Has my HDD corrupted?

[sg1]

Advent Laptop
OS:Win7 32 bit
HDD:WD 320GB Sata
RAM:2GB DDRII

Hi again,

I've just been given a laptop to look at due to startup issues .
It was running fine after I reinstalled it a month ago until recently where it was running slow on startup apparently popping up errors(according to a friend) . Then when I tried it yesterday, it was taking a long time to start up to display Win7 logo where it would just sit there for ever and not get to password login screen.
So I tried booting into safe mode which also took ages to display the drivers which scroll up the screen at start and then (after 10 minutes)just sat there unfinished/unbooted.
Luckily I had backed up their files for them a few weeks back (due to a virus issue which I'd resolved with a fresh install) So I decided to do another fresh install which took AGES to do!! Everything from formatting the drive , waiting for the files to be unpacked, setting time/date etc all REALLY SLOW . I could obviously tell something was wrong as this was the slowest install I'd ever done!!
EVENTUALLY it restarted but again extremely slow when then password screen finally appeared and then slow again for Win7 to show desktop screen and slow to access start menu,my computer,all programs,control panel or any other location which should be INSTANT ACCESS after a fresh install.
I'll try a Linus LiveCD in morning and see how that runs but I'm expecting it to run fine from cd/dvd drive.
Do you think the HDD (Sata) Cache could be corrupted?(BIOS works fine so I'm pretty sure issue is HDD related)

atvb

sg1

 

[voyagerfan99]

Download the HDD manufacturer diagnostic tool and test the HDD. It does sound like it could be bad.

 

[sg1]

Right I downloaded the Diagnostic tool ISO, burnt it to disk and booted from it. I got this error :-
Causeway error 11 DOS reported an error or corrupt file found
A:\>

I may be wrong but doesn't A:\> normally point to a floppy drive?

I guess the HDD is MORE SCREWED than I first thought!!

atvb

sg1

 

[voyagerfan99]

Right I downloaded the Diagnostic tool ISO, burnt it to disk and booted from it. I got this error :-
Causeway error 11 DOS reported an error or corrupt file found
A:\>

I may be wrong but doesn't A:\> normally point to a floppy drive?

I guess the HDD is MORE SCREWED than I first thought!!

atvb

sg1

What speed did you burn the disc on? It may have burned with errors.

 

[sg1]

I burnt at 16x but the CD was not the problem!!

I put a secondhand SATA HDD in the machine and loaded Win7 in under 30mins.

I put the 'dodgy' HDD in a different laptop and tried to install Linux to it:-
It took AGES and eventually on first reboot-didn't load up !!

I guess that answers that then:good:

BTW , I offered to buy the laptop off them 'as is' for spares/repair and they agreed so I'm now now the owner of a FULLY functioning, mint condition ADVENT ROMA 2001
for a bargain price of £100.00

Thanks all for replies

Merry Christmas

atvb

sg1