[periwinkle]

Here's the latest: My computer has been running chkdsk nearly every time after it has hung up with the black screen and the words "disk boot failure". I have to power it off by the power strip. When I turn it back on, chkdsk runs, but doesn't find anything. In addition, I have run HD Tools, which found 0 bad sectors, and everything looks normal.

I decided to try opening in Safe Mode because of all the problems. I ran a Trend Micro antispyware scan, and found about 8 spywares. The other interesting strange thing is that while in Safe Mode, my computer did not have a disk boot failure even though it was unattended for about 3 hours. Lately, my computer has a disk boot failure almost always when I walk away for several minutes (15-20 min.). I wanted to check it in Safe Mode because I was concerned that maybe someone was accessing it remotely since it seemed like there was activity when the computer was powered off. When I checked the times carefully, however, I found that this was incorrect. It was only having errors while powered on and in use by me.

The chirping sound has not occurred lately, but I am still getting disk boot failures. When it chirped, it was more like a whirring sound - as if something was wrong with the hard drive. But since I keep getting clean bills of health for the hard drive, I just don't get it. When I ran eventvwr this evening, it had the same four "events" it has had over the past week when this all started. They are 7001, 7000 (twice) and 7023 from the Service Control Manager. These are all listed as errors. What can I do to save my hard drive???

How do I boot into my bios setup?? Dsenette? Someone once recommended this a while ago for another problem, but I don't remember how to do this.

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bios setup is usually f1,f2 or del

[gerryf]

bios setup is usually f1,f2 or del

[Nait Dawg]

Your drive is going bad....sometimes HD don't register errors on chkdsk or utilities and still don't work. *shrugs* Happens in the office I work at all the time. Chances are it'll still work to save your data if you can boot to safe mode. But a disk boot error is definately a very bad sign. I'd back up everything, and get a new drive personally. I think (judging by the chirping/whirring noise) that your pin is scraping inside the HD. Might be preventing it from reading correctly.

[periwinkle]

So I ran more antispyware checks, and they still keep finding things from day to day. Yet I haven't had a single crash or heard any weird noises in several days. It seems like I haven't heard them since I ran a spyware check while in Safe Mode. Now that I know how to check the EventVwr, I see that every single time I turn on my computer, there are 4 events. Always the same ones: the source is the Service Control Manager, and they are 7001, 7000 (twice) and 7023. These always seem to occur when I power up the computer. I have no idea what these mean, except that they say they are errors and are marked in red so they stand out.

This has been happening since 12/15/05, it might even be longer (I don't know how to go back further). Apparently, these errors are fairly new. I haven't heard any chirping or had any crashes since I removed spyware in Safe Mode. Does anyone think this could have helped things or is it just a coincidence? Is there some other way to check the hard drive that anyone knows of? I have already run the chkdsk several times, but it never finds anything.

[periwinkle]

Unbelievable!!! Was it listening? Not 2 minutes after I sent the last post about no noises, the noise showed up again. It sounds like nothing I've ever heard the computer do since I first purchased it. This time, it locked up everything, and I had to power off the computer by the power strip. That has only happened one time before (I think). Usually, the noise begins and it freezes whatever I'm doing for a few seconds (15 or 20 secs), but sometimes it doesn't freeze things.

How long should a hard drive last? This computer is only 2 years old, but I use it a lot. Like every single day. At least 4 hours every day, minimally. Is this a lot? I mostly use it to play online game - nothing fancy - just word games and simple Java applets.

[gerryf]

those errors and service control errors are pretty generic....often times, they will say something like a service did not start, but then if you look later, the service starts. They are not inherently worth freaking out over.

Chirping is bad...I cannot stress that enough, but you are willing to take the risk

It likely means the bearings are wearing out, and that means friction, and that means heat and that means it's only a matter of time before your drive will give out...not IF, when.

Now, it could be another month, but it could be...right now.

Get a new harddrive, clone it, and stop looking for causes that do not exist.

SQUEAK is mechanical is hardware....malware does not make drives chirp

[Nait Dawg]

I agree whole heartedly with him. Seems like I said this already one. Your drive is going bad....get a new one. Guess it takes someone with a "staff" tag to get your attention....but truely....This isn't something to sit on for very long...Hard drive failure is imminent and if you want your data...you had better get it replaced while your drive is still readable.

[periwinkle]

Okay, okay - thanks you guys! It's not like I don't believe ya all, it's just that I'll have to go shopping and not sure what to look for in a hard drive... I'm certain you're definitely right. I just thought that I'd rule out other things first. Looks like I'll have to do this right away. Thanks for all the help you've given!!