Expert: Rider - 1/29/2008

Question
QUESTION: I have been working on a computer for 2 days trying to figure out why my checkdish won't to past 64% on the first phase.  I tried scandisk in dos and it also keeps locking up at 64%.  I also tried defrag but it says I have a checkdisk scheduled so i cannot get that to run either.  Any suggestion before i toss my pc out the window.  Thanks

ANSWER: When checkdisk will not complete there is a physical problem with the hard drive. I would suggest you back up your data to another device as soon as possible.

To cancel the checkdisk at startup the first screen will tell you that a checkdisk is scheduled, if you press a key before the time out it will be cancelled.

Defraging your hard drive will not help, back up your data.

There are some DOS based programs that will run a low level check on the hard drive and lock out any bad sectors, how ever these bad sectors may have data so before you run one of these programs be sure to get your data off of the drive first.

When you run the program it will tell you how much of the drive is locked out, rule of thumb is if there is more than 3% of the available drive locked out it is failing and should be replaced.

HTH
http://www.diy-computer-repair.com/ts-hard-drive.html

My Ebooks:
http://www.diy-computer-repair.com/all-e-books.html

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Do you know what other programs i can run?  I ran a scannow and that ran fine.  I just want to try avoding replacing my hard drive.  The computer isn't that old.

Answer
The only progam I recommend is from OnTrack.com, they have a shareware version of thier data recovery progam that has a checkdisk function. (Or did last year).

How old is the computer? Is the hard drive still under warranty?

Some programs do not go into depth with their scans, such as the built in scandisk or OnTrack's program. I don't have it any more or I could give you the name of the program. Try their site.

HTH