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Serious & Frequent Harddrive Errors on New Harddrive

Started by ceezo66 , Feb 01 2010 12:12 PM

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#1
ceezo66

Posted 01 February 2010 - 12:12 PM

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Hey Everyone,

I have a 5 year old Acer Aspire that I use for DJing almost everyday. About 6 months ago my hard drive died and I bought a new western digital 320 gig HD from a TigerDirect store. While I haven't had any problems with my old hard drive for ~4.5 years up until it suddenly died, I've had nothing but problems with the new hard drive. Although I transport my laptop a lot to gigs I always treat my laptop with care and am very gentle. I have two partitions C&D. D has all my files and C is for installing programs or windows system files.

More about the problem:

I'll be browsing the web or working in photoshop/iTunes when suddenly I'll get a BSOD saying Windows is recovering from a serious problem. It will then run CHKDSK and find/fix errors. Eventually it will completely crash and either say it cannot find the windows system folder or say it is corrupt, or say it cannot find the harddrive.

At at this point I open up my laptop and remove the harddrive, blow on the connections, and install it again. Much like fixing a Super Nintendo game.

There was one time when removing the harddrive for a second fixed the problem and windows booted up again. But every other time I need to spend hours reinstalling windows/programs/itunes.

Then it'll work fine for a day or week and all of a sudden I'll get a string of BSODs and have to eventually have to reinstall everything.

Are there any programs I can use to fix/prevent these hard drive errors? Is the partition I have for my files causing problems? I have run avg/eset/adaware/spywareS&D on my files and all have found nothing. I don't know anything about rootkits but could that be a possibility?

Thanks everyone for your help I'm saving money to buy a new computer in the next few months but still need my laptop for work until then.

Edit: It may be important to note I installed Windows 7 on my machine two days ago and before then I was running Windows XP SP2. I also replaced a 512 gig ram stick with 2 1 gig ram sticks at the same time I replaced the harddrive.

Edited by ceezo66, 01 February 2010 - 12:18 PM.

#2
rshaffer61

Posted 01 February 2010 - 12:53 PM

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Two issues to address so I'm going to include instructions for both.

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool.

Thanks to Broni for the instructions

If you have more than one RAM module installed, try starting computer with one RAM stick at a time.

NOTE Keep in mind, the manual check listed above is always superior to the software check, listed below. DO NOT proceed with memtest, if you can go with option A

B. If you have only one RAM stick installed...
...run memtest...

1. Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)
2. Unzip downloaded memtest86+-2.11.iso.zip file.
3. Inside, you'll find memtest86+-2.11.iso file.
4. Download, and install ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/
5. Insert blank CD into your CD drive.
6. Open ImgBurn, and click on Write image file to disc
7. Click on Browse for a file... icon:

Posted Image

8. Locate memtest86+-2.11.iso file, and click Open button.
9. Click on ImgBurn green arrow to start burning bootable memtest86 CD:

Posted Image

10. Once the CD is created, boot from it, and memtest will automatically start to run. You may have to change the boot sequence in your BIOS to make it work right.

To change Boot Sequence in your BIOS
Reboot the system and at the first post screen (where it is counting up memory) start tapping the DEL button
This will enter you into the Bios\Cmos area.
Find the Advanced area and click Enter
Look for Boot Sequence or Boot Options and highlight that click Enter
Now highlight the first drive and follow the directions on the bottom of the screen on how to modify it and change it to CDrom.
Change the second drive to the C or Main Drive
Once that is done then click F10 to Save and Exit
You will prompted to enter Y to verify Save and Exit. Click Y and the system will now reboot with the new settings.

The running program will look something like this depending on the size and number of ram modules installed:

Posted Image

It's recommended to run 5-6 passes. Each pass contains very same 8 tests.

This will show the progress of the test. It can take a while. Be patient, or leave it running overnight.

Posted Image

The following image is the test results area:

Posted Image

The most important item here is the “errors” line. If you see ANY errors, even one, most likely, you have bad RAM.

#3
ceezo66

Posted 01 February 2010 - 01:21 PM

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Thank you for the fast reply. I just want to clarify a few points before proceeding so I don't mess things up more.

1. I'm guessing the below quote is part of another answer and you DO want me to run memtest?

"NOTE Keep in mind, the manual check listed above is always superior to the software check, listed below. DO NOT proceed with memtest, if you can go with option A"

2. I have 2 1 gig sticks of ram, do I absolutely have to take them out and test one at a time?

Thank you,
Caesar

#4
ceezo66

Posted 01 February 2010 - 02:45 PM

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I downloaded: http://support.wdc.c...s...=30&lang=en

and burned to a DVD, then booted from DVD and got the errors:

Uncable to locate the License Agreement file, DLGLICE.txt

Please make sure that the License agreement file is located in the same path as DLGDIAG.exe

Cannot load the file A:\Command.com

#5
rshaffer61

Posted 01 February 2010 - 03:36 PM

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If you have more then one memory stick then what that is referring to is taking out one stick and booting the system to see if the issue still happens. Then switch the memory out and see if it happens with the other memory module. If only one stick of memory is present then do the memtest.
Did you burn the hd file as instructed? If you didn't use the iso\image burning software and burned it as a data disk it will not boot.

#6
ceezo66

Posted 01 February 2010 - 08:19 PM

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An update on the problem.

I installed windows 7 today around 2pm and it's now 8pm I was using firefox with 3 tabs open when the computer completely froze. After I restarted the computer I got the following message:

PXE-E61: Media test failure. Check cable
PXE-MOF: Exiting Broadcom PXE ROM
Operating System not found

#7
rshaffer61

Posted 01 February 2010 - 09:03 PM

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To change Boot Sequence in your BIOS
Reboot the system and at the first post screen (where it is counting up memory) start tapping the DEL button
This will enter you into the Bios\Cmos area.
Find the Advanced area and click Enter
Look for Boot Sequence or Boot Options and highlight that click Enter
Now check and see if any of the boot devices show as a network or lan. and highlight that and follow the directions on the bottom of the screen on how to modify it and change it to Disabled.
Once that is done then click F10 to Save and Exit
You will prompted to enter Y to verify Save and Exit. Click Y and the system will now reboot with the new settings.

#8
ceezo66

Posted 02 February 2010 - 03:27 AM

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Results of Memtest:

Test #4 [Moving inversions, random pattern]
Testing 132k - 2039M 2038M

Walltime 7:02:48
Cashed: 2038
RsvdMem 266M
MemMap: e820-Std
Cashe: On
ECC: Off
Test: Std
Pass: 6
Errors: 0

Pass complete, no errors, Press Esc to exit

#9
ceezo66

Posted 02 February 2010 - 03:39 AM

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I pressed escape and saw it was counting up memory then I started tapping delete. it did not take me to BIOS/CMOS but it did boot windows 7 instead of giving me the disaster message. This occurred right after I exited out of memtest and took the memtest boot cd out.

I'm still trying to run the "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS (CD)" found here http://support.wdc.c...s...=30&lang=en but I still get the error message:

"Unable to locate the License Agreement file, DLGLICE.txt

Please make sure that the License agreement file is located in the same path as DLGDIAG.exe

Cannot load the file A:\Command.com
Inster correct disk and Strike any key"

I have burned the image (as an image not a data disc) three times: 1 CDBurner XP on DVDR, 2 CDBurnerXP CDR, 3 ImgBurn CDR and all have given me the same error message.

When I try to run "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows" Extended Test I get the following message:

"DLGDIAG for Windows: Cable Test::Write Sector error!" twice then on the progress window under the progress meter it says

"Cable test failed ! Please check the cables"

Thanks for your help and support,
-Caesar

Edited by ceezo66, 02 February 2010 - 03:40 AM.

#10
rshaffer61

Posted 02 February 2010 - 11:35 AM

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OK try getting the Sea Tools for ISO cd and run it. The Seagate one works for most drives now.

#11
ceezo66

Posted 02 February 2010 - 01:53 PM

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Okay, I have burned Sea Tools and will try it out after posting this message.

While backing up data and browsing the web I suddenly got a BSOD. Luckily, Windows 7 booted up and this time Windows 7 gave me some information on the crash:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: f4
BCP1: 00000003
BCP2: 865287C0
BCP3: 8652892C
BCP4: 829F37B0
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\020210-19656-01.dmp
C:\Windows\Temp\WER-26656-0.sysdata.xml

Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft....mp;clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

I have uploaded the help files here:

020210-19656-01.dmp -> http://www22.zippysh...47052/file.html
WER-26656-0.sysdata.xml -> http://www30.zippysh...40503/file.html

Lastly, from what I was able to write down during the BSOD it said:

Crash dump

It recommended to Disable BIOS caching or shadowing

and stated the reason for the BSOD was a process/thread unexpectedly exited or terminated

STOP: 0x000000F4

Physical Memory Dump

Thanks for your help,
Caesar

Edited by ceezo66, 02 February 2010 - 01:56 PM.

#12
rshaffer61

Posted 02 February 2010 - 02:56 PM

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I take it since you are still trying to run the HD test you haven't done the memtest yet?

#13
ceezo66

Posted 02 February 2010 - 04:09 PM

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Yes I ran Memtest ---

Results of Memtest:

Test #4 [Moving inversions, random pattern]
Testing 132k - 2039M 2038M

Walltime 7:02:48
Cashed: 2038
RsvdMem 266M
MemMap: e820-Std
Cashe: On
ECC: Off
Test: Std
Pass: 6
Errors: 0

Pass complete, no errors, Press Esc to exit

Results of SeaTools for DOS v2.17

Selected drive Information:

Drive is 48 Bit addressed
smart is supported and enabled
smart has not been tripped
dst is supported

Test Information and Results:

Short DST PASSED
Long Test PASSED

#14
ceezo66

Posted 02 February 2010 - 04:17 PM

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It seems like both tests were passed.

After exiting Sea Tools and rebooting I received:

Windows Boot Manager

Status: 0xc000000e9
Info: An unexpected I/O error has occured

After restarting:

PXE-E61: Media test failure. Check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Broadcom PXE ROM.
Operating System not found

In the PhoenixBIOS Setup Utility there is no option to disable Network Boot but it is set as the last option.

#15
rshaffer61

Posted 02 February 2010 - 05:10 PM

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ok when in the boot menu can you highlight the network boot option?
Then look at the bottom of the screen to see how to modify it. You may have to hit enter to get to the sub menu to disable it.

Once that is done then click F10 to Save and Exit
You will prompted to enter Y to verify Save and Exit. Click Y and the system will now reboot with the new settings.