Having hard drive problems...

This is a tough one for me to explain but I will try very hard. I guess this started around late summer 09. I turned on my computer and it would run chkdsk over and over again. I let it go over night once and it was still scanning the hard drive over and over.
Around Christmas time I reinstalled vista and still it would run chkdsk on every boot. Only this time, it ran once and then vista loaded fine. It would stop responding often and run slow but it was better. I manually turned off chkdsk but it made the computer run worse over time. It would just not do anything so i would have to hold on the power button and turn it back on. The hard drive light will just stay on and the drive will sound a little different than usual. No clicking or metal on metal noise, just a different type of busy noise until you open something. Also you could use the disk clean up but not the defrag. It will say you should defrag volume so i would click defrag now. It would just show you the spinning blue circle and say analyzing but then say you should degrag volume again. So it won't defrag either. System restore also does not work.
So today after being sick of it, I checked into the chkdsk and found I could have it fix and try to restore sectors and stuff. So I ran chkdsk /f. It looked different and said it was fixing many things. I also ran chkdsk /r. They both seemed to be done quick but the computer's performance was improved a lot. It now shuts down instead of just saying it is.
I tried just a plain old chkdsk and it goes only so far and says it encountered an unknown error and done checking the disk. I still can't defrag also. All of the different things I have done today helped, but didn't solve the problem. I am going to keep a very close eye on things and post any error messages here. I know that is important clue when trying to fix issues. I would love to just find a way to fix this problem. I'd hate to have to buy a new hard drive or something.
I'm not new to computers but I'm not a computer genius either. I really don't know my level of computer knowledge.

maybe your hard drive crapped out?

It seems I have fixed my computer! I am kind of shocked. I ran chkdsk twice today. I used the /b switch. Both times it came up with crazy things it was doing. Deleting, moving, orphan this and that then error. Both times! So I said thats it! I took all of my pics and things I didn't want to delete and booted from the vista disk. I went to do a clean install again like I did before but this time I found an extra option to format my partition. So I clicked that bad boy and hit next. Man it's like a new computer! I ran chkdsk this time and all came out well. 0 bad sectors! It's faster than I can remember it being in fact. Now it's running quietly and showing me a hockey game!
I just wish I could have known what was wrong. I mean it was so bad I thought it was going to just blow up. I thought I needed a new computer. I just hope it's not going to happen again!

If you're lucky it might just be that your HD doesn't automatically remove bad sectors from those available. If you're not, it could be a temporary reprieve.

I 'spose if you're curious you could look up the make and model of drive and see if it removes bad sectors when it finds 'em. Or you could just say "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and worry about it if it acts up.

nice, if the problem comes back, i suggest that you install a new hard drive.

MilesAhead said:

If you're lucky it might just be that your HD doesn't automatically remove bad sectors from those available. If you're not, it could be a temporary reprieve.

I 'spose if you're curious you could look up the make and model of drive and see if it removes bad sectors when it finds 'em. Or you could just say "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and worry about it if it acts up.

Click to expand...

I know it is a samsung sata. Again, it seems to be crap like other samsung stuff I have been in contact with. 3 weeks after I bought it, it completely crashed. Hp sent me a spankin new one for free though. Then all of this happened. I keep checking things and so far, so good! I really hope it stays on the good side. Next time I open the beast up, I'll get some info on it and see what I can find.

Katokato said:

nice, if the problem comes back, i suggest that you install a new hard drive.

Click to expand...

That is just what I will do. Then I could put in a bigger one! I have always wanted to build my own machine. I just don't know if you can do one thing at a time while you're using it. I guess that is more like an upgrade.

okay then. better read up on the different computer parts. =)