hard drive locked up. i'm lost.

I think I'm screwed. My hard drive (I think) keeps repeating a sound like it is trying to move--buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz!-buzz! The green light that normally flickers when the hard drive is moving is now lit all the time. When I boot up and tap F8, it completely ignores that I'm tapping F8--no safe mode options offered. Once the desktop comes up it takes 10-15 minutes for the stuff along the bottom to come up--Start button, volume icon etc... And that's as far as it goes. If I click the start button or or a desktop shortcut nothing happens. If the screen saver comes on it's 10-15 minutes after i swirl my finger on the touch pad before the desktop comes up. Can't bring up My Computer to try to save my files. Any suggestions? I'm lost.

 

what kind of computer do you have?

 

Sorry i never answered you. Right after I posted, I got my computer to respond, albeit really slowly. I have been coping my MY PICTURES folder to a external hard drive since 11p last Monday-getting close to done now. Probably would have taken less than 1 hour if computer was working properly. Whenever i get all my files copied, I'll format the laptop hard drive, then start over. Thanks.

 

Have you tried the standard:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=25834

Have you looked at defragmentation information?

You do this by going to Start->MyComputer->Rightclick the C: drive->Properties->Tools->Defragment​

Do the analysis. If you see a lot of red, then your files are all fragmented and you need to defragment them. You can use the build-in defragmentor but as per the write-up, you should use Defraggler from Piriform. It is quite good.

Do the error checking you also found in the Property Tools. This will require a reboot but it will scan the surface of your disk looking for bad spots. If the report says "Bad Sectors ###", then that is how many bad sectors you have on the disk drive. If there are a lot - it's time for a new disk drive. If there aren't any or very few, then having a bad disk drive is probably not your problem.

Slow responses can also be caused by programs you've installed either knowingly or unknowingly. For instance: The Windows Search v4.0 program has a large impact on your system. The old search program didn't do things the same way as the new one does - but it did work and it also didn't try to take over your computer to get it's indexing search done. Look in Start->Control Panel->Add/Remove programs (XP and earlier), and Start->Control Panel->Program Features (Vista). In XP the search feature can be removed without any problems. I'm not so sure about Vista.

In either case, you can bring up the task manager and see what programs are using the most CPU by right-clicking on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and selecting the Task Manager. Once that comes up click once on the "Process" tab and then slowly click twice on the CPU label at the top of the table. This will sort all processes according to how much CPU they are using. The larger the number - the more CPU it is using.

This should help out a bit.

 

Yes the reason this is happening to you is because your HDD is auto encryping its self to try to save you data BUT now for sure you HDD is DEAD YOU NEED A NEW ONE thet are cheap so this is the soultion.

 

It could be as OLIVER_TECHMASTER says but I had another thought....

This sounds really familiar to something I had happen a few years ago. Have you tried typing in the control characters? (ie: Control-A, Control-B, etc...) and the command characters (ie: Command-A, Command-B, etc...)???? Try it and see if you get a virtual keyboard and a virtual screen. If so, you have probably been hacked.

If you have been hacked, then the best thing to do is to get a second computer (either yours or a friends), boot that computer up in Safe Mode (to help protect it against getting an infection). Turn off the AutoRun feature so when you plug in the other drive it won't try to infect the new computer. Bring up the Task Manager on the second computer. (You have tried Control+Alt+Del on the first computer to bring up the Task Manager - right?) Set the Task Manager so it is watching the processes. Get an external USB container for the first computer's hard drive. Put the first computer's disk drive in it.

>>>IMPORTANT<<< : When you plug in the first computer's disk drive to the second computer's USB port - watch the Task Manager closely. If some program pops up on the screen - kill it by selecting it and then clicking the "End Process" button at the bottom of the Task Manager screen. Don't hesitate. Don't let it run to "see what it does". Because there should NOT be any program that starts running just because you plugged in something. It probably is some kind of virus program that is trying to insert itself into the new system and you have to kill it before it infects the other computer!

Whew! Ok, once past the rocky terrain above you can now do all of the things in the Malicious Removal board that they tell you to do. Have the programs check ALL of your disk drives. (ie: Both the secondary and the first disk drives.) Just to be sure you didn't infect the secondary machine. This will take hours. So start the first program and go watch some TV, read a book, see a movie, go play paintball - whatever. Come back and do the next thing. Repeat until you have made it through all of the the things they tell you to do.

Once you've cleaned the disk drives - make a back-up copy of the disk drive. You can do this with the software that comes with Windows (Start->My Computer->System Disk(c)->right-click->Properties->Tools Tab->Backup. Or you can do this with a third party piece of software. (Seagate gives away backup software for their disk drives. Or maybe you could use one of the excellent programs presented here at MajorGeeks.com. In either case - make a backup. If you have to buy another external USB drive - do so.

Then may come the hardest part. If you did get hacked and they did put some kind of malicious software on your computer, then you will have to reformat the disk drive and reinstall Windows. This is where the backup comes in handy. Because after you have reinstalled Windows, installed all of the drivers, all of the updates, and are about ready to kill the hacker - just remember that at least you do have a backup of your stuff. So set up your account, go to the backup, and have it restore your user folder found under C:->Documents and Settings. (Or Start->Computer->Users under Vista.) This folder should have all of your e-mail, downloads, etc.... so you won't have lost those.

So a little good might come out of all of this. :cool