[wannabe1]

Hi Matasovsky...

Your HDD is manufactured by Seagate.

If you are still able to boot this machine, Click Start, then Run, type cmd and click "Ok". In the command session window, type chkdsk /r (note the space before /r) and press "Enter". You will be told the drive is busy and asked if you want to schedule this for the next boot. Type Y and press "Enter". Type exit and press "Enter". Reboot. (Note: On some machines, chkdsk may start immediately after the commands are entered...if this happens, you will need to type exit and press enter after the check completes to start the machine.)

This will be a very long check...let it finish. It may appear to hang or even back up a bit...this is normal...I have seen this check take hours to complete depending on the condition of the drive it's checking. I realize you have run chkdsk before on this drive, but the default procedure does not include the /r switch so it doesn't recover the bad sectors.

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Hi wannabe1, thanks for the input. Since the user tried chkdsk before without success I suggest the following:

Everest identified the manufacturere of the disk as SeaGate. USe this link and download SeaTools for Dos. You may need another computer if yours is not operable. Make a bootable floppy (if you have a floppy drive) or a bootable CD and boot the computer with the new disk in the drive. If boot dosn't succeed you should enter the BIOS to make the bootable drive first in the booting priority. (If you don't know how to enter BIOS please ask).

After the computer boots to SeaTools choose to run Full (or Complete or whatever it's called) scan. This will scan the entire disk and recover whatever sectors it can or will set them aside as unusable. If the disk fails this test then there is still one option available, Low Level Format. As mentioned by wannabe1 take your time with this test.

[The Skeptic]

Hi wannabe1, thanks for the input. Since the user tried chkdsk before without success I suggest the following:

Everest identified the manufacturere of the disk as SeaGate. USe this link and download SeaTools for Dos. You may need another computer if yours is not operable. Make a bootable floppy (if you have a floppy drive) or a bootable CD and boot the computer with the new disk in the drive. If boot dosn't succeed you should enter the BIOS to make the bootable drive first in the booting priority. (If you don't know how to enter BIOS please ask).

After the computer boots to SeaTools choose to run Full (or Complete or whatever it's called) scan. This will scan the entire disk and recover whatever sectors it can or will set them aside as unusable. If the disk fails this test then there is still one option available, Low Level Format. As mentioned by wannabe1 take your time with this test.

[wannabe1]

The first post in this topic indicates that the invalid bit (dirty bit) has been set on this drive. This address needs to be reset and, if I'm not mistaken, chkdsk /r is the only way to do so. The default chkdsk operation only runs three of the five stages...with the /r switch, all 5 stages are run and that's where the valid bit is reset.

If you still have problems after running the Seagate diagnostics, give it a try.

[Matasovsky]

Sorry for the delay.

Schedule has kept me from working on the computer. I'll be able to get back on it Sunday (4/27). Hope you're still with me.

Thanks!