HD w/ 22% Bad Sectors

Laptop has been really slowing down, so I decided to restore it back to factory settings. Pulled all my files off and popped in the OS Reinstallation CD. Partway through the restore process I get blue screen of death:

Problem detected . . . computer shut down to prevent damage. Stop error screen . . .

Stop: 0x0000007E (0xc0000005, 0xf748e0bf, 0xf748e0bf, 0xf78d9f08)
pci.sys – address f748e0bf base at f7487000, datestamp 3c0bfadb

Ran chkdsk (found errors & fixed), chkdsk/r, chkds/f.
Ran Memtest86 overnight. 20 passes and 0 problems.
Ran HD Sentinel. Overview reports says: 167 (22%) bad sectors . . . may form continuous areas.

HD is by Western Digital. They have a diagnostic software, which i loaded and ran. It passed the extended test.

I tried running the OS re-installation process again and it failed - same error as before.

I ran HD Sent again, and still have 167 bad sectors.
The WD diagnostic software does have 2 "Write Zeros" functions.

I only want the laptop for casual use - mostly web browsing. Not dependent on it for saving files - it is just been sitting for the last 6 months cause it has been so slow.

If I dont want to put money into it to replace the HD, do I have any options besides writing 0s over the drive and reinstalling the OS, apps/drivers? Will that even fix the problem?


Computer specs below. Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Allec

Win XP
Media Center Edition
Version 2002
Service Pack 3

Dell Inspiron 9400
Intel Core 2
T7200 @ 2.0 Ghz
1.99 GB

 

Writing zeros over the HDD will not repair bad sectors. The drive, at 22% bad sectors is no longer serviceable. If you watch Craigslist, you may find a good used drive for less then a new one but there are risks in buying used components.

 

if i overwrite with zeros should i at least be able to reinstall the os and avoid the blue screen of death?

 

If all you're wanting to do is surf the 'net, why not run the machine with a live Linux distro? We've got a couple of laptops here at the house (one old Sony 13", one newer Dell 15") that are only used for such a purpose - they both had bad hard drives, so now they run off of Mint disks.

No hassles about buying a drive and buying a Windows disk, or worrying about an antivirus suite...

 

the problem with a bad disk is tha tis keeps making new bad sectors
so even if you run checkdisk and mark out the bad disks that means nothing
soon you will get a new bad sector and then windows will be unbootable

well you can always go with a bartcd
you can boot your pc from cd into xp so you can surf the net
else you have to buy a new harddrive
second hand hard drive never
so there is options to use the drive now and save money to get hd later

 

I ran a full diagnostic test when I had bad sectors recently and I can say there was 10,000's. Couldn't access the HD so I ran a prog called 'HDD Regenerator' which fixed them, admittedly it was over a week 24/7 running but it did do the job.

 

Don't try to repair it. My experience is repaired hard disks work for a short time and then you are back in deep cold waters as sometimes you are not able to recover your data. I would advise you to get a new harddisk.

 

People seem to be misreading what matador7 said .............
Quote...I only want the laptop for casual use - mostly web browsing. Not dependent on it for saving files - it is just been sitting for the last 6 months cause it has been so slow. I dont want to put money into it to replace the HD, Please respond accordingly.

 

I understand that he doesn't want to spend any money on the laptop.

I have never seen a HDD with more then a few bad sectors be repaired with software and survive more then a couple of weeks. The sectors go bad because of physical defects on the surface of the platters in the drive. Software can not repair that. All it can do is remap the sectors but a drive that has 10,000 bad sectors will continue to generate more causing it to be unreliable.

Caliban suggested a Linux Live CD if you only want to browse the internet with it. That's probably the best option to use the machine without spending any money. If you can determine where the bad areas of the HDD are located, you may be able to create a Linux partition on the remaining good portion to save data and even create a swap file to improve performance.

 

well i sugest also a bart cd wich will be xp
and propably an os the op is familiar
and i suggest not to try to repair the hard drive cause it will
continue making new bad sectors
the drive is over
so his only solution is to make a bart cd with windows xp preinstall enviroment
that will let him browse the net

 

There is all so a item that i use in major crash's ultimate boot cd Works Well in most cases don't even need a HD lol.Just pop the CD the Cd Rom and it will boot windows off the Cd it self.

 

so i took the advice that i wasn't eager to hear - bought a new HD. popped it in, everything started to load - happily went to go make some espresso.

upon returning i found the BLUE FRAKING SCREEN OF DEATH ! ! ! !

same error as before.

thoughts?

 

Does your install CD include SP2 or SP3? If the error still relates to pci.sys, people have resolved the problem by slipstreaming the latest SP into their install CD.

Other reasons could be bad install media or a bad optical drive.

 

disk does not comment on service pack. back of disk is pristine, so assume that is not the problem. CD drive worked for playing music and burning CDs, so am guessing that is not it either.

 

Put the CD in the drive, right click the drive in Computer, select explore. There should be some files in the root directory. Double click the readme file. It should say what SP you have. Also look for Win51 files with a SP2 or SP3 extension.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1AcNqcvwaZc/TevEXsn8PCI/AAAAAAAAAI0/wUN_jR1sK7M/s1600/00.gif

 

found read me file and poked through Read1st, Set up, and Release Notes. did not find mention of service pack or SP. used ctrl-f to make sure i did not miss it.

found WIN51 and WIN51IC - neither have an SP# extension as shown in your screen shot. file type simply says "File".

 

when i search the cd for "SP", i do find SP1 in the I386 folder.

 

I would slipstream your install CD with SP3 and then try the install. Use Autostreamer and download SP3

Edit: burn the iso file with Imgburn or other software that can burn an image and use 4X speed.

http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/223562-autostreamer-1033/

 

if only I had Lt. Tom Paris - he was very successful at Slip-streaming the Voyager. Tom get them back to 0,0,1 from the Delta Quadrant. not sure how to do that.

so i comprehend you instructions to use "autostreamer" and SP3. once you start talking about imgburn i am lost.

 

Autosteamer will create a iso file with SP3 included. The iso file needs to be burned with Imgburn, software that can create a CD from the iso image. This will be a bootable CD. Just make sure you burn the image a speed no faster than 4X.

How to write an image file to a disc using ImgBurn

 

Okay, SP3 is downloading - will take a while.

i note that SP3 is 315 MB. the OS is 528 MB on the original cd. if you add that up . . . carry the 7 . . . you exceed the 700 MB available on blank CD-Rs. will they magically combine to a smaller size farther along in the process?

 

Correct. You should still be under 700MB as files will be not only be added but also replaced from the SP3 download.

 

every time i try to run autostreamer i get an error once I click "next" on the first screen. says:
an unexpected error occured.
error-2147024894:Method '~' of object '~' failed

doesnt matter which of the first 3 choices i choose on the first screen.

have downloaded it several times - all fail. have tried loading version 1.0.33 and 1.0.30. same issue.

using a new dell desktop to work on.

when i tried the instructions plodr recommended below (it appears to be the manual process to do what slipstream does), i get the error that SP3 is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

 

If you are running Vista or Windows 7, then in an admin account right click the exe file of autostreamer and select run as administrator. If that does not work, copy the contents of the Install CD to a folder on your hard drive and try it again.

 

yes, win7. tried both - same error.

 

It seems that there is a problem slipstreaming XP on a Windows 7 computer.

Try using Nlite to slipstream the service pack.

http://www.nliteos.com/

http://www.nliteos.com/guide/index.html

 

have tried several times. slipstreaming appears to go fine. when it is done and i have nLite "look" at it, it recognizes that it is Win XP Home SP 3. I make a direct burn ISO. put the disk in the laptop, boot to disk and then it just sits. tried 3x.
i note that you said it was important to burn at no more than 4x. nLite's slowest burn speed is 8x. could that be the problem?

 

I doubt it. If you put the disk in the Windows 7 computer, does it boot up?

I would try burning the iso nlite creates with Imgburn and see if that works. Do not let nlite do a direct burn.

 

used IMGBurn to write nLite's ISO and FINALLY the system will load the FRAKING OS!

load is only 32% complete - will see how it goes. tentatively hopeful.

Thanks TGell!

 

Great. Fingers crossed. Hopefully it completed.

 

Fixed - up and running. just need to install drivers and applications and we are back in business.
many thanks!

 

Your welcome and thanks for the feedback.