Lomandriel

Hi, it's my first time here So just thought i'd say hello to start things off. I have to apologise firstly becuase im quite a long winded person when it comes to details, so i have to thank anyone and everyone in advance for reading (most likely) my extremely long,detailed, and over-repeating post

Firstly i'll just post the basic stats of my computer that i saved to a notepad sometime ago since i'm pretty sure that some people might need the details:


Amd Athlon 2500+ Barton 333 FSB
120 GB Western Digital 7200RPM 8MB S-ATA
512 mb PC-3200 DDR Hyundai
Abit NF7S V2.0 Mainboard
GEFORCE FX5700 256MB TV @ DVI Graphics
AOPEN DVD/CDRW Combo 52 x 32 x 52 x 16 BLACK
1.44 mb FLOPPY DRIVE BEIGE
Antec SOnata 380W TruePower PSU CASE
Microsoft M-MEDIA Internet Keyboard OEM
Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical USB-PS/2
Mitsubishi 1996FDB2 19"FLat Black CRT


ADD ONS since purchase:

320 GB western digital 7200RPM 8mb SATA2(22/12/06) - $155 , Model WD CAVIAR SE: WD3200JS possibly

Samsung 16x Dual Layer Black DVD+/-RW (30/08/2006) - $70


The ADD ONS are like it says, since purchase. Everything above that came with the computer when we bought the parts and got it assembled, so yeap nothing been replaced in those original parts. I think we go tthis around mid yr 2004 would be a good estimate, and the notepad file containing all this is august 2004, so it was deifnitely before then. If its that important i coudl chase up the receipt/invoice for the proper date..

Anyways continuing, basically i'm just wondering if I need to replace the original Hard drive that I got for the comp: in other words the 120 GB hard drive. I think it'd be good to clarify my hard drive /partition arrangements before i go on, and things get confusing.

From above i have a 120 gb hard drive, and 320 gb(the new add in). The 120 gb im pretty sure is a WD1200JD and the other is a WD3200JS.

Partition wise:

WD1200JD:

-C drive(windows and core system files) i think its around 8gb big last i remember
-D Drive (remaining space on hard drive, store all personal stuff, mp3s, etc etc)

WD3200JS:

-F drive: it says about 34.1 gb big in explorer, i forgot the real figure eg: 40/320 gb that was meant to be partitioned, and since you don't get the real full 320gb capacity when you use the drive, im not too sure what it was originally meant ot be allocated as. This was originally a partition to put windows on, was going to move it to this bigger partition, in end left it on C drive and this partition has been left here for future use? Just incase i guess?

-I drive: The remained of the 320gb , serving as most of my dl's for series, anime etc. Recently being filled with backups of D drive and more programs as i doubt(as i will explain) the consistency of my 120 gb drive...

Anyway still with me? *sigh* i know im prettty longwinded, and its nearlly 4am so i'll try to be as short as i can, please know that im not trying to annoy you with a long ass post! Sorry once again!

Anyway the big question is whether i need to replace my 120 gb, WD1200JD. My reasoning is this:

Towards the end of last yr, the last few months, i started to get the yellow icon with the exclamation mark ! in the system tray saying: the file or directory <insert file path> is corrupt and unreadable. Please run chkdsk utility. At first i ignored this, started getting a few more of this. Running chkdsk came up with alot of crap that i didnt bother to pay attention to, and i dont know if checkdisk saves a txt log file you can view in windows, if so where do i find this? Anyway basically that continued , until one day i just couldn't boot up... i cant remember why/what, as it was end of last yr, but basically i miraculously ran the windows recovery/dos thing, and got checkdisk to run. When that fixed things up i managed to boot up. After doing that i basically just thought it was too close for comfort(as i hadn't, and still mostly havent backed up data) . Anyway after backing up the main things like photos, personal files i reformatted the comp. When i say reformatted i mean like just the C drive partition, i never wiped the D drive files. I cannot also remember if i had the second drive , but most likely i did by then. Anyway had some problems with dodge windows cds stopping partways through installation, finally got a friends and that worked like a breeze. Everything started back up, looked peaceful, was pretty much crying at the loss of some things i coudlnt save eg: msn emoticons etc, coudlnt figure out how you backup custom emoticons.. but yeah , all was well i guess. (edit: this was probably in january)

But then a short while later(not sure if it was a week or two, days? who knows) i again got the yellow exclamation icons in the system tray popping up, with the "xxx is corruptable , run chk dsk etc". I got that a few times, even once when i ran spybot s@d to see if i caught a nasty, as soon as i did that i even got the c: appdata/spybot.exe etc was corrupt as well, but yeap it still ran/scanned and nothing came up. Anyway fast forward to now a few months down the track, where along the way nothign much eventful came up. Minus the fact that running checkdisk occasionally (having selected both the options in windows explorer when you initialise checkdisk) came up with alot of sus looking crap.. I mean things like how "xxx name was invalid" and how it would delete files, recover orphan files. As time came closer to now i also saw a pattern in consistency of Index $I30 files being on the chkdsk reporting page quite some bit.

Anyway about a week or so ago i was shuffling anime series to and from D drive to the drive I on the new hard drive in order to defrag(to get the 15% minimum free space they recommend). Anyway did that, moved things back.. and probably a few days ago i noticed that one series was unplayable. i backed the series up to disc and when that wouldnt play, inspecting the hard drive copy on d gave me basically a whole series of 12 episodes that jsut wouldnt play. those that did if you fast fowarded even abit it woudl basically screw up. Take in mind clicking these 3-4 weeks ago they woulda worked likea breeze. Anyway i assume this is what happens when files get corrupted?

Now a sub q here: is my hdd at fault? is it dying/corrupting like some people call it? and if so why would only one series/folder go dead? i mean other anime on the D drive so far seemed alright? or was defrag at fault? did it screw up my data rearranging?


about a few days ago i decided to turn on guest account (whereas previously the comp just booted straight into the desktop ready to use), as i wanted to try out an admin/guest account formation, wanted to see if this could help block oout some unauthorized file sharing of my folders that was happening around the house switching between users was fine, didnt shut down comp for a day or two. the time i did shut down, and came home later in evening windows wouldnt boot after the loading bar thing when you turn on the comp. Repairing it by reinstallation of core system files got me stuck in the first phase, the installing devices or wateva? as usual this led to just a wiping of c drive partition, and a reinstallation of windows.

Again there was peace, except now only a day or two it continued, more ! exclamation icons similar to the icon used next to the title of this thread... I actually print screened these ones, but i wont paste them unless asked, rather ill just type some of the files that were corrupted:

1) spybotSD.exe - Corrupt file:

the file or directory /WINDOWS/system32/wiavideo.dll is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the checkdisk utility.

2)Windows - corrupt file :

the file or directory : C:\Documents and settings\Warren\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\B969ACS1 is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the checkdisk utility.

The 2) one has been popping up quite a few times when i open an IE browser, even wmp once(have no idea how wmp is related O_O ).

It might be worth mentioning that a non-user authorised checkdisk just got scheduled for d drive just before this latest format , and ive been cancelling the check as no one coudl answer me if that anime series that became unreadable was due to checkdisk deleting and corrupting the files when it rebuilt them, or if its just the hard drive itself dying/defragment killed them. But after the format and more of these exclamation corruption icons, C drive suddenly became auto scheduled for consistency/check disk scan. Still i skip it as i dont want any files deleted/repaired until i find out the problem.

So yeap thats the lowdown of everything i can recall that seemed out of the ordinary, all this wouldnt have happened 1 yr ago, heck for 1.5 yrs to two yrs ive had this comp i never reinstalled windows once. in the past few months, god i think i could write out every word in the installation process.

Sorry for the long ass post, i know the timeline of events is pretty much .. well pretty shit looking ahha (excuse the language if words like taht are censored on this web board, im new =( ), but yeah could you help me?

Is my 120 gb hard drive dying? Is it safe to go out and buy a replacement? I mean if its something else causing these problems i dont want ot waste the money.

Oh and one reason i havent gone and bought one, was i ran the Western digital life guard diagnostics, 5.04c in dos, quick test and extended test had NO errors, code 000 or whatever. THe windows version of extended test ALSO came up with 0 errors. Running memtest86 for about 4-5 complete passes came up with no errors(like usual). So yeap i assume memorys clean.

So all these things happening on screen point to the hard drive, but when the data lifeguard tools are coming up as a-ok im just confused. I ran hot cpu tester pro program thing(im the freeware version) and all the modules passed ... ill paste the logfile.


Hot CPU Tester Pro(Lite Edition) 4.3
Copyright © 1999-2003 7Byte Computers
Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 23:48:23
Diagnostic Report
---------------------------------------------
Test Started at: 20:25:53
Test Duration: 03:21:38
Physical Processors Available: 1
Logical Processors Available: 1
Multi-Processors System(SMP): Not Available
Hyper-Threading Technology: Not Available
CPU Name String: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2500+
Speed: 1829MHz
Logical Processors Tested: CPU 0
Average CPU(s) Performance: 100.0%

Modules Results:
Complex Matrix: Finished without error
Calculating Pi: Finished without error
Sorting Algorithms: Finished without error
Prime Test: Finished without error
Fast Fourier Transforms:
Chipset:
L1 Cache:
L2 Cache:
Memory: Finished without error
HD: Finished without error
MMX: Finished without error
SSE:
SSE2/SSE3:
3DNow!:


The diagnostics are telling me its all good. But windows/these corrupt messages arent! checkdisk looks like every file/index $I30 is getting smacked around -_-" , and i noticed anotehr series on d drive theres no sound ? visuals a-ok but the sounds disappeared? i checked the backup copy on I drive on the new hdd, it has sound. More corruption?

So yeap, what am i dealing with? A dying/dead hdd? some other problem? a corrupted windows installation(someone told me a rumour of how a bad windows cd could installa corrupted windows? i doubt i could be this unlucky after trying so many windows cds.. but??).

again i apologise for the thread length. I tried to spill out every detail i could remember within the respective/concerned timeframe. Any help is extremely appreciated, sorry for the length!

p.s ive been using the comp for quite sometime, more of a user than a technically knowledgeable person, i know the bare bones of the trade, but some things beyond that i have no idea, so please explain anything technical! cheers

computermaineack

Wow...quite a long post.

This does sound pretty strange, although it does sound like something is going on with your harddrive. First thing you can do is download a program called HDTune, and run an error scan.

Of course, it couldn't hurt to buy a new harddrive just for safety, they're pretty cheap now... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...SATA%203.0Gb/s

__________________
"Former Clinton advisor Dick Morris said, "Hillary Clinton will be the next President, but she'll be the worst President we've ever seen." After hearing this, President Bush said, "Wait a minute, I'm not finished yet.""
-Conan O'Brien

CPU: Q6600 G0 Mobo: eVGA 680i NF67-A1 Case: Antec P180B GPU: eVGA 8800GTS G92 512mb HSF: Tuniq Tower 120 RAM: 4gb DDR2-800 Corsair XMS2 4-4-4-12 PSU: Antec True Power Trio 550w

Lomandriel

yeah apologies once again about the length haha. didnt know what details would ring alarm bells so i thought i'd report whatever i could remember/standed out as suspicious.

anyway i ran the hd tune, not too sur eif i did it right but im assuming its only an install, and hit start button sort of program so i didn't touch any settings. anyway i'm not too sure the limit on images in posts here on this web board, so i'll post the screenshots of my hd tune for : benchmark, the health tab, as well as the error scan tab. I'll paste the text version of the info tab just to save image space here

anyway the 45/46 celcius temperatures, were quite high? when i saw the image on the website for other pplz results, the same hdd was about 29 celcius or was it 26?

apart from that im lost, the test results seem good? minus the benchmark with some low speeds once in awhile? dont know if thats right? so what exactly is wrong O_o






HD Tune: WDC WD1200JD-00GBB0 Information

Firmware version : 02.05D02
Serial number : WD-WMAES2232937
Capacity : 111.8 GB (~120.0 GB)
Buffer size : 8192 KB
Standard : ATA/ATAPI-6 - SATA I
Supported mode : UDMA Mode 5 (Ultra ATA/100)
Current mode : UDMA Mode 6 (Ultra ATA/133)

S.M.A.R.T : yes
48-bit Address : yes
Read Look-Ahead : yes
Write Cache : yes
Host Protected Area : yes
Device Configuration Overlay : yes
Automatic Acoustic Management: yes
Power Management : yes
Advanced Power Management : no
Power-up in Standby : yes
Security Mode : yes
Firmware Upgradable : yes

Partition : 1
Drive letter : C:\
Label :
Capacity : 8001 MB
Usage : 47.93%
Type : NTFS
Bootable : Yes

Partition : 2
Drive letter : D:\
Label : Local Disk
Capacity : 106469 MB
Usage : 89.67%
Type : NTFS
Bootable : No

computermaineack

45/46ºC is a little high, but still fine. Benchmark was fine, and the error test didn't report and bad sectors, so thats good, and the harddrive isn't reporting any errors...

If you have enough space on your 320gb drive, back up both of your partitions onto it and try a full format, and reinstall Windows.

__________________
"Former Clinton advisor Dick Morris said, "Hillary Clinton will be the next President, but she'll be the worst President we've ever seen." After hearing this, President Bush said, "Wait a minute, I'm not finished yet.""
-Conan O'Brien

CPU: Q6600 G0 Mobo: eVGA 680i NF67-A1 Case: Antec P180B GPU: eVGA 8800GTS G92 512mb HSF: Tuniq Tower 120 RAM: 4gb DDR2-800 Corsair XMS2 4-4-4-12 PSU: Antec True Power Trio 550w

Lomandriel

when you mean a full format how would i go about wiping the whole drive? atm i was deleting the c drive partition and re-formatting it inside the windows installation in dos.

Theres a utility on the Data life guard tools to write zeroes to the drive. i've never been able to google what this really means. is this equivalent to wiping everything on the hard drive on a data level, resetting it to the factory/what i would have had before i used it? or does this wipe out all the data on the hdd, eG: all the settings and key files that are put on it when you receive it? just didnt wanna use the function until i knew what it was..

something weird happened this morning. left the computer on download, and i woke up and the computer was dead silent, equivalent to being turned off. the only thing was that the little led light was still on as if the computer was still on as normal(minus all the usual sounds you'd hear: hdd spinning, fans, etc etc). i pressed the power-on button ont he case to turn it on but no response, turning on the monitor it seemed like there was no signal/what i'd usually get with the comp off and turning on the monitor. i had to flip the switch on the back for a split second, before i could press the power button and get a response. and once i did that you could hear a considerable change, in that you could hear all the hardware turning on: hdd etc, fans.

so what happened while i was asleep? why did i wake up with the comp seemingly turned off, minus the fact that the led light still stuck on to say that the comp was still active O_O

computermaineack

When I say full format, I mean erase all partitions, and format the drive, and repartition it. You might be able to achieve this by right click on My Computer > Mange, then clicking "Disk Management", but since I've never dealt firsthand with partitioned drives, I can't help you much there. I'm sure there's something in Disk Management that'll do what you need, just look around a little.

The setting that writes zeroes to the drive is a way of ensuring that your data can't be recovered. Basically, when a file is "deleted" off the harddrive, it remains physically on the harddrive, but Windows' link to it is broken, and is hence not recoverable from Windows (unless you use 3rd party software). The data that you deleted will remain there, until overwritten. This is where the writing zeroes comes into play- when it formats the drive, it will also write 0000000000, etc, over all the data, to make it harder to recover what is written under it. There is also a way to write over individual files you delete through the use of third party software. When I delete, lets say "sensitive" files, I use a minimum 3 passes, at most 35 passes. What this means is that the program will write over the data that I am deleting 3 times (or 35, if I am using 35 passes). The DoD (Department of Defence) here in the US uses a standard of 7 passes.

Lastly, I don't know why your computer shut off. It's pretty perplexing...maybe the motherboards overheat protection feature kicked in? It may have something to do with the harddrive...keep an eye out for it happening again.

__________________
"Former Clinton advisor Dick Morris said, "Hillary Clinton will be the next President, but she'll be the worst President we've ever seen." After hearing this, President Bush said, "Wait a minute, I'm not finished yet.""
-Conan O'Brien

CPU: Q6600 G0 Mobo: eVGA 680i NF67-A1 Case: Antec P180B GPU: eVGA 8800GTS G92 512mb HSF: Tuniq Tower 120 RAM: 4gb DDR2-800 Corsair XMS2 4-4-4-12 PSU: Antec True Power Trio 550w

JlCollins005

or use the xp cd

__________________
My Pc
Pentium E2160 1.8 ghz (never been oc'd)
80 GB Sata 3.0gb HDD
Pioneer 20x DL DVD Burner
Samsung DVD-Rom
Gigabyte 7300 Gs 256mb Video
Patriot 1Gb (2x512) Dual Channel DDR2 667 Ram w/ Heat Spreaders
Rosewill RCX-Z775-LX 92mm Ball CPU Cooler Works Great
MSI 945GCM5-F Motherboard

Lomandriel

Well i know for a fact taht you cant format the C drive under disk management since it has the system files on it. So im assuming the partition can't be broken down either. Under the windows installation process where you can partition and format would deleting the partition, and recreating it and then formatting as i install windows be the equivalent? the only problem is that if i partition the hard drive and re-install windows on say C drive again it will onyl ask me to format c drive for the system, so i would have to format the d drive whilst under disk management, correct?

as i dont have any confidential information that would be bad if it was recovered, do i need to write zeroes to the drive? is that better to get rid of any problems i might have with data wise for starting on a fresh new start? or is a format enough since recovery of the deleted data isn't a worry for me.

also as a side question, is their any programs/freeware i can download to check other things namely: graphics card and motherboard, as i've really been lost as to checking those for errors :S

computermaineack

I'm sure there's a way to format the entire drive through disk management...see the link at the end of this paragraph, that should do the trick. Then, once it's all formatted, repartition the drive when reinstalling windows, and restore the files you have backed up to the desired partitions. Here are some instructions that might help you in deleting the partitions and formatting the drive...start at step 4: http://www.ehow.com/how_6026_format-hard-drive.html

If you don't have any sensitive data on your harddrive, there's really no need to write zeroes over the data.

Everest Home Edition is a pretty good program for checking what parts you have in your computer, download here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

__________________
"Former Clinton advisor Dick Morris said, "Hillary Clinton will be the next President, but she'll be the worst President we've ever seen." After hearing this, President Bush said, "Wait a minute, I'm not finished yet.""
-Conan O'Brien

CPU: Q6600 G0 Mobo: eVGA 680i NF67-A1 Case: Antec P180B GPU: eVGA 8800GTS G92 512mb HSF: Tuniq Tower 120 RAM: 4gb DDR2-800 Corsair XMS2 4-4-4-12 PSU: Antec True Power Trio 550w

Lomandriel

Alright i'll try the everest, see if it can diagnose the mobo, graphics card etc, hopefully find a problem. otherwise im really puzzled what's going on with regards to my data screwing up and corrupting/getting all muddled up :S

I'll give it a go the format of the whole drive followed by a re-partition/reinstallation, hope that that solves the problem. Thanks for the help , hopefully all will go well and i wont have to repost here O_o