On Fri, 16 Dec 2005 19:31:31 -0500, Bill Watt wrote:


Reply at end:

On Thu, 15 Dec 2005 18:59:41 +0800, budgie wrote:

On Thu, 15 Dec 2005 10:01:54 -0000, "Noel Paton"
wrote:


"budgie" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 14 Dec 2005 14:43:17 -0000, "Noel Paton"

wrote:

I say again - what makes you think the problem is with the HD - It's very
unlikely that it is!(especially since it passes a 3hr+ thorough scan!!)

You can test the HD, using the PowerMax utility at www.maxtor.com - but if
you won't believe advice, you probably won't believe the results of the
test, either so go out and waste your money on an unnecessary HD, and then
find out it's a £5 fan that started sticking which actually caused the
problem.

It IS the HDD. I can hear it drop - sounds like an olde drive
head-parking
"clunk" and then I hear it spin up again. On one occasion I was fast
enough to
hear the "drop" and get several finger ontgo the underside of the drive,
and
felt the effect of reapplication of power to the motor.

The case is open, and I can see the processor fan. Processor temp is
reported
at typically 38C - currently days here are in the 20's.

S.M.A.R.T. is enabled and I have run extensive testing with PowerMax.
Neither
reports any problem.

In that case, you need to check the power supply - it may be that that's
overheating!

Nope, it's absolutely loafing too.

If PowerMax says there's nothing wrong with the drive, there's very little
chance that there is anything wrong with the drive.

The "clunk" from the drive, the subsequent spin-up, and Windows reaction all
tell me otherwise.

When it's going, it's going fine. Hence the clean diagnostics. Then it has the
hiccups which it smartly recovers from. I'm assuming that the SMART doesn't
report a problem because the drive is "out of it" for that moment.

But thanks for your input.

I'm aware that Scandisk and a Surface Scan show no errors when you
run them. Here is some info I ran into:

The file system also detects when Windows 98 shuts down improperly.
If Windows 98 is shut down without going through the standard
shutdown sequence, real mode Scandisk will be executed at the next
startup. The purpose of running Scandisk is to correct potential
errors in the file allocation table (FAT) before continuing the boot
process.

In the event that a Disk read/write error is encountered during
normal Windows 98 operation, a flag will also be set to run real
mode Scandisk with Surface Scan.

The flag is set in the FAT. ( File Allocation Table ) =======

Completing a Surface Scan is supposed to remove the Flag but
apparently that isn't happening for you.

Look in the Scandisk.ini file in the Windows\Command folder. Look at
this section:
[CUSTOM]
DriveSummary = Off ; Auto, On, Off
AllSummary = Off ; Auto, On, Off
Surface = Never ; Never, Always, Prompt ==========
CheckHost = Always ; Never, Always, Prompt
SaveLog = Append ; Off, Append, Overwrite
Undo = Never ; Prompt, Never

Check Surface= yours may be set to Always. Change it to Never or
Prompt. A setting of Always would explain your problem. The
semi-colons ( ; ) make the following text only a remark.

Currently all six are set as per your example. But bear in mind that a day or
two back in this saga, I found the check-box in MSCONFIG for "disable scandisk
after bad shutdown" and it is checked.