Possible HD Failure Please Help Me!

[Jayb118]

Hi, i'm having some serious problems with my system and i suspect it to be the HD. I'll switch the PC on and it will get as far as the Windows XP loading screen and half way through loading will freeze up, it takes multiple restarts to actually get into Windows lol i once counted 17! Also when running applications in windows my system suffers bouts of extreme slowness, this is especially noticible when using media player and trying to do something else at the same time, MP3 playback slows right down and it would actually be quite amusing if it wasn't so annoying lol.
There have also been times when the system will just crash in Windows for no apparent reason which is severely annoying.
Anywho i am wondering if it is time to get a new HD, the one i have at the moment is a Barracuda 120gb.
One final thing that worries me is if this isn't a HD error could it be a problem with my motherboard?

Anyway thanks for your time Hope you guys can help

 

[mikedude456]

solution simple?

perhaps all you need to do is quite simple
firstly back up all of your documents on to an external hard drive
then un install windows xp
next if you have another computer then format the drive using a modern format program which actually deletes the files
if not then just format the drive on the computer
next re-install xp on the hard drive and copy all your documents back
hopefuly it wil run sharp and span
tell me how it goes
mike

 

[Tedster]

run crap cleaner. You may have registry issues. Use the registry repair function.

 

[Jayb118]

Right, i attempted what mikedude456 suggested and formatted my drive however i am unable to reinstall windows since it crashes when attempting to load the XP install and then when i get it to start to install it crashes there also so i'm kinda stuck again lol

 

[mikedude456]

ah do you have any other computers?

 

[Tmagic650]

Sounds like bad system memory not a bad hard drive. Did the format successfully complete? Ifyou have 2 sticks of memory swap them around, if you have only 1 stick, try and get another to test your system with

 

[Jayb118]

My dad has a desktop system and i'm using his laptop to post these messages. I have two 512mb ram sticks, when the pc boots up it shows them as working ok on the loading screen.
It said the format completed ok it just messed up again when it got to reinstalling windows, i actually ended up formatting a couple of times.

 

[Tmagic650]

Swap the 2 sticks in their positions in the motherboard, then try them one at a time, and see if the computer boots

 

[monton]

What are the system specs? Have you installed any new hardware, made driver changes, or installed any software before this went bad?

Some info on the system would help us narrow the problems down. Have you updated the BIOs?
Monton

 

[raybay]

You have hardware problems somewhere... so you might benefit from a selective install and boot to a floppy drive... using only the power supply, one memory module, and MS-DOS or Windows 98 boot disc. Then reboot, adding a new component each time.