HDD curious problem i/o error while cold 1

[agraub999]

Hi everybody,

I am having a curious problem with my HDD. After I switch my PC off for a couple of hours, it always gives me disk i/o error during start up. So, I wait for 5-7 minutes and everything is OK, though w2k has too long time for the first loading. Later, everything is fine, I can restart PC etc. I defragmented the disk, checked the surface, defragmented all the system files (paging, MFT), cleaned registry, but everything is the same – just switch it again for several hours and i/o error pops up again.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

 

[Tezzie]

If the HDD is Fujitsu - bin it.

If not, whats the HDD make / model / capacity, also make of pc / age etc

 

[jmatt]

You might want to make sure there are no viruses lingering on your system like a master boot sector virus that survives a format.

 

[agraub999]

It is 30GB IBM made (I think 7200 rpm). Pc is Compaq Armada E500 notebook one year old. Regarding the virus - I have Norton Antivirus 2002 with the latest virus definition. Someone has had a guess that the Hard Drive is not spinning up to speed correctly. I am not sure that it's the reason...

Any ideas?

 

[jmatt]

1 . Run scandisk .

2 . Install below & run . ( Just the Spybot for starters , do the rest after the problem is sorted out )
You can protect your comp from Spyfiles by using these 3 programs together .

http://beam.to/spybotsd

What does SpyBot-Search & Destroy?

SpyBot-S&D searches your hard drive for so-called spy- or adbots; little modules that are
responsible for the ads many programs display. But many of these modules also transmit
information about your surfing behaviour and more to the net.
If SpyBot-S&D finds such modules, it can remove them - or replace them with empty dummies in
case their host software won't run with its bot removed. In most cases, the host still runs
fine after removing the bot.
For a list of 'supported' bots see the feature lists below. The Spybot-S&D interface is so
easy, that updates just require replacing a file of about 80k in size. Those updates are
distributed by my software mailinglist, over this page and are also available from inside the
programs update section.

Another feature of Spybot S&D is the removal of usage tracks, which makes it more complicated
for unknown spybots to transmit useful data. The list of last visited websites, opened files,
started programs, cookies, all that and more can be cleaned. Supported are the three major
browsers Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator and Opera.

Last but not least Spybot-S&D contains some routines to find and correct invalid entries into
the registry.

Red entries indicate spyware problems that should be fixed to avoid security and/or privacy
problems. This is the only kind of problem that is preselected to be fixed.

Black entries are system internals. If you do not know what they mean, I would suggest to either
keep your fingers from it or visit the support forum.

Green entries indicate usage tracks. It can do no harm to remove these.

I personally only remove the Red entries .

Make sure you use the SpyBot > Online > Update button regularly .

-----------------------------

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/spywareblaster.html

SpywareBlaster doesn't scan and clean for spyware - it prevents it from ever being installed.

How? By setting a "kill bit" for the CLSIDs of spyware ActiveX controls, it prevents the
installation of any of them from a webpage. You can run Internet Explorer with Active-X enabled,
but you will never even get a "Yes/No" box popped up, asking you to install a spyware Active-X
control (Internet Explorer will never download or run it!). All other Active-X controls or
plug-ins will work fine.

The SpywareBlaster database contains information on these known spyware Active-X controls. Make
sure you run the Check For Updates feature frequently to get the latest database! (And make sure
you check the new items to protect your system against them!)

As a side benefit, setting this "kill bit" will also prevent the spyware Active-X from running,
in many cases, if it is already installed on your system.*

----------------------------

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/spywareguard.html

SpywareGuard provides a real-time protection solution against spyware that is a great addition
to SpywareBlaster's protection method.

An anti-virus program scans files before you open them and prevents execution if a virus is
detected - SpywareGuard does the same thing, but for spyware! And you can easily have an
anti-virus program running alongside SpywareGuard.


Features Listing: Fast scanning engine
Scans exe and cab files - the two most popular file types for distributing spyware
Signature-based scanning - for known spyware (list)
Heuristic/generic detection capabilities - some spyware programs can be detected even if the
code undergoes significant changes
Small size - with a small size and small definition sizes, download and updates are quick
SG Control Panel - provides easy access to help and integration options
SG LiveUpdate - provides an easy updating solution
Spyware files are blocked before being opened or run - they are not simply shut down after they
are loaded in memory (and after they have performed their tasks)
The full path to the spyware executable is provided on the alert screen
Once a spyware file is detected and blocked from running, the options are provided to either
continue or to delete the spyware file
It's a free download


3 . If required , install below , find out the brand of your HD & use the diagnostics .

http://www.aida32.hu/aida-features.php?bit=32

AIDA32 (freeware) is a professional system information, diagnostics and benchmarking program
running on Win32 platforms. It extracts details of all components of the PC. It can display
information on the screen, print it, or save it to file in various formats like HTML, CSV or XML.
For corporate users, AIDA32 offers command-line switches, network audit and audit statistics,
remote system information and network management.
Starting with version 3.00, AIDA32 is released in 3 different variants. Please read the product
matrix below to find out what are the advantages of each variants.

Features:
full hardware & software information on 80 pages
built-in hardware database: detailed information about 21000 components
phyisical information for CPU, motherboard, hard disk, optical drive
motherboard chipset, buses, sensor information
installed programs, event logs list
diagnostics module to reveal possible problems
memory benchmark
automatic audit via command-line switches
ADO/ODBC database support
remote control through TCP/IP network
32-bit low-level hardware detection
multi-threaded program model
full Windows XP compatibility
Iomega Active Disk support
English, Bulgarian, Croatian, Danish language module
Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian language module
Norwegian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish language module
Catalan, Portuguese, Slovak, Ukrainian language module (coming soon)

4 . If required , go to your Hard Drive brand & download their diagnostic program .

Maxtor's is called MaxBlast ,

http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/maxblast_plus_ii.htm

Seagate's are DiscWizard , DiscWizard Starter Edition & DiscWizard Online

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz_utilities.html

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html

Quantum's is DiskManager , now owned by Maxtor .

http://www.maxtor.com/Maxtorhome.htm

IBM have a selection , such as Drive Fitness Test .

http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Fujitsu's is OnTrack DiskGo ,

http://www.fcpa.com/cgi-bin/goFrames.cgi/support/su_drivers.html

Western Digital's is Data Lifeguard Tools ,

http://www.wdc.com/service/ftp/drives.html#dlgtools

Samsung's is ClearHDD Program ,

http://www.samsungelectronics.com/support/hdd/utilities/utilities_03.html

 

[agraub999]

jmatt,

Thank you for the great posting. OK, I have installed SpyBot-S&D and found about 40 red entries. Before I used Ad-aware and it showed that the system was clean. Next, I checked HDD with the IBM drive check utility - no errors as I suspected. I should wait until tomorrow to see if the problem is fixed because it needs at least 6-7 hours to have PC switched off. Honestly, I do not understand at all, why it does not appear, if I shut down the machine for the shorter period of couple of hours. If it is not fixed, probably, I will have to reinstall w2k, but it is really the last thing I would like to do.

 

[agraub999]

Extra interesting news this morning. As usually, I received i/o disk error and started DOS IBM diagnostic program. It found several corrupted sectors, but I decided NOT TO FIX them and rather wait for several minutes. Next w2k started smoothly and further disk check ups by the DOS utility could not find any problems. So, I have decided to do virus scan by several programs (I have been using Norton for last couple of years).

1. Sophos sis not find any problems
2. Panda Platinum 7.02 found FIVE (!) viruses on my HDD.

Honestly, I do not know what to think. Tomorrow, I will know for sure if the problem occurred due to the virus infection. Anyway, I cannot trust Norton anymore.