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HDD dying - disease - what?

16 years ago

A 2007 Gateway Notebook with XP Home.

Last night tried for a normal shut down. The computer stuck/froze in a "shutting down state"... after waiting several minutes I hit the physical power off button.

This morning the computer would not boot, it went through at least part of the BIOS as a screen came up, I could see a short hit on the HDD, and froze with a choice of F2) BIOS Settting, and F10) Boot Menu

Hitting F2 nothing happens, but F10 resulted in the menu displayed. I verified that the boot sequence was first CD. Then I did a physical power down, after inserting the Gateway XP Recovery disk. On power up the same result occurred. That is stuck in F2/F10 no boot from CD.

I let it set and was working on something else when I saw windows coming up... I am now using the subject computer. I did a backup and shut down, same problem, and the same steps resulting in getting XP loaded.

Any ideas? Could it be a dying HDD, or a virus? Other?

Thanks, I'd like to buy a new computer anyway - I'd go for a W7 and 64 bit as a basic requirement on a new machine. Still, I'd like to keep the Gateway running to give me time to look and shop for a new machine.

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Comments (5)

johnkr
16 years ago
Jerry, it sounds like the hard drive although I would not rule out some type of malware. I would transfer all your important files to a flash drive or other media while you can still can. After a backup, I would run a chkdsk on your drive. I've seen chkdsk fix all kinds of problems.

To run chkdsk open My Computer and right-click drive C. Select Properties,click the Tools tab and click Check Now. The process will require a reboot.

I hope it helps.
jerry_nj
Original Author
16 years ago
John,

I recall making a post a couple of hours ago, but i don't see it here now. Another problem with my notebook...?

Right, guess that shows how much disk maintenance I do, I didn't even think about Disk "Tools" as a way to run some tests on the HDD. I did and all looks good.

Is there is some way to specifically check the boot sector, as bootup is the main problem. Is this something the anti virus (using AntiVir) can check? I have AntiVir scheduled to run every day at noon time. I never finds any problems, or almost never. I have also run Advanced System Care scans and don't know yet if it fixed anything. I'll know next time I try to turn the computer off.
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jerry_nj
Original Author
16 years ago
No answers, but:

I ran disk check, no problems found and ran Advanced System Care tools and fixed a few "things". Then when it was time to shut down I decided to give it a try. The computer shut down normally.

This morning the computer booted up normally.

This acts more like a hardware than a software (Virus) problem - and I don't think I want to invest the software rebuild effort required if I replace the HDD. I'm thinking time for a new Notebook, subject of another post by me on a Toshiba machine.
zep516
16 years ago
Boot it 10 more times see if it fails. Maybe it was just a glitch give it a work out...
jerry_nj
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks, I opened a related (in my mind) thread on "Toshiba L515 64 Bit" where I was exploring the replacement of the troubled notebook in this thread. This morning I had some new experience with the troubles and merged that into that post. I was reluctant but figured this thread had hit its end. I will not waste resources by running any further a dual track - so if those helping on this thread wish to continue to track progress and comment, please look at the reference thread. Thanks to all...

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