
Should you not have such software installed I suggest getting and installing ImgBurn, it's free and very good, it is confusing to start doing specific types of burning, but that makes no difference here, simply double click the ISO file once the software is installed, and this will jump up and offer to burn it for you, just accept all it throws at you, be aware it will eject the disk when burnt, and will want you to insert the disk again (if on a laptop anyway, otherwise it auto does this), it checks the disk and confirms if it was a good burn, once done then this disk can then be booted to, and you can then scan the drive from it, hopefully this should work fine for you.
Braindead
#8
Posted 11 January 2013 - 04:52 PM
#9
Posted 11 January 2013 - 07:17 PM
Braindead
#10
Posted 12 January 2013 - 01:22 PM
#11
Posted 12 January 2013 - 02:43 PM
The question as to what files to copy, that is down to you in essence what you want to back up is EVERYTHING that you can't afford to lose, anything that can be put back on, or downloaded again after the new drive goes in are not worth worrying about really, especially when space is an issue, when I deal with mates systems who need stuff saving, I simply save their entire My Documents folder, and if the music pictures and video's are not inside the folder I save those folders as well, but only if they are not already inside the Doc's folder.
How much of that you can do is purely how much space you have, a quick way to get an idea of size is to right click on your My Doc's and select properties, it will then tell you the size of the contents, then you can compare that to what you have.
There are a couple of things that can be done to increase space, first pictures, if you have lots of these, sign up to an image hosting site, such as Photobucket, it's free, then upload all your pic's there, and assuming you don't want these visible you can select to make the album(s) private, this can be used to store any pic's, video as well, and could save you a lot of space depending how much you have, then you only need to worry about music and documents, or anything else that has to be saved like favourite's, the other possible way to go is to compress the files before backing them up, 7-Zip is free, easy to use, and effective most of the time, on rare occasion's it can't reduce the file size, but it could be a great help if needed.
As to drives, there are probably 2 that most will suggest, Seagate, and WD (Western Digital), my preference is WD, but depending who you ask they will have their favourite, but most would agree these are what most would look to, but as a thought, I completely understand about money, I'm in the same boat, but as a thought, you could get 2 drives, to start with get a 200gig or so drive, install to that, you will then have a stable system again, and maybe enough space for the rest at this time, but my reason for this thought, is the smaller drives are cheaper, so you would be able to afford that well before you could afford the one your thinking of, then you could get a 1TB later when money is more available.
This also has another advantage, if your forced to reinstall, you don't have to mess around with saving files, as long as you save all files to the larger drive when you get it, you will find it a great help, the other reason is the OS drive is the most vulnerable, so infections, or any other OS drive issue serious enough to cause data loss, your main files will be on the other drive, this does not mean the other drive can't be hit the same way, but it's the OS drive that is the most likely problem area.
And don't forget, you can burn files to disk as well, if you want help with that just say, but if you let us know what size is shown under the method above, it will help get a better idea of what's the best way to go for you.
Braindead
#12
Posted 13 January 2013 - 03:57 AM
8210GUy has asked me to drop by and comment on backing up your Recovery Partition and making a System Image if you can.
I understand that you have make a Recovery disc ion your Win7 computer, but I'm not clear if you made a System Image....
If you want a tutorial on either of these two then take a look here:
http://www.howtogeek...c-in-windows-7/
There are links in the above that will take you to a step by step on how to make a System Image if you haven't made one yet.
From what has been said it may be that your hard drive is dying....
One thing we can be sure of is that all hard drives, die, sooner or later, so that's why the back ups and system Images and Recovery discs are so widely recommended.
It is recommended that you do all you can to create the DVD's for a Repair disc and a System Image whilst your hard drive is still working...... do it all at the one hit if you can, don't turn off your machine til its finished... the number of bootups that your hard drive may survive is difficult to estimate but it could be several or more, or it could be none!
Once you have secured your position with burning your DVD's then we must consider the next steps.... if it is going to be a while before you can get yourself a new hard drive and reinstall everything from the DVD's you made then you could decide to give your hard drive and Windows a rest and continue to use your machine free of charge by running it from a live distribution of Linux.
Take a look here:
http://puppylinux.or.....g Started.htm
Puppy will run entirely within RAM and will not read or write anything to your hard drive (unless you tell it to...) in fact the hard drive does not even need to be present in your machine... Puppy will run quite happily in RAM and of course its free....
It will allow you to use the Internet send/receive email etc and open photos and create documents etc that you can save to a memory stick if you want.
Its a fully fledged operating system but its not Windows, so does things a little differently , but its easy to pick up...just remember one click not a double click to open things, and if you usually use a wireless connection for your Internet, plug in an Ethernet cable before you boot into Linux so Puppy will be able to install the right drivers for you, so it will all work correctly.
When you download the Puppy it will come as an .iso file and you will need to burn this to CD (its only a tad over 100Mb in size) BUT YOU MUST burn it as an "image" a copy just won't do.... use ImgBurn and it makes it simple
available free from here:
http://www.imgburn.com/
Hope this all makes some sort of sense, but as always if you have any questions... just ask.... and one of us will do our best to help
.Regards
paws
Edited by paws, 14 January 2013 - 02:54 AM.
typo
#13
Posted 13 January 2013 - 08:08 AM
Braindead
#14
Posted 20 January 2013 - 01:28 PM
#15
Posted 20 January 2013 - 02:35 PM
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