Computer Crash

monkeyboy · 01-07-02, 08:05 PM

Win 98, AMD 450, 128meg RAM

i came home today to a crashed computer. after rebooting, scandisk ran to 13% percent and froze saying something about an unfixable error. i popped the startup disk in and went to reformat, no big deal, it was time to clean house anyway. upon doing the usual commands, it went to 3% complete then an error came up saying that there was insufficient memory to complete the operation. i rebooted and put my system resource cd-rom in the drive. a blue screen came up saying that it was restoring system files, then it stopped, saying something about the drive not being partitioned, or something like that.

so i rebooted to try to do a repartition/reformat through dos and when i entered the fdisk command, i got an error saying that there was no fixed drive available.

throughout all this i noticed that the hard drive seemed to be making some weird buzzing noises and some loud clicks occasionally.

so i did what anyone would do. i pulled out the hard drive and smacked it in frustration. i put it back in and rebooted and bypassed scandisk. it booted up to windows, but to a previous configuration from my last backup, no big deal. i just went and backed up all recent data since my last backup and now want to do a new format. before i do that though i just wanted to bounce this problem off you guys to see if maybe i just have a bad hard drive or something. the noises are pretty strange. i may not be able to get back into windows once i shut down again.

also, one thing i haven't backed up yet are all my bookmarks and preferences in internet explorer, i can't seem to find my profile in the Internet Explorer folder in program files. anyone know where IE keeps this stuff?

belboz · 01-07-02, 08:42 PM

Yeah, it sounds like your drive is failing. If you go to the drive manufacturer's web site, they should have some downloadable diagnostic utilities that'll tell you for sure. You may want to try a low level format to see if that fixes things, but personally, I like to RMA them.

As for the bookmarks, IIRC they're in the Windows directory in a favorites folder. It's been a while since I've touched Win9x, so I may be way off with that.

Scarecrow · 01-07-02, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by belboz

As for the bookmarks, IIRC they're in the Windows directory in a favorites folder. It's been a while since I've touched Win9x, so I may be way off with that.

Yep, that's where you'll find them.

monkeyboy · 01-08-02, 01:57 PM

thanks, i got them backed up now. i ran some diagnostics on the drive from the western digital site, it brought up a general error code and told me to run some more diagnostics. i think maybe i'll just go ahead and buy a bigger drive. this one was only 6 gigs.

in all my computer years, i've never actually installed a new hard drive before. is it as easy as unplugging the old one, plugging in the new, setting the same jumper settings and booting up with my startup disc to partition and format?

any recomendations on the best brands of HD's?

Dave99 · 01-08-02, 02:12 PM

You just missed a deal from dell for a 60 gig drive. Maxtor seems to get pretty good marks from people here, I have 2 of them now, and a 3rd on the way. Seems like western digital typically gets the low marks for reliability, although they seem to make it easy to get it replaced if it does break. You might want to check anandtech in their hotdeals area, there seems to always be a good deal going for a new drive.

Dave

Quote:

Originally posted by monkeyboy
thanks, i got them backed up now. i ran some diagnostics on the drive from the western digital site, it brought up a general error code and told me to run some more diagnostics. i think maybe i'll just go ahead and buy a bigger drive. this one was only 6 gigs.

in all my computer years, i've never actually installed a new hard drive before. is it as easy as unplugging the old one, plugging in the new, setting the same jumper settings and booting up with my startup disc to partition and format?

any recomendations on the best brands of HD's?

01-07-02, 08:05 PM	#1
monkeyboy DVD Talk Ultimate Edition Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: looking for mangos in the jungle Posts: 4,065	Computer Crash Win 98, AMD 450, 128meg RAM i came home today to a crashed computer. after rebooting, scandisk ran to 13% percent and froze saying something about an unfixable error. i popped the startup disk in and went to reformat, no big deal, it was time to clean house anyway. upon doing the usual commands, it went to 3% complete then an error came up saying that there was insufficient memory to complete the operation. i rebooted and put my system resource cd-rom in the drive. a blue screen came up saying that it was restoring system files, then it stopped, saying something about the drive not being partitioned, or something like that. so i rebooted to try to do a repartition/reformat through dos and when i entered the fdisk command, i got an error saying that there was no fixed drive available. throughout all this i noticed that the hard drive seemed to be making some weird buzzing noises and some loud clicks occasionally. so i did what anyone would do. i pulled out the hard drive and smacked it in frustration. i put it back in and rebooted and bypassed scandisk. it booted up to windows, but to a previous configuration from my last backup, no big deal. i just went and backed up all recent data since my last backup and now want to do a new format. before i do that though i just wanted to bounce this problem off you guys to see if maybe i just have a bad hard drive or something. the noises are pretty strange. i may not be able to get back into windows once i shut down again. also, one thing i haven't backed up yet are all my bookmarks and preferences in internet explorer, i can't seem to find my profile in the Internet Explorer folder in program files. anyone know where IE keeps this stuff? __________________ you can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug; especially when it's holding a razor sharp hunting knife in your eye. Last edited by monkeyboy; 01-07-02 at 08:20 PM.

01-08-02, 01:57 PM	#4
monkeyboy DVD Talk Ultimate Edition Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: looking for mangos in the jungle Posts: 4,065	thanks, i got them backed up now. i ran some diagnostics on the drive from the western digital site, it brought up a general error code and told me to run some more diagnostics. i think maybe i'll just go ahead and buy a bigger drive. this one was only 6 gigs. in all my computer years, i've never actually installed a new hard drive before. is it as easy as unplugging the old one, plugging in the new, setting the same jumper settings and booting up with my startup disc to partition and format? any recomendations on the best brands of HD's? __________________ you can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug; especially when it's holding a razor sharp hunting knife in your eye. Last edited by monkeyboy; 01-08-02 at 02:05 PM.

01-07-02, 08:42 PM	#2
belboz DVD Talk Gold Edition Join Date: Feb 1999 Location: HB, CA Posts: 2,592	Yeah, it sounds like your drive is failing. If you go to the drive manufacturer's web site, they should have some downloadable diagnostic utilities that'll tell you for sure. You may want to try a low level format to see if that fixes things, but personally, I like to RMA them. As for the bookmarks, IIRC they're in the Windows directory in a favorites folder. It's been a while since I've touched Win9x, so I may be way off with that.