Harddrive Question?

[SIRCOOKS]

my main drive i think is crashing, i always get the message that windows explorer has encountered a problem, and needs to restart , so i just ctrl alt del, and everything will disappear, and after 2 seconds everything will come back, shouldi buy a new drive and put it as my main drive, or what else can i do to see whatelse can be done?

[DoG]

What makes you think it's the drive thats going faulty? Is it clicking or making a lot of noise?

Try running checkdisk and scan the drive for errors, here's a list of checkdisk commands and switches.

Code:

CHKDSK [volume[[path]filename]]] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L[:size]]


  volume          Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
                  mount point, or volume name.
  filename        FAT/FAT32 only: Specifies the files to check for fragmentation
.
  /F              Fixes errors on the disk.
  /V              On FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path and name of every file
                  on the disk.
                  On NTFS: Displays cleanup messages if any.
  /R              Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information
                  (implies /F).
  /L:size         NTFS only:  Changes the log file size to the specified number
                  of kilobytes.  If size is not specified, displays current
                  size.
  /X              Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.
                  All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid
                  (implies /F).
  /I              NTFS only: Performs a less vigorous check of index entries.
  /C              NTFS only: Skips checking of cycles within the folder
                  structure.

The /I or /C switch reduces the amount of time required to run Chkdsk by
skipping certain checks of the volume.

[Tomboy]

@SIRCOOKS,

I agree with DOG. If the HD is not making strange noises, the problem is likely software, not hardware. I recently had a HD go bad and the first symptoms were occassional BSDs after a period of intense disk activity (it was overheating). Shortly thereafter, I noticed that the drive was making a louder than normal spinning sound. Eventually, the drive failed to spinup on power-on. Recognizing the signs of impending death, I had already backed up all of my programs and data. After swapping out drives, I restored from a backup image and was back in business in about 30 minutes. The moral? Have a current backup of your stuff to avoid a lot of aggrevation and worry.

If you have some corrupted files, you can do a repair installation (assuming you have XP) and your problems should be solved.

Tomboy

[belthazor]

Quote:

Have a current backup of your stuff to avoid a lot of aggrevation and worry.

But wasn't it the great BearCat who once said, "Real men don't backup."?



But seriously, losing everything is no picnic. Keep an updated backup.

[rikytik]

Ultimate irony. Carmen's "back" was up as I tuned in to your response Belthazor.

yeah backups are primordial. I keep an image of c:\ and a redundant copy of my archives and data files on a big hd. I guess the copy could be an image, but it's on an external usb drive which is nice becaue it can be moved anywhere.

[belthazor]

Quote:

Ultimate irony. Carmen's "back" was up as I tuned in to your response Belthazor.

Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout rikytik.

[BearCat]

Quote:

Originally posted by belthazor@Sep 25 2004, 09:19 PM
But wasn't it the great BearCat who once said, "Real men don't backup."?

Thats correct, I said that but you forgot the last part :

"BUT, we do cry a lot !" ops:" class="inlineimg" />
If your system supports S.M.A.R.T. you should install a S.M.A.R.T. monitoring program,
as it can save you a lot of tears

[SIRCOOKS]

whats a good program for monitoring s.m.a.r.t i should use