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CHKDSK freezes in safe mode


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#1
angiekae68

angiekae68

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I'm working on a friend's laptop. She stopped using it about 9 months ago because "it just wouldn't go", she said. When I turned it on for the first time, I couldn't do hardly anything because all these things kept popping up, mostly adware stuff. I went into add/remove programs and got rid of all of that. I then downloaded several programs I use to "clean" the computers I work on. Namely, rkill, Malwarebytes, Spybot Search & Destroy and Adaware by Lavasoft, but before I could install and run any of them, I got a message saying that the HDD has errors and I should back-up the files immediately. I tried that, but it said the back-up didn't complete successfully. It gave me the option to try it again, so I tried it again, and the whole laptop stopped responding. I had to do a hard reboot, using the power button, not safe, I know, but I had no other option. When it restarted, I went into Safe Mode and set it to run CHKDSK at the next restart. I then restarted it and CHKDSK began to run, but then it froze at 12%. Now, I understand that it's not uncommon for CHKDSK to appear to freeze, but being frozen for over 12 hours is a little out of the norm, I would think. Maybe I shouldn't have, but I did a hard reboot again, which then caused the CHKDSK to run again. It appears to be frozen again (different file this time, but still at 12%), but I'm going to wait a while and see if it advances. Any advice or suggestions about what I should do if it is frozen again? How long should I wait this time? What should I do first when/if it finishes?

It's an emachine E528-2325 - Intel Celeron 900 and it's running Windows 7 Home Premium. If you need anymore info about it, please let me know.

Thank you!
Angie
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#2
Wolfeymole

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Hello Angie and welcome to Geeks To Go.

Where did you try to backup to, because unless there is a dedicated backup partition on the hard drive you're going nowhere fast.

I make all backups to an external drive when dealing with laptops.

Is Windows 7 on the Emachine laptop a pre-installed operating system?
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#3
angiekae68

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Thank you :)

As far as I know, it came with Windows 7, but I'll ask her and find out for sure. I don't think she's the first owner of the laptop, though.

I don't have an external, and didn't have any blank CDs, so I used a new usb flash drive to back it up to. What it did complete successfully used 1.3 GB of the flash drive.
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#4
Wolfeymole

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Windows 7 is bigger than 1.3GB in its own right never mind programs etc and as you have said in your original post the backup did not complete successfully.

What size USB stick are you using Angie?

By the way Spybot S&D and Adaware are over the hill these days although Malwarebytes is not.

Is she in possession of any back to factory disks that were made on the machine?
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#5
angiekae68

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Yeah, I'm sure they are "over the hill" lol. I've just used them for so long. I guess old habits die hard lol.

She says she doesn't know if it came with Windows 7 on it already or not, which leads me to believe that it was already on there. She wouldn't know how to put it on there, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't have any back to factory disks. I doubt she would know what I was talking about if I asked.

The usb stick I used was a 4 GB stick. Maybe the problem was that there wasn't enough room?

BTW, the CHKDSK has been "frozen" now at 12% on file 62931 for a good couple of hours. A little farther than it got the first try, but not much. Should I just leave it running?
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#6
Wolfeymole

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I'd venture that the hard drive is dying, if not already dead Angie with it taking so long.
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#7
angiekae68

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Yes, I'm afraid you're probably correct :upset: I was hoping that I would be able to save her photos before it died, but I don't think that is possible. Thank you so much for your quick responses and your time :thumbsup:

Angie
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#8
Wolfeymole

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Well you could obtain an item like this to hook the hard drive to another machine where it will not be regarded as a primary boot drive to attempt to get files off.

Be sure to run a virus checker, preferably Avast, and Malwarebytes on it first.

http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/B001A5SK56
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#9
angiekae68

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Thank you. I may try that!
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