How do you know if your harddrive is done???

I've been doing some trading between two computers. One
has a P1 and the other is P3 so I wanted all the best
stuff on the P3. So I put the 80G HD and the CD-RW drive
into the P3. I also bought a router to put internet on
the two computers. Now the P1 has the 15G that came out
of the P3. When I first installed Windows 98 it didn't
go well. So I tried again. It worked fine for awhile.
Now the computer won't start up properly. One time I
started it and it said the disk had I/O errors. So I
opened the computer and check the cords, they were fine.
Evenually later that night I go it to run with the help
of the startup disk. A few days later the computer again
won't start. I ran scandisk and there were a lot of
errors. Is this HD failure or a OS problem.

Your hard disk drive manufacturer will have hard disk drive diagnostic
software available on their www site for download.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (DTS)
"Jess" wrote in message
...
I've been doing some trading between two computers. One
has a P1 and the other is P3 so I wanted all the best
stuff on the P3. So I put the 80G HD and the CD-RW drive
into the P3. I also bought a router to put internet on
the two computers. Now the P1 has the 15G that came out
of the P3. When I first installed Windows 98 it didn't
go well. So I tried again. It worked fine for awhile.
Now the computer won't start up properly. One time I
started it and it said the disk had I/O errors. So I
opened the computer and check the cords, they were fine.
Evenually later that night I go it to run with the help
of the startup disk. A few days later the computer again
won't start. I ran scandisk and there were a lot of
errors. Is this HD failure or a OS problem.

Is there any other way to tell?

"Jess" wrote:

Is there any other way to tell?

Run Scandisk in thorough (test disk surfaces) mode. If it finds new
bad sectors each time that you run it then that is a pretty certain
indicator of impending doom. Running Scandisk this way takes up to 10
times longer than it does to run the drive manufacturer's diagnostic
test utility, and the results are generally not as good.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

-----Original Message-----
I've been doing some trading between two computers. One
has a P1 and the other is P3 so I wanted all the best
stuff on the P3. So I put the 80G HD and the CD-RW drive
into the P3. I also bought a router to put internet on
the two computers. Now the P1 has the 15G that came out
of the P3. When I first installed Windows 98 it didn't
go well. So I tried again. It worked fine for awhile.
Now the computer won't start up properly. One time I
started it and it said the disk had I/O errors. So I
opened the computer and check the cords, they were fine.
Evenually later that night I go it to run with the help
of the startup disk. A few days later the computer again
won't start. I ran scandisk and there were a lot of
errors. Is this HD failure or a OS problem.
------------------------------------------------
Most likely a software problem. I suggest that you start
from scratch by formatting the disk, then install Win98SE.
(If the disk is partitioned, just format the C: drive.)

While it could be software, that is not the logical nor smart place to
start. The diagnostic software Jeff recommended is free, fairly quick and
will tell if the drive is healthy or not.
--
Regards

Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98
Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour
Knowledge Base Info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo

wrote in message
...

-----Original Message-----
I've been doing some trading between two computers. One
has a P1 and the other is P3 so I wanted all the best
stuff on the P3. So I put the 80G HD and the CD-RW drive
into the P3. I also bought a router to put internet on
the two computers. Now the P1 has the 15G that came out
of the P3. When I first installed Windows 98 it didn't
go well. So I tried again. It worked fine for awhile.
Now the computer won't start up properly. One time I
started it and it said the disk had I/O errors. So I
opened the computer and check the cords, they were fine.
Evenually later that night I go it to run with the help
of the startup disk. A few days later the computer again
won't start. I ran scandisk and there were a lot of
errors. Is this HD failure or a OS problem.
------------------------------------------------
Most likely a software problem. I suggest that you start
from scratch by formatting the disk, then install Win98SE.
(If the disk is partitioned, just format the C: drive.)

Hi,

Sounds to me as a hard drive failer. This is going to
sound horrible but i would try reinstalling winddows 98.
If you would like further assistance please don't
hesitate to email me ), even if
it's as simple as 'step by step' instructions.
Good luck,

Paul

-----Original Message-----
I've been doing some trading between two computers. One
has a P1 and the other is P3 so I wanted all the best
stuff on the P3. So I put the 80G HD and the CD-RW
drive
into the P3. I also bought a router to put internet on
the two computers. Now the P1 has the 15G that came out
of the P3. When I first installed Windows 98 it didn't
go well. So I tried again. It worked fine for awhile.
Now the computer won't start up properly. One time I
started it and it said the disk had I/O errors. So I
opened the computer and check the cords, they were
fine.
Evenually later that night I go it to run with the help
of the startup disk. A few days later the computer again
won't start. I ran scandisk and there were a lot of
errors. Is this HD failure or a OS problem.
.