RIP sweet laptop...

jennifer75 · Mar 30, 2009

My laptop is dead. It tells me there is a problem with one of my "discs" and that it needs to scan.....I can either allow the scan or abort the scan.....if I allow it, it scans sending a bunt of numbers up and down my screen much like a scene in Matrix...if I abort, it freezes. So, a disc that needs to be repaired......what is this about?

Before it did this, it was almost dead, operating only in Safe with Networking.....but now, it's just dead.

Oh, and yea, I've got back ups of my WIP. Thank Gawd.

smoothseas · Mar 30, 2009

Can't help you with your dilema, but happy for you that you were all backed-up.

Hopefully someone will come along that could maybe assist in resolving the problem.

DamaNegra · Mar 30, 2009

Eh... I'm thinking it may be the Hard Drive, but don't take my word on it

RJK · Mar 30, 2009

Just guessing but it sounds like your hard drive crashed. A common problem with older PC's of any kind. A computer expert MAY be able to retrieve most of the data from the drive, but the programs are toast. Since you have the important stuff backed up off site, you should be safe.
Time to go shopping for a new notebook.

stormie · Mar 30, 2009

Just a thought: If you have recovery discs (CDs that came with the laptop or you made them), you could reformat the hard drive. Use the computer you're on and do a search on how to reformat whatever OS you're using. Print it out. It's not hard, just time consuming. Worth a try if you don't want to buy a new laptop just yet.

ChunkyC · Mar 30, 2009

If the system would only run in safe mode just before this, it really does appear the hard drive has finally crapped out. So even if you could reinstall the operating system, odds are you'd be putting it on a failing disk and it would just crash again.

You could get another drive put in at a good computer shop, but with prices the way they are now, replacing the drive would cost a significant percentage of what a new laptop would set you back.

jennifer75 · Mar 30, 2009

RJK said:
Just guessing but it sounds like your hard drive crashed. A common problem with older PC's of any kind. A computer expert MAY be able to retrieve most of the data from the drive, but the programs are toast. Since you have the important stuff backed up off site, you should be safe.
Time to go shopping for a new notebook.

You think I need a new one? The laptop was just purchased last February, 2008, and has stuff installed in 06...so technically its a couple years old right? Should I look into a new purchase or new hard drive?

jennifer75 · Mar 30, 2009

ChunkyC said:
If the system would only run in safe mode just before this, it really does appear the hard drive has finally crapped out. So even if you could reinstall the operating system, odds are you'd be putting it on a failing disk and it would just crash again.

You could get another drive put in at a good computer shop, but with prices the way they are now, replacing the drive would cost a significant percentage of what a new laptop would set you back.

Here's the thing, it would run normally, but freeze up. Very virus-like. Did some wierd stuff, wouldn't let me access some sites, but not all. Then I found working in safemode to be a go. Then...well, no more. So I don't know if a virus started all this, or if its hardware.

I'd hate to have to buy another one. This one is nice, and hardly broken in. Argh.

Williebee · Mar 30, 2009

Might I suggest that you call your local tech(s). Ask them if they have "SpinRite". If they don't know what you are talking about, say thanks and try the next one.

Spinrite may restore your boot sector. But, if the drive is really toast, then it won't matter.

You can use Google to search for YOUR MANUFACTURER + YOUR MODEL NUMBER + replacement hard drive, and get an idea of what the hard drive will cost you.

Good luck.

Oh and GO YOU!! for having backups.

ETA: based on your last post. Make sure you scan your back ups for viruses, too!

jennifer75 · Mar 30, 2009

Ooh icky viruses. I had a doozy at work too. It appears to be taken care of.

What's the best way to access my back up if I have it as an email, on a flash, and on my work computer - without reinfecting myself, or others?

Williebee · Mar 30, 2009

jennifer75 said:
What's the best way to access my back up if I have it as an email, on a flash, and on my work computer - without reinfecting myself, or others?

If your work computer has a decent anti-virus running on it, you should be able to right click on the specific file, or email and select "Scan for viruses". Same with the flash drive, and the file, under "My Computer" (depending on operating system and whether or not your network administrator allows you the rights to do such things).

Disclaimer: Your mileage may vary, void where prohibited by flying monkeys, and this thread and/or response in no way suggests that it is ok to do personal work on your employer's computers.

jennifer75 · Mar 30, 2009

ChunkyC · Mar 30, 2009

jennifer75 said:
Here's the thing, it would run normally, but freeze up. Very virus-like. Did some wierd stuff, wouldn't let me access some sites, but not all. Then I found working in safemode to be a go. Then...well, no more. So I don't know if a virus started all this, or if its hardware.

I'd hate to have to buy another one. This one is nice, and hardly broken in. Argh.

Hmmm, that does sound suspiciously like some kind of nasty.

I highly recommend Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware as a second level of defense along with your regular antivirus program. The trial version doesn't run in the background (you should only have one of those running at a time anyway), you run it manually. My boss fell for one of those phony pop-up "you've been infected so buy our software" things that show up out of nowhere and the Malwarebytes program was the only one that got rid of it. It's an Editor's Pick over at MajorGeeks.com, and they don't hand out kudos casually.

Malwarebytes

MajorGeeks

jennifer75 · Mar 30, 2009

ChunkyC said:
Hmmm, that does sound suspiciously like some kind of nasty.

I highly recommend Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware as a second level of defense along with your regular antivirus program. The trial version doesn't run in the background (you should only have one of those running at a time anyway), you run it manually. My boss fell for one of those phony pop-up "you've been infected so buy our software" things that show up out of nowhere and the Malwarebytes program was the only one that got rid of it. It's an Editor's Pick over at MajorGeeks.com, and they don't hand out kudos casually.

Malwarebytes

MajorGeeks

Someone referred me to MWB and I uploaded it and ran a full scan before it crashed, in safe mode, and it froze after finding one infection, and only 15 minutes. So I killed it, restarted, ran a quick scan, it completed, also finding one infection, removed it, restarted, tried another full scan only to have it freeze again. So, it wouldn't complete a full scan.

Then..a couple days later, it totally crashed.

Matera the Mad · Mar 30, 2009

Yeah, it sounds more like you have an icky than a bad drive. Probably should totally wipe the hard drive, delete and re-create boot partition, and reinstall everything. I had my MBR (Master Boot Record, a teeny bit of code that has to be there or no booties) messed up in January, probably by a badbeastie. Just bought the drive last year lolz. Nasty moment, but heh-heh I'm me and it's okies now. If you have a restore CD it might take care of everything.

Install a firewall and do malware scans more often shakes warning finger

ChunkyC · Mar 31, 2009

jennifer75 said:
Someone referred me to MWB and I uploaded it and ran a full scan before it crashed, in safe mode, and it froze after finding one infection, and only 15 minutes. So I killed it, restarted, ran a quick scan, it completed, also finding one infection, removed it, restarted, tried another full scan only to have it freeze again. So, it wouldn't complete a full scan.

Then..a couple days later, it totally crashed.

Wow, that really sounds like there's something nefarious going on with the drive. I've been running Malwarebytes on a couple of dozen systems, including some servers, with really good results. It has found and repaired infections AVG, NormanAV, Bitdefender, McAfee and Norton either couldn't repair or missed altogether.

You said you have good backups, so if you can, restore the drive to the factory defaults. Then if that's successful, download and run a drive testing utility if the manufacturer of that particular drive has one available. The restore should eliminate any viruses, and the drive test will tell you if there's a problem with the drive itself.

jeffo · Mar 31, 2009

In all likelihood, based on your description, your hard drive is crapped out. Usually when this happens, it's something physical inside the hard drive itself which cannot be repaired. If the computer is under warranty, get it sent off for repair. It not, you need a new hard drive.

If you have backed up all important files, just replace the hard drive. It is highly unlikely you will ever get this one working again. If there are files you absolutely must have off the hard drive, throw it in the freezer for a few hours and try to access it again, but quickly remove the files you need because it won't last long!

jennifer75 · Apr 1, 2009

Well, the only thing I don't have backups for were some photos, that I can take again. Nothing momentous.

The freezer, really?

jeffo · Apr 2, 2009

Really. Most times when a hard drive crashes, it's because the heads are touching the platters inside the disk. Normally these two parts are about a few millionths of an inch apart. A tiny speck of dusk, or even a smoke particle can get "stuck" in that space, causing it not to work. When you freeze the hard drive, the contraction of the metals is often enough to expand the space large enough so that it works again-- but this is always a temporary solution because whatever caused the problem (dust, misalignment, etc) is still in there somewhere.

jennifer75 · Apr 9, 2009

Ok, soooooo....my lap top fired up. It gave me a message that a disc needed to be checked, and that Windows recommends I allow it to...so finally I let the check run its length (I had aborted when it seemed to be endless and useless) and what do you know...the check completed and I was able to log in. However, still only totally useful in safe mode. Regular mode still freezes up.

Virus?

benbradley · Apr 9, 2009

jennifer75 said:
Ok, soooooo....my lap top fired up. It gave me a message that a disc needed to be checked, and that Windows recommends I allow it to...so finally I let the check run its length (I had aborted when it seemed to be endless and useless) and what do you know...the check completed and I was able to log in. However, still only totally useful in safe mode. Regular mode still freezes up.

Virus?

Yeah, could be. It also could be "OS Installation Rot" which mainly happens with Microsoft OS'es, and if that's it, reinstalling Windows will fix it.

Or, again, it could be a failing drive, as already mentioned. Run scandisk (if you can go to the Task Manager and figure out what other programs to stop that write to disk, they make scandisk restart, and after ten restarts it gives up).

The best thing would be get another hard drive (http://pricewatch.com), but I don't know how hard it is to replace a drive in a laptop - a computer store will charge some "reasonable fee" (I'm afraid to look) to do it, and install Windows on it. Then you can use an adapter for USB to access your old drive as an external drive (turn autorun off first), so you can check it with scandisk and other drive utilities, scan for viruses, then if it's all fixed up you can copy all your files onto your new drive. But all that takes some computer-fu or whatever it's called. But doing that, it no longer depends on a questionable drive to boot up the computer.

Computers are horribly, hideously complex machines. Rube Goldberg is lucky he never owned one.

jennifer75 · Apr 9, 2009

Blech.

BLECH.

BLECH.

Nivarion · Apr 9, 2009

Go and get an Ubuntu or Kubuntu disk, and use them to partition the hard drive. If it runs in there then its a nasty ol virus, Use a linux virus scanner to scan your windows partition and fix it.

If not its your drive.

Tora · Apr 11, 2009

jeffo said:
Really. Most times when a hard drive crashes, it's because the heads are touching the platters inside the disk. Normally these two parts are about a few millionths of an inch apart. A tiny speck of dusk, or even a smoke particle can get "stuck" in that space, causing it not to work. When you freeze the hard drive, the contraction of the metals is often enough to expand the space large enough so that it works again-- but this is always a temporary solution because whatever caused the problem (dust, misalignment, etc) is still in there somewhere.

Thanks for the suggestion, jeffo. My laptop's hard drive crashed last night, and I popped in to see if I could find anything helpful here. I should know in a few hours if I'll be able to recover anything off of it. *crosses fingers and curses herself for not making a backup when she had the chance to yesterday*

jennifer75, if your hard drive does need to be replaced, try looking at Newegg.com. They have the best prices on hard drives that I've found so far (the exact same drive the Geek Squad guy tried to sell me for $100 is only $70 with free shipping at Newegg). If you're a member of a cashback or rewards site, you might get an additional bonus--Swagbucks will give me one of their reward bucks for every $5 I spend at Newegg.

jennifer75 · Apr 28, 2009

Ok, so um...it's not dead! It works! Turns out I had WAAAAY too many things on start up that it was freezing up. So, it's been cleaned and wiped, and is up and running again.

RIP sweet laptop...

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