windows 7 takes forever to load + lost data

Dell XPS 1645 core i7, 4g ddr3 ram, 500g hard drive, windows 7( pretty sure it has the new service pack(1)).
It takes any where form a few extra minuets to about 10 to just load the login screen. the fast accuse never completely loads. but it can then take 30 minuets to a few hours to load after i put in my password. the first time it loaded, it went back to the way it looked when i first bought it. any file that was on the desktop was gone, all music wall gone, download folder gone. the only few things that the survived where some files that i have hidden in the program(86x) folder, and my ad-aware thing.

a few per-text things was in the bottom right hand corner it said something like "not original build" and some other thing about windows 7.

also i left my computer on, playing something off of youtube. just expecting it to go in to hibernate. came back and the stuff above happened

i have a feeling its a virus or thing bad

 

You could have a virus as some do hide many of your files. But because of the message at the bottom right corner check a couple of things to make sure you do not have a corrupted user account.

1) hit the Start button/orb at the bottom left and check that it is showing your usual user name at the top right of the Start menu.
2) check in Computer go to C: and then into Users folder and see which folders are listed. Are there any folder names you don't recognize?

 

that message comes and goes, it just came up on start up not to long ago but has since gone.

my name looks good and at first glance the C: users looks good to me. with the folders:
default user
public
TEMP
TEMP.Zachary-PC
Zachary

but they are all locked except public and i can not open them. thigh i should be on zachary. and also i should mention that i signed on a temp user when it finished loading.


also the computer goes pretty slow after i am on. and i did safe mode with the same problem.
just replaced my screen like a week ago though i seriously dont think that could be a problem

 

do you have a external hard drive connected by any chance? if so try disconnecting it and then boot up the PC.

 

The TEMP.Zachary-PC could have been a temporary account created because of a corrupt profile. That would explain why it looked like it was back to defaults previously but it wouldn't explain why, if you are now back on regular Zachary, your files aren't there. (They could still be within the folder Zachary if you kept them in the Documents folder.)

I think maybe doing a chkdsk on C: would be my first step to see if it can correct any corruption problems. In Computer right-click C: and select Properties and then Tools tab then Check Errors and tick both boxes and set it to run on next boot. Reboot and let it run and then see if Windows startup is faster.

One thought is that it might be worth going to Control Panel and Users and creating a new account with administrative privileges just to have a second account to login to while you troubleshoot.

The other option would be to attempt a System Restore but I think chkdsk should probably be done first. At least a chkdsk with just the first box checked to fix filesystem errors.

 

no, though i did have a few SDHC cards in not to long ago, and i mount my phone as a hard disk when i need to transfer files. but not currently, and the last time being about a day or so before the problem.

 

defiantly going to try when ever stops not responding. when i right click C: not responded me, then the start bar stop responding, then task manager. weak

 

yeah i final got it. windows boot manager the message says that there was a problem caused by unplugging a removable storage device. or a faulty hard drive or CD-rom drive

status: 0xc00000e9
info: and unexpected I/O error has occurred

i continue on to windows error recovery, and i launch the start-up repair and just goes back to the windows boot manger error message above.

 

From the Windows error recovery can you get to the screen with the five choices starting with Startup Repair and ending with Command Prompt? (Maybe hitting F8 during the boot screen and if you get the menu select Repair your Computer will get you there.) Your looking for the screen in step 6. of Option #2 in this guide: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html

From there I would choose Command Prompt and try the command chkdsk /f to see if that will run. Chkdsk /r looks for bad sectors but takes a lot of time and I just want to know if chkdsk will run at all.

I'm thinking a couple of things might be going on. A bad hard drive is most likely since there appears to be corruption. You said the screen was replaced was that because of dropping the laptop? Or possible a loose connection to the HD when reassembly took place.

 

Sorry, from the recovery command prompt the chkdsk command would be chkdsk c: /f

 

thats alright. i literally just got to the comand prompt. after like 3hours.
right now the chkdsk c:/f is verifying. and its starting to say file 2700 unreadable, file 2701 unreadable...

i replaced the screen my self because i punched it. i dont think the hard drive took really any shock.
i did a diagnostic (cause it seemed cool and might give some info) i didn't finish it but i got two errors. one said there was no inverter cable thing. i think that has something to do with the screen and if so i think its cause the screen is an led, so really no problem. but the second one was something like hard drive 0 error. cant remember details.

 

If it is finding unreadable files then most likely the HD is bad. It is unlikely even a chkdsk c: /r (which you can still try at the command prompt) can't stabilize the drive enough to get Windows running properly. And even a reformat and reload of Windows is not likely to be stable. The HD must be replaced.

A couple of things you can try:

1) Remove the HD and then re-install it to rule out a bad/loose connection.

2) Get the HD manufacturer's diagnostic tool to run a test on the HD to see if it can fix any errors. Laptop HD manufacturer's don't really have great utilities but you might get lucky if DELL uses Seagate or Western Digital drives. http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287 has links to most utilities. You would need the bootable ISO/CD version since Windows is unstable. Imgburn can write the ISO to a blank CD using the "Write IMAGE file to disc" option. Then boot from the CD and run both the SHORT and LONG/Extended tests. The LONG test usually has some ability to repair errors by moving information from bad sectors or if unfixable will tell you the drive must be replaced.

3) Download a Live Linux ISO such as Puppy Linux Lucid 5.2.8 and burn it to CD using imgburn or put on USB flash drive using LiveLinux Creator http://www.linuxliveusb.com/en/home. Then boot to it and if it can still read the HD you should be able to copy your important files to a USB flash drive or extrnal HD. Most likely your files would be within the Users\Zachary folder and its sub folders. Basic guide to using Puppy Linux for file recovery: http://help.artaro.eu/index.php/win...over-files-from-hard-disk-7.html#.TtRlIFaaeUk

If you have any questions or something else you want to try, ask. It just looks like the HD is having mechanical problems that software won't fix--random corruption which will probably get worse.

 

darn. well even though they all seem like work, i now feel optimistic as long as i can recover some files. thank you for all the help.

i did run the C:/f - i could type the whole report i guess, but i think some of the key parts are that there was:
repairing the unreadable security descriptors.
cleaning unused index entries
replacing bad clusters in logfile
correcting errors in the master file
correcting errors in the volume bitmap
windows made corrections to file system

its been running c:/r for some time now but its at stage 4of5 and so far its done
windows replaced bad clusters in file () of name ()
its done that about 4 different times but its been stuck for a long time on 74 of 10224

 

The HD diagnostic and/or Linux aren't as bad as they sound. After downloading the ISO file(s) run imgburn on a working computer. Choose "Write Image File to Disc" and then browse to your ISO file. Hit the burn icon at the bottom of window. Takes a minute or so to burn the CD. (Guide: ) Then put the CD in laptop and boot from the CD (F12 will give you a boot menu to select CD if it doesn't automatically boot from CD).

The manufacturer diagnostic only gives you a couple of options. Short test tells if SMART status is bad on the drive. It just gives you and idea if the drive is at fault or if it is just a problem with the Windows installation. Long test tries to fix errors by moving data from bad sectors. Too many bad sectors and it will fail.

Puppy Linux will look much like a Windows desktop. Your HD will be shown as an icon at the bottom left of the screen probably labeled sda1 or possibly sda2. Double click the icon and you should see your C: drive as in Windows Explorer. Navigate to Users\Zachary\Desktop and then attempt to find your music etc. folders. If you are copying to USB drive there will be an icon at the bottom left for sdb1 or sdc1 (the third letter will change) click that icon to open a second window and drag and drop. You will be asked if you want to copy or move so you choose copy. This will write the files to the USB device.

****
The first three stages of chkdsk will fix problems with the file system. Stage 4 (which takes the longest) tries to read every sector of the HD and if any are bad, attempts to read the data and move it to a good sector. If it finds lots of bad sectors then the drive is probably bad. Stage 5 is another short test.

If when you started running chkdsk /r after running chkdsk /f it again found many problems in stages 1-3 then most likely you have a bad HD. If it didn't find any new errors then you may be OK. See how it goes in stage 4. More than an hour is a bad sign.

 

stage 1-3 went good, didnt find anything. but stage 4 has been going on for at least 3 hours, it moved on form last time but its only got from 74 of 10224 to now 86 of 10224. and its been on 86 for whats seems even longer

 

Maybe let it run a bit longer to see if it is just the early sectors of the drive that are having trouble. If it doesn't pick up in another hour then perhaps switching to the Manufacturer's diagnostic or Puppy would be advisable.

As long as stages 1-3 went OK, Puppy should be able to read the file system and copy your files.

Or, the HD manufacturer's diagnostic will be more powerful and give you an a more definitive answer on the status of the drive. The extended test will take a fairly long time but it shouldn't be three or more hours. Usually it will just quit if it finds too many errors rather than try to repair them all.

Do you know the HD manufacturer?

*****
Also, did you try restarting after the chkdsk /f and before the chkdsk /r? If so did it get further than the recovery options?

 

yeah bad new, i guess. i stoped it on the c:/r after being stuck for about 5-7 hours at one point. turned it back on and got a SMART failure predicted on hard disk 0, the HD is hitachi

 

The HD is probably bad. Definitely no good for an OS drive.

I'd unplug the laptop and take the battery out overnight and let everything cool down. Tomorrow give the Puppy CD a try and get whatever data files you can recover. Basically, even a single bad sector in a critical system file can keep the OS from running, but most data files will work fine if a tiny piece of information is missing or damaged so most of your music or such should be okay.

Ill looked at the hitachi utility to see if its extended test attempts repairs, but didn't see any mention of it. http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/downloads/Dft32_User_Guide_415.pdf I'll read more carefully but it looks like if you have a bad SMART status your only option to attempt to reuse the drive is to write zeros to the drive which overwrites your data. Even then, not really good enough for an OS drive in my experience.

I think you are looking at replacing the drive and reinstalling the OS.

 

sound all good to me. i got puppy on a disk ready to, retrieve all files that i can. then get a new hard drive. and then a external hard drive lol. see how it goes tomorrow

 

sorry for the long wait, my other computer has started to crap out. puppy has been working well but slow, its taking a hour+ per-folder. probably goin to mid day tomorrow for all the files. really, thanx for all the help. i saved so much money doing this my self than taking it somewhere. if you got a personal suggestion for HDs or HD an brand let me know.


Thank you Major Geek for the use of these forms.
And thank you sach2

SPC Zachary Y. (spc is my real life rank lol)

 

Hi,

Copying from a failing HD can be slow. Puppy is probably running fine on the computer but reading from the faulty drive is slow. I would let things run as you have them set. If some files fail to copy, you can always try again later. Sometimes giving a failing HD a cool down period (no power to the computer--battery or AC) can give it new life for a few hours. Even after replacing the drive, if you save the bad drive you can always go back and try to retrieve the data later.

I've asked an MG regular for a replacement HD suggestion because I have little experience with laptop drives and know HD prices have jumped recently. I hope he will help you find a suitable replacement.

****
If money is tight you can always call Dell and ask if the HD is still under warranty. With an i7, the notebook can't be that old that Dell wouldn't have to at least consider replacing the HD, since a HD should last 3 years. The notebook may be out of warranty but the HD should be still their responsibility. (I have never fought this, and just buy a new HD because it is easier, but am curious of Dell's response since HD manufacturers say it is the OEM company that has to ask for a replacement HD). Just a thought, and I am curious as to how Dell handles the situation, when a computer is only 1 or 2 years old and out of warranty but the HD goes bad.

 

Sach: Sorry for taking so long to post - it's been a crazy past few days....

My advice on a replacement is to go for a WD Scorpio Black series - they cost about $30 more than standard grade drives; however my experience is their failure rate is far below Seagate, Hitachi or WD's Blue Series.

With HDD prices thru the roof right now, do a realistic estimate of how much data you'll be storing on the drive. If you are an audio/video pack rat or store tons of hi-res photos, it might be worth the extra few bucks for a 500GB. If not, a 320GB should be fine (I have a 320 with about 1000 .mp3 music files, thousands of photos and a few videos; it's only about 40% full.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...corpio black&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=100

Hope this helps.

 

Yes, that was a bit more than anticipated. But quality is big with me so a 320g wd black looks good for me. The 500g that I had was only maybe 25% full.
If I get a hold of dell and ask about their policy on HD I'll post it.