Just in case the symptoms you describe are the precursors of an imminent failure of your hard drive, please check that your back ups have all worked correctly and that everything that is important to you on your computer is safely backed up to removable media and with at least one extra copy kept safe offsite, together with a means of accessing it ( boot disc etc)
Please also check that the 25 character alpha numeric Windows product serial number on the Certificate of Authenticity ( COA) is legible and that you have all your installation discs including for Microsoft Windows Vista, and all your applications (Microsoft Word, Your anti virus product, image/photo application etc etc.,) handy.
It is by no means certain that your hard drive is failing…. but it is a possibility and we do not wish to make recommendations to you for testing it until you are happy that everything that is important to you on your machine has been safely copied to removable media.( some of the tests we will likely recommend to you will stress the hard drive a little and if it is failing then it could accelerate the failure and it might well take all your data with it…).
Post back when you have checked and then double checked that your back ups are 100% and you are completely happy that they contain everything you need and are easily reproducible, and we will then advise the next steps.
Regards
paws
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