Computer Crash

One of my friend's laptop is not starting anymore and gives a error message that one of the sectors in the hard disk is corrupted. Does it mean that the hard disk has crashed? Is it possible to run the anti virus from the CD without having the computer booting? Are there any free anti virus software that could do this? Thanks a lot.

 

If you have a Windows CD you can run checkdisk from it. Chances are a sector that held information critical to the boot sequence was corrupted. It may be time for a new hard drive.

 

Thanks. How do I find out whether the particular sector critical to boot sequence was corrupted?

 

I suggest inserting the Windows XP CD...click to boot from it..click on the first "Repair" option that u see and run the command chkdsk /f. If this don't work i say just re-install XP. If it's Vista I really don't know what to tell u as I don't have that much experience with Vista as yet.

 

If you reinstall, make sure you do a full format of the drive as it will look for other bad sectors. Bad sectors are a bad omen, and it means that more are on the way. Now is the time to get a new drive.

 

Thanks for all replied. I tried reinstalling Windows XP. However, the partition formatting shows 0% progress after 30 minutes. Does it mean that the entire hard disk is gone? Is there are way to make it work? Thanks a lot.

 

Yeah the hard drive sounds like it is toast. You might want to try running DBAN's quick erase on the hard drive to clean it completely and try to reinstall.

 

Use Knoppix or S.M.A.R.T.Linux and run SMART tests on the drive. Try smartctl /dev/hda1 or smartctl /dev/sda1 to know if you need a new HD or not.

 

Thanks atbnet. I will get DBAN a try.

avisitor, can you please give me the download link for CD version of SMART Linux and the procedure to run the tests?

Thanks a lot.

 

DBAN worked perfectly and was able to clean install XP again. Thanks a lot for your help.

 

Glad it worked out. I had a strange issue once where the Windows CD would not boot to reinstall. I couldn't figure out what the problem was and even swapped out the DVD drive. As a last resort I wiped it with DBAN and I could install Windows just fine again. Not totally sure what was the problem.

 

Just because its working now doesn't mean it will keep working - bad sectors are one of the biggest red flags of a dying hard drive. Run a S.M.A.R.T. program such as ActiveSMART (Download the trial for a quick overview of how your hard drive is doing) to see if it is on its last leg.

 

I just ran Active SMART in my laptop (different from the one that crashed) and it reports that the hard disk is in GOOD condition. However, the estimated lifetime hasn't been displayed yet (after running the program for 24 hours) and the status shows "collecting information". Does the free version display the estimated lifetime? If so, how long does it take to estimate and display the life time and how reliable it is? Thanks a lot.

 

They continually collect information and it takes a while until it can predict a date with an accuracy. I have always used HDD Health

 

Thanks a lot. It works fine.