# Hard drive quits??



## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

Don't really know how to explain this except the computer runs fine but suddenly its like the hard drive gets unplugged. the computer doesn't freeze up. the hard drive just doesn't respond. Its worse on start up. usualy the first start up it loads windows and everything is ready to go and then it quits and you can go no further. The second boot is fine. Except for tonight. I was out most of the day and when i came in to use the laptop the mouse was there but the hard drive didn't respond and bring the screen back.

Any Ideas??


----------



## JohnnyLee (Feb 13, 2011)

What version of Windows are you running?

If you just use your computer for Internet, email, photos, documents, etc. etc. what I would do is go to ubuntu.com and download the latest live-cd and give that a try, just from the CD, and if you like it install it on the hard drive and forget about Windows - AFTER you back up any files that you may want. IMO Windows is only good for one thing, and that is playing the new games like you can get on Xbox or PS3 on your PC. Oh yeah, and windows is good for keeping tech geeks in business, and that is about all it's good for.

If you really want to keep Windows, from what it sounds like, there may be some missing files, deleted files, corrupt files, something that is keeping it from running with any stability. Usually at this point, most people try to restore from a previous version, but sometimes that just fouls up the system even more. The best thing to do with Windows is to back up any files you want to save to CD or flash drive, and then format and re-install Windows from scratch. When I was a gamer a long time ago, and built gaming systems, I would usually have to do this about once a year.

That is just my experience of dealing with windows since it came out, that is why I stopped at XP, didn't EVEN try to use Vista because of the reviews, and my only experience with Windows 7 is fixing it on other peoples computers. I have been using Ubuntu Linux desktop exclusively since about 2006 when I stopped playing games on the PC.


----------



## idigbeets (Sep 3, 2011)

How old is the hard drive? Have you ever defragmented it or done other disk maintenance? 

I've had them die before.


----------



## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

Thanks guys
Johhny
i tried Ubuntu once a while back. i couldn't figure out all the cryptic commands. Is the new like that. i use open office,freeplane, things like that.
My computers get used for everything. i give them a workout. Especially online radio and such
This one started having a flickering screen so i 'm thinking it wants to die. Its old and for a 100.00 it has done its job. I'll keep it till it dies. Gotta figure out how to back up and copy my email.
The great news is I found a like new Thinkpad T60 with 3gig mem and a new 128 Gig solid state HD. just over 125.00 i picked it up for  OMG talk about fast. It boots in 5 seconds, shuts down in 3. internet is lightning. with what you guys have done with HT and this new T60 HT is a lightning bolt. those solid state HD are amazing. But now i will be spoiled on the rest. LOL
Great job you guys did on HT. Perfect in my humble opinion.

By the way if you know any good stand alone email programs. they are destroying Thunderbird just like they did Firefox. And how to copy or transfer emails without doing it one at a time.


----------



## Jeffery (Oct 25, 2011)

If your hard drive is slowing down, freezing up, or producing a lot of error messages, it may be about to fail. I read some where that hard drives only last about 10 years on average. Make sure you have back up copies of any thing important you want to keep.


----------



## InvalidID (Feb 18, 2011)

I've had this happen to me a few times. It's always been the mother board not the drive.


----------



## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

It could be a number of things, but since you already got a new computer, I'd say give the old one a decent burial and call it a day.


----------



## idigbeets (Sep 3, 2011)

Google search gives you instructions on how to xfer emails from one pc to another.

Thunderbird to Thunderbird Mail Transfer Tutorial (windows) &bull; mozillaZine Forums


----------



## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

To test the hard drive I usually download HD Tune and run it to see if there's any bad blocks/sectors. (Or, if you've got access to a copy of Windows XP, you can create a UBCD4Win disc.)

Frankly, I've seen hard drives go bad a LOT more often than I've seen motherboards go bad; but then again, I work with 10K+ computers, and about 20K+ users, on a daily basis.


----------



## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

Kung said:


> To test the hard drive I usually download HD Tune and run it to see if there's any bad blocks/sectors. (Or, if you've got access to a copy of Windows XP, you can create a UBCD4Win disc.)
> 
> Frankly, I've seen hard drives go bad a LOT more often than I've seen motherboards go bad; but then again, I work with 10K+ computers, and about 20K+ users, on a daily basis.


Well I guess It don't really matter. The screen went black this morning. An aux monitor works. So I guess the whole thing will get used as a throwaawy as soon as I can transfer stuff off of it.

You got any info on this ubcd. when i clikc I get a screen full of ads and a box that says download. what am I downloading.?


----------

