Scandisk reports bad sectors...HELP

[reesa97]

I changed the battery in my son's computer...It's a large watch style battery. The computer seemed ok I had to change the time and date though. Then I stupidly installed a game that is for Windows 95. I'm running Windows 98 second edition. After that Go back reported it found errors and it needed to uninstall then reinstall then I had to run scandisk with surface analysis. I also received this message from windows...One or more of your disk drives may have developed bad sectors. Press any key to run ScanDisk with surface analysis on these drives...Ok so I let Goback uninstall and reinstall and then attempted a surface scan. Then goback wouldn't let me get back to windows because I had errors and it would uninstall itself and then reinstall. Then find errors and start all over again. I uninstalled goback because at this point it was useless and wouldn't allow me to load windows. Before I uninstalled goback a message would pop up during start up that my display settings or adapter were wrong but that hasn't happened since I uninstalled goback? When I tried to use scandisk in thorough it freezes at about 1/4 of the way through. So I installed Norton disk doctor. I can do a full surface scan with disk doctor. It found errors, bad sectors and fixed all. So I thought all was well and installed aol and during the install I got the message error writing to disk. But installation completed. But when I restarted I got the message...One or more of your disk drives may have developed bad sectors. Press any key to run ScanDisk with surface analysis on these drives...again. Also aol couldn't find my modem so I removed it and let windows put it back in and it was ok for the first try but then failed again. So I'm in the process of doing a full surface scan again with disk doctor and so far no new errors no new bad sectors. It takes days to finish. Any suggestion? Did I kill the hard drive? Goback's website suggests this...

Situation:
When attempting to install GoBack on a Windows 95/98/Me computer, you see the message "Run Scandisk in thorough mode.."

The installation stops. If you run ScanDisk, no problems are found.

Solution:
To fix this, you must disable and then reenable virtual memory:

1. Right-click the My Computer icon on the Windows desktop and click Properties.
2. Click the Performance tab.
3. Click the Virtual Memory button.
4. Select "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings" and then select "Disable Virtual Memory (Not Recommended)."
5. Click OK and then restart the computer when prompted.
6. After Windows restarts, repeat steps 1 through 3.
7. Select "Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings" to reenable it, and then click OK. Restart the computer when prompted.
8. Install GoBack.

But I'm not sure if it really applies. I haven't defragmented yet. Please help! Reesa - mother of a really pissed off son...lol

 

[fenix]

Wow, that Goback sounds like a hassle. And yes, slipping time is a good indication of a dying cmos battery, but be aware of another scenario that you will see lost time.

If a computer stays on without rebooting for days/weeks/months, the system tray clock will lose time. The OS clock loses milliseconds for every input/output function that takes place in the computer. (and there's a bunch) After days/weeks/months, these can add up to a significant time loss.

Windows time is relative. When Windows boots, it sets it's clock to the real time clock.

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I'm not seeing the connection to chaning the CMOS battery and having a hard drive probem. I never used goback and it looks like a really long and painful way of uninstalling a program or doing a registry restore to a previous time when all was good. I just use scanreg /restore from a true DOS prompt and take it back. Scanreg /restore gives you 4 different days (choices) by default. Then Dell and Gateway started automating this process (I think starting with ME)and you could restore back to ANY point in time>

Not sure if I follow you completely: you're saying that after you changed your battery, everything was ok until you loaded a Win95 prog ??? (Why didn't you just uninstall it in Control Panel Add/Remove Programs ? )

Just a guess, but the program might have loaded 16bit drivers somewhere that they aren't welcome and are you saying that the program being there is causing problems ?

Do you need to save any data on the hard drive ?

If not, I'd fdisk/format/ and reinstall the OS, or just get a new hard drive (that's compatible with your present bios if you don't want to have to upgrade your bios.)

What kind of computer/motherboard/bios ?

It's strange that Norton Disk Doctor passes and MS scandisk hangs.....hmmmmm, but it sounds like your hard drive is intermittently failing> It's not if they go bad, it's when ! The average life is about 5-7 years, some go in 2 or 3, some last over 10.

 

[reesa97]

Hi thanks for replying! I tried to remove the program in the add remove programs but it wasn't listed. It was directly in the c drive instead of program files (C:/Topgun)
I deleted it's folder though. I probably should have moved it into program files and removed it from the add/remove programs option. The computers a Systemac. I'm not sure about the motherboard or BIOS. My mother in law bought it and it's always seemed to have problems. I read in microsoft that if a file path is to long scan disk will freeze. But I'm not sure if that's why the disk doctor works and not scan disk. Disk doctor is about half way done and the only space left to check is unused space. There hasn't been any errors found.

There's nothing important on the hard drive. But I'm afraid to start all over. If I format I'm afraid it will end up being a paperweight.

I reinstalled windows 98 over the current windows 98 and it went through no problem. No errors or anything. If I do fdisk/format/ and reinstall the OS do you know where I can get step by step instructions and what can go wrong and how to recover if it does fail? Thanks again. Oh and if it did install 16 bit drivers how would i fix that? There's no conflicts in the device manager. Ok thanks again! Reesa

 

[TonyBose]

Fenix,

I'm not surprised at all by Norton Disk Doctor saying a drive is "good" or "repaired" when Windows Scandisk says it isn't. I've seen it several times.

Although I have Norton's tools installed, I rarely run them. In fact, on my Kid's PC I stripped the useable portions of Norton's System Tools (running them as "stand-alones&quot and discarded everything else. There are far too many RELIABLE tools available.

...Mac

Humpty Dumpty was pushed!!

 

[fenix]

ok good, so 98 is running with no problems, correct ?
do you still want to install W2K ?
And WHY if I may ask. (Do you need file level security and/or are you going to set up a network ? )

Do you have a W2K full install disk ?
(There's a few ways to load 2K )
----------------------------------------------------
But the way I understand it, 98 is more suitable for gaming and active X issues and has a better selection of drivers than 2K..

fdisking and formatting aren't that complicated and it can be written out fairly easily.


For starters (and a good thing to have in general), make a 98 start up floppy. You can check your partitions and FAT type in the fdisk utility without doing what is commonly called 'fdisking', meaning deleting all partitions and repartitioning the hard drive and setting up more than one logical drives if desired.

But you need to get the model of the Systemax in case we need to access the bios menu. The type of bios can probably be found from the model # of the computer.

Check out this website in the mean time. It looks like they have good tech support. Click on "For support on your Systemax PC please click HERE" on the lower left. But it looks like you need the serial # of the computer to use that function.

 

[fenix]

oops.......

http://www.systemax.com/

 

[reesa97]

When my mother in law had the computer all her grandchildren used it. One grandkid would hide pictures, files, etc in the windows folder or anywhere he felt like. They messed with just about everything. That would really be the only reason I would want to start over and reinstall. The disk doctor is at 59%. When that's done I guess I will see if everythings ok. I've never been able to run a thorough scan disk on this computer even when my mother in law had it. I checked with systemac's website and it really didn't give me anymore info. For now I'm gonna see how it goes after the disk doctor's done. Hopefully it will be ok. Thanks for all the info!!! Reesa

 

[realm174]

You could also try running Spinrite, which does a more thorough disk scan and in most cases, repairs the drive without losing any data.

Cheers,

Realm174