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Possible Hardrive Failure?

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Norseguy

Technical User
Aug 22, 2007
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Ok so I'm running Windows XP Home Edition service pack 2.

Problems became worse after I reformatted.

Even before I reformatted I was getting errors after booting up my computer and getting past the welcome screen saying error something could not be found or something in system 32 was missing .dll or something If I remember correctly, I reformatted before and had no problems, then months later I reformatted again and the errors started appearing after the welcome screen, this time I have had no errors after getting past the welcome screen.

Anyway, after I reformatted I tried installing a few programs and was getting errors such as disk C can't be read and such. It told me my disks could be scratched, however the disks where in perfect condition and I had installed the program before I reformatted with no problems.

So I reformatted again, and was still getting the same problems, after that I wanted to make 2 partions anyway one for songs and media and such and another for everything else so I went to do that, then I changed my mind, and just deleted my partions and made a new one to install windows xp on.

Ok so I was told I should not try the "quick" format method by someone over messenger, and I didn't press the option that said quick when I was reformatting. After I had wen't through the first couple of parts I was at the installing windows xp part and was getting errors such as.

- Windows could not load the installer for disk drive.

- Windows could not load the cdrom.

Each of these were telling me to contact my hardware vendor for assistance.

- Cannot start this hardware, terminal server mouse driver. Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware, the driver may be corrupt or missing.

- Terminal server keyboard error.

After it finalized the installation and said it windows was installed or whatever my computer reboots and it gives me a message like "windows did not start successfully. Recent hardware or software changes might have caused this."

So I tried it again, this long method of formatting and I seen some of the same errors about cdrom and disk drive and I also seen, "windows could not load the installer for battery."

Ends up that wasn't going to work so I had to used the quick formatting option. Long method wouldn't work because every time It would just sit and reboot itself after it got to the "windows did not load successfully" screen giving me the option to start windows normally or safe mode, or safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, or your most recent settings which worked. I tried all of these and none seemed to work, it would just reboot my pc. It was like in a constant loop.

The quick option worked fine and everything installed, I haven't tried my programs yet, because if I'm having a hardrive problem I'd like to get that fixed before bothering to install things on it.

I've had this hardrive for 4 or 5 years now ever since it came with the pc, it was an brand name computer to start and I changed the case, motherboard, video card, the power supply 550w came with the case, and I added more ram, but the hardrive and cables that came with the origional computer I never replaced.

Aside from that my 120mm fan has stopped running in the back of my case it rotates just fine its not caught up in dust or anything, and it does have power because it worked before, so I might just have to replace it.

The fan over my processor has been making a lot of noise recently as well and spinning very fast sometimes for several hours at a time or sometimes at random moments, and its very noisey, yet again none of this happened until I reformatted my pc.

So I'm thinking I need to replace my hardrive, my power supply, or my processor.

My hardrive is a Hitachi, I have tried a diagnostic tool but an error appeared saying "File not found: scsioat.dll".

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
 
It sounds like your hard drive is failing. Get another one & try again.
If your processor fan is noisy, you could try cleaning it up. This sometimes works, but not always. If it doesn't work replace the fan & heatsink, unless you can get a fan that will fit the heatsink.
I expect it is just a coincidence that things started making noises etc. after the re-install.
It is fairly old kit now & things do start to break down.
 
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