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