[ChildOfLore]

I think my hard drive might be corrupt. It was acting strangely last night even though I hadn't touched it that day and it was fine the night before. I shut it down but it just stayed on the "shutting down" screen all night (I have vista) it wasn't frozen because the little circle was moving but it wouldn't actually shut down. In the morning I reset it and it starts running CHKDSK, it always gets half way through and then reboots or freezes, same thing happens when I try to boot in safe mode. What should I do? Can I salvage my files and/or my drive or will I have to buy a new one?

Thanks so much in advance,
Marlon

And I don't quite know the hard drive model because someone else bought it for me and I had trouble taking it out of my tower, I can probably figure it out if I need to though. Oh, and I'm pretty sure it's SATA if that makes any difference.

[IMiteBable2help]

How do you figure that providing a link to another forum is going to help in the slightest bit? It reeks of spam. Besides that, there is no direct evidence based on what you have told us, that your hard drive is failing. Chances are in your favor that nothing is wrong with the drive.

[ChildOfLore]

It's not spam, sorry about the link, I already posted this problem on another site but I didn't get any help so I just copy-pasted the question here. I didn't notice that I copy-pasted one of those automatic, keyword-based ads, sorry.

Anyway, if nothing's wrong with the drive then what could it be? I just assumed that was it because it ran CHKDSK

[Anthony7]

Try booting from a PE CD such as barts PE, google it if you do not know what it is. Then depending on the PE version you should be able to copy what you need to a USB drive assuming this works, which I think it will as this does not sound major. If this does not work insert your windows install disc and repair the OS installation.

[Elvandil]

It only gets half through chkdsk before it reboots? Does it seem to happen in the same place each time?

Does it make any difference if the machine sits to cool before you try it?

Make sure all vents are clear of dust and that the fans are all working.

Try testing memory.

MemScope (Floppy and CD images.)
Roadkil's RAM Test
Microsoft Memory Test (floppy or CD ISO image)
Memtest86

If you have enough memory sticks, you can test them by removing one at a time and see if the problem disappears.

If you are running Vista, tap F8 on boot and choose the memory diagnostic, or if you can boot up, go to Start > Search and type:

mdsched.exe

Choose to run a memory diagnostic on next boot. Or, you can boot from the DVD and run it from there.

If memory tests out OK, we can run some hard drive tests, but any test will give false results if memory is bad.

[ChildOfLore]

I tried Bart's PE but it didn't work. I'm using a different computer with a different version of vista so I put in the disc I used to install Vista onto my computer and told it to search for installation files but it didn't find anything from either this computer or the DVD drive; is it that it doesn't work with vista? Is there another PE I should use or should I just try something else?

Oh, and I'm just about to check the RAM too, thanks,
Marlon

[ChildOfLore]

Also, I'm fairly sure it's not bad RAM because I've had that problem in the past and it isn't acting the same (e.g. it doesn't stay on for longer when I leave it alone for a long time and it restarts at about the same place every time).

[Elvandil]

BartPE needs to be made with XP files. You can make a copy of VistaPE by downloading Winbuilder and using Vista installation files. VistaPE requires much more memory to run, at least 256, but you better count on at least 512. I have run BartPE on 32 MB's of RAM when using a page file, so my choice is always dictated by the amount of RAM on the machine in question.

[ChildOfLore]

I've got 2 gigs of RAM so I'm set for that, I ran MemScope and it didn't pick up anything. The instructions on the site seemed to imply that I should run it for a certain amount of time depending on my system but it didn't tell me how to figure out how long that was. I ran it for about an hour which is way longer than it takes for my computer to reboot after I turn it on anyway; is that enough?

I'll try and use VistaPE now, thanks again.

[Elvandil]

An hour ought to be enough. Generally, running the test until it had finished all the different types of subtest that it uses is enoug, and an hour is enough to make sure any heat problems would appear.

[ChildOfLore]

I couldn't get VistaPE to work, I'm trying to get the files off of a disk and I get two error messages: "RegRead - Failed to read specified key from: [HKLM]Section: [SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WimFltr] Key: [DisplayName] to variable:: [%RegName%]"
and
"Run - Failed to find section [NotConfigured] in file: [%BaseDir%\Projects\VistaPE-Core\Base\00-api-main.script]"

Have I stuffed up or should I just forget about it and try something else. Also, I'm pretty sure it's the hard drive 'coz I booted up my computer with an old Knoppix disc and I can't get into my hard drive at all.

[Elvandil]

Not sure what you did, but hopefully you went to the download page in Winbuilder and checked the boxes on the server page only for VistaPE. That is the only project you want to make. It sounds like some of the scripts are missing and were not downloaded.

Then, on the left, are all the items that need to be downloaded before you make the CD. Once that is all done, you can go back to the builder page and check only the boxes for things you want on the CD. You really don't need much because you can run Spybot and many other tools from your hard drive or even a thumb drive once you get booted up to vista from the CD.

Before you make the CD, you need to go through the list and set your options in each module. Most have none, but others require that you specify a path, especially to the location of your Vista files.

[ChildOfLore]

That's what I did, I'll try it again when I get a chance. I'm running my computer with a knoppix live cd right now, is there an easier way to do it with this? What's the difference between a PE and a live cd?

[Elvandil]

Knoppix is not Windows, of course, so there is a limited amount that you can do. The PE's are Windows-based. But even in Knoppix, you should be able to find your files and burn them to CD or copy them over to a USB flash drive.

(Knoppix is designed to run on a live CD. So unlike a lot of other live CD's, it is optimized for that purpose. You can even save your settings between boots and have things the way you want them, even though the CD is read-only. I think you chose the best one.)

[ChildOfLore]

Should, but can't; do I have to run a program like CHKDSK?