Windows is frozen

[scklifasovskiy]

Hi all,
One of my clients have Vista.
Recently , after a log-in it lets you do something but then after 10-12 sec -- frozen.
Mouse still moves but you can't access anything. Plenty of space on HD and sufficient memory(3G).
However, when I try to use Recovery -- it says it cannot be done because of some errors on HD.
BUT Diagnostics say all is well and even when I try to scan/fix problems on a HD (after cold reboot) -- it scans for a long time...does something -- but it doesn't fix anything. Still when you log-in story is the same.

Any suggestions?
Thanks

 

[xit]

Sounds for the world like a failing hard drive, which diagnostics are you using? I have had drives test good but actually be defective. try a new drive.

 

[scklifasovskiy]

thats what i think too... always good idea new HD and fresh install...BUT HD contains lots of info client likes to keep -- can I do something about it?

 

[xit]

Sure, if the drive spins up you can slave it to the computer and try to save what you need. If the drive is not too screwed use a program such as Acronis and see if it will go through the clone process. If the data is very valuable then your client may consider having the data professionally recovered & that is quite costly. Good luck

 

[scklifasovskiy]

Yes, drive spins just fine ...
can i try to upgrade system to a Win7 without formatting? It should keep at least docs, right?

 

[xit]

If you want to save any data, don't fool around with the drive as it is probably ready to go south, save what you can then replace the drive if it is in fact defective. Once a drive starts to fail you may have little time to work with it.

 

[goombawaho]

If you want to save any data, don't fool around with the drive as it is probably ready to go south, save what you can then replace the drive if it is in fact defective. Once a drive starts to fail you may have little time to work with it.

Excellent advice for a failing hard drive, but I don't know if we have established that fact yet. Still, good idea to back up your data somewhere if you have something big enough to store it on. Then I would use the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility versus the built-in utility from the PC manufacturer (if that's what you had used) to determine 100% whether it's failing or not. You can't make a good decision about buying a new drive before you know.

Check here for your brand:

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287