My computer doesn't have a problem

Started by DGuller, August 20, 2009, 08:37:35 PM

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DGuller

Just kidding, of course it does.  A fucking big one at that.  Somehow my hard drive is corrupted, or so it seems.  I started having problems yesterday, so I did a full checkdisk this morning, and it only made things worse.  After checkdisk completed after many hours, my Windows couldn't start, it went into that perpetual rebooting mode.  Argh, how the fuck does that happen to a 1.5 month old hard drive?

I installed another copy of Vista onto the SSD flash drive that I just bought, and that's how I can work on this computer while I consider my options.  For some reason my PC can't start without a Windows setup disk, probably due to me not doing some step to dual-boot properly.

Man, it's like I'm Mr. Death to every computer component that comes in contact with me.

Darth Wagtaros

Interesting that a chkdsk could fuck up Windows.  Have you tried starting in Safemode? 

Some vendors have diagnostics you can run upon bootup.  Some, in fact, are  abitch to make a return to without getting some lameass error message.

PDH!

DGuller

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on August 20, 2009, 08:43:02 PM
Interesting that a chkdsk could fuck up Windows.  Have you tried starting in Safemode? 

Some vendors have diagnostics you can run upon bootup.  Some, in fact, are  abitch to make a return to without getting some lameass error message.
Yep, tried to start every which way, same thing.  Tried the repair tool on the Windows setup disk, it said it fixed something twice, to no actual effect.  Upon a third time it gave up and said that it couldn't fix what was wrong.

I guess the next thing to try would be to reinstall Vista on top of the corrupted version.

DGuller

Another puzzling thing is that my hard drive seems perfectly accessible, although I have no way of checking the integrity of the files on it.

Grey Fox

Sounds like it's windows that is the problem. Maybe it cant find boot.ini anymore?
Colonel Caliga is Awesome.

Barrister

Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

starbright

I heard that running checkdisk just makes things worse if the drive is broken and you should check SMART before you try.

DGuller

Quote from: Grey Fox on August 20, 2009, 09:01:38 PM
Sounds like it's windows that is the problem. Maybe it cant find boot.ini anymore?
No, there was definitely something wrong with the hard drive, even before Windows refused to boot.  I reinstalled Vista onto the hard drive, and so far so good.  Unfortunately reinstalling Vista kind of pushes you back to square one, which I hoped wouldn't happen.  I have to reinstall all the programs to run them again.  I still have no idea what went wrong in the first place.

DGuller

Quote from: starbright on August 20, 2009, 10:40:08 PM
I heard that running checkdisk just makes things worse if the drive is broken and you should check SMART before you try.
What's SMART?

Ideologue

Quote from: Barrister on August 20, 2009, 10:20:17 PM
My computer doesn't have a problem. :)
Yes it does.  It's a Mac, and nothing can ever fix that.
Kinemalogue
Current reviews: The 'Burbs (9/10); Gremlins 2: The New Batch (9/10); John Wick: Chapter 2 (9/10); A Cure For Wellness (4/10)

Threviel

And here I thought that this was about you getting a Mac.

DGuller

Quote from: Threviel on August 21, 2009, 12:57:21 PM
And here I thought that this was about you getting a Mac.
I'm not comfortable enough with my lack of masculinity to go that route.

MadImmortalMan

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on August 20, 2009, 08:43:02 PM
Interesting that a chkdsk could fuck up Windows.  Have you tried starting in Safemode? 


If the problem is physical (bad sectors) then chkdsk or any similar operation that involves working the drive can make it worse very fast.
"Stability is destabilizing." --Hyman Minsky

"Complacency can be a self-denying prophecy."
"We have nothing to fear but lack of fear itself." --Larry Summers


DGuller

Quote from: starbright on August 21, 2009, 04:41:11 PM
Quote from: DGuller on August 20, 2009, 10:49:59 PM
What's SMART?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

I thought you built computers.
I only built one computer, and it may not be an unqualified success, given the existance of this thread.