hard disk windows 7 repair attempts - how long to leave?

[zebedee]

So my computer starts up but says there is an error. Either trying to start normal or try to repair leads to a blue screen with swirly lines and a white bird and green leaf. Online browsing suggests hdd problem. So I turned off and held F12 down to go into diagnostics. All fine apart from the HDD which fails the diagnostic test.

I have tried again with the repair option, in case there is a way windows will try to work around the problem and I can at least try to get in and copy all the files I can grab. It isn't looking good though as it justs sits on that bird screen, hdd is spinning and some kind of activity is going on (can hear the soft sounds of reading/writing, but no progress bar or anything.

It is a 320GB drive, should I leave it for several hours and see if anything happens or just kill it and take it in to see if I can get the data recovered?

[CharlieCrocodile]

It's broken, take it out and pop it in another machine and copy all the data you can from it. Buy a new drive, install W7 & copy data back.

[zebedee]

I don't have a windows 7 back up disc and the product key on the bottom is a bit too worn out to read.

I'm not technically minded either, so by the time I have:

(quotes from PC World)

paid £80 to recover data
paid £50 for a new HDD (with only a 3 month warranty)
paid £50 to fit the new DD
paid for a new OS
had all the usual glitchy issues with messing about with things

I'd rather pay £80 for data recovery (and £40 for an external USB drive) and buy a new computer with an O/S on it.

Or is that silly?

I have read somewhere that if you can boot windows from a cd-rom, if the bad data is needed to open windows, then you might get up and running to be able to remove your own data. That would save me the costs of data recovery as I could transfer direct to the new pc. Any idea how to get hold of such a windows boot disc though?

[zebedee]

update - after about an hour I now have a progress bar scrolling through and it says it is checking the system for problems and will fix them automatically and it might restart several times and might take several minutes.

Does that sound promising or will it do that even in a no-hope case?

[sgrimshaw]

zebedee said:

paid £50 to fit the new DD

That's taking the pi$$ !!!

[zebedee]

I thought so too, surely it is a case of a couple of push connectors and then screw it in? And they would have the old one out anyway to recover it...

Have just had a wider search online and seen one guy saying he had to leave his computer checking for errors for 3.5 days before it let him in! I know the hdd is knackered, but am hoping that it can let me in so I can back up the files myself (then take it somewhere cheaper to get the new hdd and have it fitted!)

[Spantney]

zebedee said:

So my computer starts up but says there is an error. Either trying to start normal or try to repair leads to a blue screen with swirly lines and a white bird and green leaf. Online browsing suggests hdd problem. So I turned off and held F12 down to go into diagnostics. All fine apart from the HDD which fails the diagnostic test.

I have tried again with the repair option, in case there is a way windows will try to work around the problem and I can at least try to get in and copy all the files I can grab. It isn't looking good though as it justs sits on that bird screen, hdd is spinning and some kind of activity is going on (can hear the soft sounds of reading/writing, but no progress bar or anything.

It is a 320GB drive, should I leave it for several hours and see if anything happens or just kill it and take it in to see if I can get the data recovered?

Where abouts are you based? If you are essex-based I'm more than happy to lend a hand! I've got an almost new western digital 320Gb hard disk which I used in one of my pc's for about a month before upgrading to an SSD, which you could have. I can also salvage any data off your old hard disk & get windows reinstalled for you.

[zebedee]

Spantney said:

Where abouts are you based? If you are essex-based I'm more than happy to lend a hand! I've got an almost new western digital 320Gb hard disk which I used in one of my pc's for about a month before upgrading to an SSD, which you could have. I can also salvage any data off your old hard disk & get windows reinstalled for you.

That is very kind but I am up north. As it seems to be doing something I am loathe to switch it off in case I lose even more data/cause any more issues if it is reading/writing attempting to salvage things.

Latest development is a black window has popped up saying "x:\windows\system32\cmd.exe with an empty black background and white flashing cursor.

It all looks ominously bad mind.

[JREwing]

This sounds normal so far. Don't panic yet!

[Spantney]

zebedee said:

That is very kind but I am up north. As it seems to be doing something I am loathe to switch it off in case I lose even more data/cause any more issues if it is reading/writing attempting to salvage things.

Latest development is a black window has popped up saying "x:\windows\system32\cmd.exe with an empty black background and white flashing cursor.

It all looks ominously bad mind.

Bummer! Just out of interest, can you hear the hard disk make any clicking sounds or anything like that? Usually that means the drive is fubared and it is struggling to be read. If it isn't making any weird sounds then you might be able repair any data corruption with a check disk.

If you open up command prompt and type in 'chkdsk /r' it will most likely tell you that the drive cannot be unmounted and data will be checked upon next reboot. Reboot the computer and it should start running the check before logging in. I've never really had any luck with the built in troubleshooter which you are running at the second.

Cheers

Edit: Just re-read your original post and saw that the HDD diagnostic test in your BIOS is failing. That isn't a good sign!

Edited by Spantney on Saturday 25th May 13:25

[zebedee]

It is making perfectly normal read/write style noises (the sort you have to put your ear to the laptop to hear), nothing horrid as yet. I know the HD has problems but even if I can just get it to open my documents and pics, save as many of them as possible and then it disintegrates that would be something of a result.

[Spantney]

zebedee said:

It is making perfectly normal read/write style noises (the sort you have to put your ear to the laptop to hear), nothing horrid as yet. I know the HD has problems but even if I can just get it to open my documents and pics, save as many of them as possible and then it disintegrates that would be something of a result.

If the troubleshooter you are running doesn't work, try the chkdsk I mentioned above

[zebedee]

Is command prompt one of the options when you hold f8 down when powering up?

And what does it try to do?

[Paper Lawyer]

Been in the same boat before. Probably screwed but if you manage to boot into Windows 7 then FIRST OF ALL obtain your product key using a simple to use tool, write it down and keep it safe (I have my product key on a note in Evernote):

http://download.cnet.com/Product-Key-Finder/3000-2...

Then download the version of Windows 7 installed on your PC - it is the official ISO you can burn to a DVD:

http://malwaretips.com/blogs/download-windows-7-sp...


Then you can restore your PC's operaitng system with a new hard drive should the worst happen

Edited by Paper Lawyer on Saturday 25th May 14:01

[zebedee]

right, the black window has gone and it is now saying it is attempting repairs and may take over an hour... Bearing mind the bit that may take several minutes took over 2 hours...

[zebedee]

system volume on disk = corrupt was the result, reckons it has repaired it succesfully...

trying the restart

[zebedee]

back to the white bird again, but I guess it did say it would restart several times

[Spantney]

Paper Lawyer said:

Been in the same boat before. Probably screwed but if you manage to boot into Windows 7 then FIRST OF ALL obtain your product key using a simple to use tool, write it down and keep it safe (I have my product key on a note in Evernote):

http://download.cnet.com/Product-Key-Finder/3000-2...

Then download the version of Windows 7 installed on your PC - it is the official ISO you can burn to a DVD:

http://malwaretips.com/blogs/download-windows-7-sp...


Then you can restore your PC's operaitng system with a new hard drive should the worst happen

Edited by Paper Lawyer on Saturday 25th May 14:01

You might have a bit of an issue burning an ISO if your PC is playing up however if you can find your product key using the above and let me know which version of Windows 7 you require (Professional, Home Premium, 32/64 bit?) I can burn onto a DVD and post to you along with my spare hard drive.

[zebedee]

hmmmmmmmm, has gone through startup repair 3 times at least now, (maybe more as I haven't been watching.

didn't catch what it said 2nd time, but 3rd time it said it was "repairing disk errors" again

Root cause found: system volume on disk is corrupt, repair action: file system repair (chkdsk), result: completed succesfully. error code = 0x0 time taken = 689337ms

Seems to be the case that startup repair can cycle infinitely but then it does say the computer might restart several times.

So should I now try the chkdsk at command prompt or the guidance to stop the infinite startup repair first?

Edited by zebedee on Saturday 25th May 19:23

[zebedee]

on safe mode it hangs and resets at CLASSPNP.SYS. Googling that suggests it is quite common and changing the disk mode in BIOS can get around the problem, no idea how to try that though, or whether it is a good idea - any ideas folks?