Hard drive won't install windows/says it's damaged

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by overdue82, Oct 12, 2007.

  1. overdue82

    overdue82 Private E-2

    I've had this Western Digital EIDE (WD Caviar SE 7200 RPM) 80GB Hard Drive for almost a year. I got it in December of 2006 as a gift. Yesterday, I had some problems with it via programs would take a while to load or if you'd drag a folder to move it, it would be very slow. (I'd do spyware, virus checks, and defragment it regularly by the way. I also use Tune-Up utilities to clean out the registry and clear the memory and such.) Then, my DVDrom started acting funny. Mind you it still works, but the tray doesn't shoot out very fast like it used to. It moves out extremely slow. When I had the WD drive hooked up in my computer and still had Windows XP working on it. I'd open the DVD drive by clicking the button. The drive would open for a second or two and then automatically close by itself! It would do the same thing after I'd burn a disc using Nero. It would burn, but when you click the next button on Nero it would open and close, open and close, and then Nero would not respond.

    I checked the drive for viruses and came up empty. I had a bit of spyware like four or five entries come up in Spybot. Nothing came up in Ad-Aware. But I was still having this slow and weird DVD problems. So I finally decided to just reformat the drive and thought everything would go back to normal. Well, I got the drive reformatted and all, but when I went to re-install Windows XP it came up with an error and said that the disk drive was damaged. So now I don't know what to do. I can't afford to go buy another hard drive and the warranty ran out about February of 2007. I don't recall ever having major problems with the drive. But all of a sudden it just started acting weird. I also remember a few days before the DVD drive problem that my recycle bin was full. I clicked on it and there was nothing it in. So I tried to empty it and a message came up saying "Are you sure you want to delete the folder 'Windows'." Which was weird because I never put the Windows folder in the recycle bin. I suppose perhaps a virus or a trojan could've escaped the virus search, but I have no idea. And now I can't say for sure because of the reformatting and disk damaged thing.

    Is there anything I can do to save this drive? I got the drive because my old 30gb is from about 2003 (Compaq Presario 6515cl) and 30gb isn't enough space for me. It's such a shame because the drive isn't even that old and already it seems to be dead.
     
  2. overdue82

    overdue82 Private E-2

    I forgot to add the following information.

    The Compaq 30GB drive is my backup (slave) drive that I used with the 80GB. I had Windows XP installed on the backup drive as well which is a good thing because I would've lost all my stored files if I had to install WinXp on it.

    When I tried to re-install Windows on the 80GB. I had it set as it was originally (no jumpers for single - according to the box it said that was okay) and I disconnected the slave drive just for a safety measure. Never really had any problems conflicting between the two drives either.
     
  3. padams

    padams First Sergeant

    How long have you had the DVD drive? Could it be possible that your DVD drive is crapping out?

    I would try a couple things if it was me: Boot up to windows with your other hdd and see if you can see the 80GB drive, Remove the second hdd and try installing windows with just the 80GB drive hooked up, use an old CD-ROM or DVD drive (or borrow one from someone you know) and try installing windows that way.

    Hope this helps! Keep me posted.
     
  4. overdue82

    overdue82 Private E-2

    I've had the DVDrom since August 2005. It's a LiteOn. I bought it on eBay brand new. In all the time I've had it, I haven't had one problem until yesterday. Like I said, the drive still reads and writes. It's just the door of it acts funky and the whole opening/closing thing with the 80gb drive.

    I can't boot up to Windows because Windows is no longer on the 80GB drive. I reformatted it twice and now it tells me that I only have about 30GB of space on the 80GB. When I reformatted the drive the first time I had already removed the second drive. I never put the second drive (the one I'm currently using now) back in until this morning. The 80gb drive is sitting in it's box holder. I could try installing Windows with my CDrom drive, but I don't think the cd/dvd drive is the problem. I use the DVDrom as my main drive so maybe that drive is messing up. But I still don't understand how the DVDrom drive could effect the hard drive considering the error says it's the hard drive with the error.
     
  5. plodr

    plodr Major Geek Super Extraordinaire

    Go here http://support.wdc.com/download/ and download Data Lifeguard Diagnostics so you can check if the hd really is bad. Make sure you select WD Caviar SE 7200 pretty far down the list. If you have someone who can burn the CD for you, that might be the proper way to go.
    http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...HQ9ZGF0YSBkaWFnbm9zdGljcw**&p_li=&p_topview=1
    Disconnect the 30 gig drive, connect the 80 gig back up, put the CD in the drive and boot it up.

    Here is a listing of possible error codes you might see
    http://support.wdc.com/techinfo/general/errorcodes.asp#v10
     
  6. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    You could also attatch your 'faulty 80gig drive as the slave drive to your 30gig drive.
    Then
    Click start, right click My Computer, click disk management, right click on the 80gig drive, click the check for errors box, and Windows can attempt a repair , and will make any bad sectors 'dissappear ' . If it shows a box to tick to repair, or fix the drive, then tick it.
    It may want to shut down, and restart to do it, but it might run as it is not in use as it is slaved.
    You can also choose to format from there, in that right click menu, after a check run.
     
  7. overdue82

    overdue82 Private E-2

    Okay, if I hook it up as a slave will it mess up my current drive that I'm using if it does have a virus or something on it? I can't afford to lose the current drive I'm using because I still have to backup all my files. And it's the only drive I have left that's actually working.

    plodr, I just downloaded the diagnostic tool from WD so if what baklogic says doesn't work I'm going to try the cd I burned.

    By the way, my DVDrom is still acting funny when I burn data dvds and cds. It still opens and closes by itself. I did a search on google and some say it's like a final breath for the drive, but others say it could be due to a virus/trojan. They also said it could be the drive button getting stuck, but I don't think it's stuck.

    I also have a question. If I did have a virus/trojan on my 80gb drive could it have spread to the 30gb drive when I had it connected as the slave? Because it seems like this drive is going a little slow too. Of course, that could be because I have a little less than a gig of free space and have never defragmented this drive.

    I also just ran a trial version of AVG to see if I had any virus and it came up with 0 threats. I also tried to scan the dvdrom but it said it couldn't open it. Whatever that means.
     
  8. overdue82

    overdue82 Private E-2

    I ran the Data Lifeguard Diagnostics through my cdrom drive with the Extended Test and it came up with no errors whatsoever. So I decided to try and install Windows again - through the cdrom drive - and it worked. I'm typing from the 80gb drive right now. It still seems weird that some applications zoom in and out of the taskbar fairly slowly..or maybe that's just normal for a pc. I guess everything is okay with the drive now. But I'm still a bit skeptical after that whole 'this disk is damaged' thing. Should I be?

    The dvdrom drive is still acting funky. The tray still comes out really slowly. I tried to back stuff up on my 30GB drive after I last posted here and it wouldn't even burn this time. It seemed like Nero locked up but there wasn't any 'Not Responding' message on the titlebar. It brought it up to the burning screen and just sat there with no 'burning bars'. I did check the driver for the dvdrom and it says it's up to date. By the way, I have a Lite-On DVDRW SOHW-812S. I'm not sure there is anything else I could possibly do about the dvdr. I guess I may just have to break down and buy another dvdrom drive.
     
  9. overdue82

    overdue82 Private E-2

    I'm still have a weird problem with the drive. It takes an extremely long time for it to shut down. It can't be too many programs because I haven't really installed anything since I re-installed Windows.
     
  10. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    So many reasons for slow sratup, and shutdown - from Firewall/antivirus/adobe/addins .
    From a little collection- have a run through these.
    ---------------------------------------
    If you press control/alt/delete to bring up the running processes's, you should be able to see what is still running , at shutdown.
    Check Error and Warning Reports appearing in the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for the last boot in the System log in Event Viewer
    To save my typing, Microsft explains how
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us
    ----------------------------------------------------
    Also,You can try Force Exit
    Start > Run and type: regedit
    Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Desktop
    Double-click on AutoEndTasks
    Change the value from 0 to 1
    Close the registry editor and reboot your machine.
    The above registry tweak is sometimes referred to as a "Force Exit" to
    automatically close applications that are not responding at shutdown. When an
    application fails to respond a dialog box is displayed prompting the user to
    either end it now or to wait. Enabling the value AutoEndTasks will take care of
    the non-responding application without user intervention.

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    It could be that your virtual memory pagefile is being cleared at shutdown.
    Go to Administrative Tools - Local Security Policy - Security Settings -
    Local Policies - Security Options and scroll down to Shutdown: Clear Virtual
    Memory Pagefile. If it is enabled, click click it and disable it. That
    will speed up the shutdown process
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    If you want more configuration tips , as long as sp2, and uopdates are up to date
    The safe and necessary services are explained here
    http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    If you are using an Nvidia driver, it can affect shutdown times , and startup-
    If you have you can try -
    GO TO START, RIGHT CLICK MY COMPUTER, then click manage, click services, and applications, click services, and then Right click on the file "NVIDIA Driver Helper Service" and then select STOP, and then click to change to manual set at Manual
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Good luck, keep us posted.
     
  11. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    You will find difficulty in burning to the 30gig drive as it is probably too low on space - Windows needs 1-to 2 gig of free space, or, more to function properly.
    If the 30 gig is connected as a slave, you should just be able to copy from the 80gig, and paste into the 30 gig.
    If a particularly large file it will just act like you have said.
     
  12. overdue82

    overdue82 Private E-2

    Going through the processes. I see about five svchost.exe's. Two of them are Network, two are system, and the last one is local. Why so many? Everything else seems to be ok.

    I changed the Force Exit from 0 to 1. I restarted the computer and it shutdown super quick. I assume this is what made it shutdown so fast. :)

    I went to check the pagefile and that was already disabled.

    Speaking of the services.msc thing. I used to have 3 services disabled. One of them was Workstation, I think something called RPC, and I forget what the last one was. Do you know what I'm talking about? I'm trying to remember what this was for but can't remember.

    I always used to have SP1 on my system because I once tried SP2 and ended up having to reformat the computer again (on my 30GB drive). This time I've installed SP2 to see if it fixes anything, but so far I don't see the difference.

    I couldn't find the NVIDIA Driver Helper Service in services.msc.

    I have one more problem to add. This drive used to be super quiet. Even when I'm not using the computer I hear a really loud garbling noise. It sounds like it's working..you know but it's really loud. It never used to be so loud before. Should I be worried about this? I made sure the drive was securely in the holder.

    Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. I'm going to re-hook it up as a slave so I can try and burn it onto a data dvd because it's never going to fit on a regular cd. Each file is a gig and I did notice that I only had about 2GB of the 30GB left on the drive.
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2007
  13. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    To be sure its the hard drive, and not the dvd rom, you can shut down, remove power lead, and then disconnect the dvd drive, temporarily.
    If it is the hard drive, the warning you had should be noted, and I would think about getting a replacement hard drive, if you can.
    Check it with Western digitals own tool
    http://www.majorgeeks.com/Western_Digital_DLG_Diagnostics_d3505.html
    I am not sure if this is the one plodr gave you.

    When you had the disk drive error - could it have been referring to the dvd rom drive?, can you remember exactly what it said ?
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2007
  14. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    If you scroll down the blackviper link, to the bottom, all services are listed, so you can see if they are needed., and what is necessary, or, best left alone.
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2007
  15. overdue82

    overdue82 Private E-2

    Yeah, I already got that tool directly from the Western Digital website.

    Before I posted my thread on here, I tried re-installing Windows XP after I formatted and that's when I was told by the installer that the hard drive was damaged. I went back to the menu and I clicked on R for recovery through the Windows cd (even though I had already reformatted the drive) and it brought me to the DOS command prompt. I did CHKDSK to check the disk and even that came up and said the disk was damaged and corrupt.

    When I checked out the hard drive with the diagnostic tool I downloaded from Western Digital. Both the quick and extended tests came up with zero errors. But yet, the drive is making scary loud noises. It's working, but it's very loud when it's "working".

    However, when I did the diagnostic and re-installed windows I never got an error saying the disk was damaged. Although, when I ran the diagnostic tool and reinstalled windows I was using the cdrom drive. But that still doesn't explain the creepy noises the hard drive is making now. I don't know how to put it. The sounds coming from the drive sound normal I guess. Because they all make noises when they are working and doing their stuff, right? It's just the noises are a lot louder than they were before I reformatted the drive.

    Yeah, I have no idea what any of the stuff on that site even means. I read the all the stuff next to the dots and got lost. The table just plain out confused me. No, I'm not being sarcastic or stupid either. I really don't understand it.
    I just wanted to know why someone on this site (or maybe it was the computer cops site) a long time ago told me to stop the service for workstation and a couple others (which I don't remember at the moment). I have no idea what they do or anything and I can't remember why they told me to do so. I tried looking it up on google, but couldn't find anything similar - at least nothing sparked any memories as to why. I *think* it was because of some pop-up on my computer trying to access something and couldn't when I'd restart the computer. But that was a while ago so maybe it doesn't even matter now. I dunno.
     

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