Hard drive clicking then surface scan.

Something new has come up. Computer and modem where on but idle for
quite a while. Computer just at desktop. Clicked for internet and hard drive
started making a clicking sound. Similar to ,but slower than, the sound made
when booting up with one or more keyboard keys depressed. Mouse and screen
frozen. Then error message about 'one or more of your discs may have
developed possible bad sector'. Not an exact quote. Surface scan
self-started - it was different than the usual scandisc routine. 1,219,741
sectors scanned, no bad sectors found, then a self-started reboot.
A little scary but all seems to be OK now.
Could a hit and stuck key ,while system idling, cause such a glitch?
Count my blessings? Any ideas?
Dell Optiplex GX1p, Win 98, Pent II, 400 mhz., MS updates up to date I
think.
Use Spyware Blaster, Spybot S&D, and Ad Aware about every other day and
find just some minor tracking items. No new installations or problems of
late.

Thanks for any suggestions. And special but belated thanks to all for
past ideas and suggestions. Keith

On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 12:36:33 -0400, "keith" wrote:

Something new has come up. Computer and modem where on but idle for
quite a while. Computer just at desktop. Clicked for internet and hard drive
started making a clicking sound. Similar to ,but slower than, the sound made
when booting up with one or more keyboard keys depressed. Mouse and screen
frozen. Then error message about 'one or more of your discs may have
developed possible bad sector'. Not an exact quote. Surface scan
self-started - it was different than the usual scandisc routine. 1,219,741
sectors scanned, no bad sectors found, then a self-started reboot.

A little scary but all seems to be OK now.

FALSE. It's VERY scary!! Falling out of a high window feels OK all
the way down, too - until the moment of impact.

Priorities:

1) Do NOT run Windows or write to that HD !!
2) Evacuate the HD's contects:
- first, cherry-pick crucial data
- then pull all files, if maintenance environment allows
- if file system gets in the way, do a partition image copy
3) Only now, do diagnostics to test the physical HD
4) Irrespective of result of (3), I would replace the HD
5) If warranty, and (3) is positive, get free warranty replacement
6) Do NOT live with a HD that has "just one bad sector"
7) Do NOT believe fakeware claiming to "fix" bad sectors

See http://cquirke.mvps.org/pccrisis.htm and then
http://cquirke.mvps.org/whatmos.htm for maintenance options.



------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
The most accurate diagnostic instrument
in medicine is the Retrospectoscope
------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

"keith" wrote in
:

Something new has come up. Computer and modem where on but idle
for
quite a while. Computer just at desktop. Clicked for internet and hard
drive started making a clicking sound. Similar to ,but slower than,
the sound made when booting up with one or more keyboard keys
depressed. Mouse and screen frozen. Then error message about 'one or
more of your discs may have developed possible bad sector'. Not an
exact quote. Surface scan self-started - it was different than the
usual scandisc routine. 1,219,741 sectors scanned, no bad sectors
found, then a self-started reboot.
A little scary but all seems to be OK now.
Could a hit and stuck key ,while system idling, cause such a
glitch?
Count my blessings? Any ideas?
Dell Optiplex GX1p, Win 98, Pent II, 400 mhz., MS updates up to
date I
think.
Use Spyware Blaster, Spybot S&D, and Ad Aware about every other
day and
find just some minor tracking items. No new installations or problems
of late.

Thanks for any suggestions. And special but belated thanks to all
for
past ideas and suggestions.

The short of it... your hard drive is dying!
Been there - had that.
Do what cquirke says.... fast!


--
-- What happens if you get scared half to death twice? --

....I can't resist it, ...."When did you do your last backup ?"

regards, Richard


"keith" wrote in message
...
Something new has come up. Computer and modem where on but idle for
quite a while. Computer just at desktop. Clicked for internet and hard
drive
started making a clicking sound. Similar to ,but slower than, the sound
made
when booting up with one or more keyboard keys depressed. Mouse and screen
frozen. Then error message about 'one or more of your discs may have
developed possible bad sector'. Not an exact quote. Surface scan
self-started - it was different than the usual scandisc routine.
1,219,741
sectors scanned, no bad sectors found, then a self-started reboot.
A little scary but all seems to be OK now.
Could a hit and stuck key ,while system idling, cause such a glitch?
Count my blessings? Any ideas?
Dell Optiplex GX1p, Win 98, Pent II, 400 mhz., MS updates up to date
I
think.
Use Spyware Blaster, Spybot S&D, and Ad Aware about every other day
and
find just some minor tracking items. No new installations or problems of
late.

Thanks for any suggestions. And special but belated thanks to all for
past ideas and suggestions. Keith

Do you have a boot disk?
If so... boot to that.
At the A:\ curser type Scandisk C: and hit Enter.
(-notice the space between Scandisk and C:-)
This will run a standard scan of HD. Once done it will ask
if you want to do a surface scan. Answer to continue to
surface scan. Let it run to finish. DO NOT cancel/abort it.
It may take several hours for it to complete. Depending on
the size of the drive.
I have worked on a system where it said there is a bad
sector. Run Scandisk as mentioned. Let it find it and fix
it. Then on subsequent Scans it showed no bad areas.
Do not believe scandisk reports while full system is
running. Windows does not even do this. That is why it
runs scandisk,on an improper shutdown,before the desktop
is loaded.



-----Original Message-----
Something new has come up. Computer and modem where
on but idle for
quite a while. Computer just at desktop. Clicked for
internet and hard drive
started making a clicking sound. Similar to ,but slower
than, the sound made
when booting up with one or more keyboard keys depressed.
Mouse and screen
frozen. Then error message about 'one or more of your
discs may have
developed possible bad sector'. Not an exact quote.
Surface scan
self-started - it was different than the usual scandisc
routine. 1,219,741
sectors scanned, no bad sectors found, then a self-
started reboot.
A little scary but all seems to be OK now.
Could a hit and stuck key ,while system idling,
cause such a glitch?
Count my blessings? Any ideas?
Dell Optiplex GX1p, Win 98, Pent II, 400 mhz., MS
updates up to date I
think.
Use Spyware Blaster, Spybot S&D, and Ad Aware about
every other day and
find just some minor tracking items. No new installations
or problems of
late.

Thanks for any suggestions. And special but belated
thanks to all for
past ideas and suggestions. Keith






.

Maybe a month or so. If all is lost not much is lost. Just
some news articles, some familial e-mails, some photos and
the 'favorites' list. Got some folks checking the machine
now.
-----Original Message-----
....I can't resist it, ...."When did you do your last
backup ?"

regards, Richard


"keith" wrote in message
...
Something new has come up. Computer and modem
where on but idle for
quite a while. Computer just at desktop. Clicked for
internet and hard
drive
started making a clicking sound. Similar to ,but slower
than, the sound
made
when booting up with one or more keyboard keys
depressed. Mouse and screen
frozen. Then error message about 'one or more of your
discs may have
developed possible bad sector'. Not an exact quote.
Surface scan
self-started - it was different than the usual
scandisc routine.
1,219,741
sectors scanned, no bad sectors found, then a self-
started reboot.
A little scary but all seems to be OK now.
Could a hit and stuck key ,while system idling,
cause such a glitch?
Count my blessings? Any ideas?
Dell Optiplex GX1p, Win 98, Pent II, 400 mhz., MS
updates up to date
I
think.
Use Spyware Blaster, Spybot S&D, and Ad Aware
about every other day
and
find just some minor tracking items. No new
installations or problems of
late.

Thanks for any suggestions. And special but
belated thanks to all for
past ideas and suggestions. Keith








.

Now that sounds scary. Tried firing up Nero Burning
program after reading your (and Hershberger's) scary
message. Didn't get very far. When MY time comes I hope
its as quick. I'm at the library now. The rig is in the
shop getting a free look see. Put Word and Excel files on
disc a month or so ago and photo files a few weeks ago. If
all is lost I'll miss my often used 'favorites' list.
I should go to the library more often anyway.
-----Original Message-----
On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 12:36:33 -0400, "keith"
wrote:

Something new has come up. Computer and modem where
on but idle for
quite a while. Computer just at desktop. Clicked for
internet and hard drive
started making a clicking sound. Similar to ,but slower
than, the sound made
when booting up with one or more keyboard keys
depressed. Mouse and screen
frozen. Then error message about 'one or more of your
discs may have
developed possible bad sector'. Not an exact quote.
Surface scan
self-started - it was different than the usual scandisc
routine. 1,219,741
sectors scanned, no bad sectors found, then a self-
started reboot.

A little scary but all seems to be OK now.

FALSE. It's VERY scary!! Falling out of a high window
feels OK all
the way down, too - until the moment of impact.

Priorities:

1) Do NOT run Windows or write to that HD !!
2) Evacuate the HD's contects:
- first, cherry-pick crucial data
- then pull all files, if maintenance environment
allows
- if file system gets in the way, do a partition
image copy
3) Only now, do diagnostics to test the physical HD
4) Irrespective of result of (3), I would replace the HD
5) If warranty, and (3) is positive, get free warranty
replacement
6) Do NOT live with a HD that has "just one bad sector"
7) Do NOT believe fakeware claiming to "fix" bad sectors

See http://cquirke.mvps.org/pccrisis.htm and then
http://cquirke.mvps.org/whatmos.htm for maintenance
options.



------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
The most accurate diagnostic instrument
in medicine is the Retrospectoscope
------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
.

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 08:54:40 -0700, "ppoatt"

Do you have a boot disk?
If so... boot to that.
At the A:\ curser type Scandisk C: and hit Enter.
(-notice the space between Scandisk and C:-)
This will run a standard scan of HD. Once done it will ask
if you want to do a surface scan. Answer to continue to
surface scan. Let it run to finish. DO NOT cancel/abort it.

That's bad advice - until AFTER you have got everything off the drive.

It may take several hours for it to complete. Depending on
the size of the drive.

On a failing HD, it will make things worse, if not kill the drive
stone dead. It will NOT be able to restore a dying HD to usability,
any more than a make-up artist painting smiles on train wreck victims
can bring them back to life.

Sick HDs may have only a few useable hours left. Would you rather
have your data, or an impressively detailled diagnostic report?

rest of bad advice snipped

That is why it runs scandisk,on an improper shutdown,before
the desktop is loaded.

There are two reasons why Scandisk runs automatically on startup.
Common to both reasons is the use of flags within the file system to
indicate distress that needs attending to; Scandisk responds to that.

1) Logical check of volume

A single physical HD may contain multiple volumes, each with thier own
file system. When file system updates are in progress, a flag is set
within the volume's file system to indicate this. The flag is cleared
when the updates are done.

If the updates are interrupted by a crash, power off or other bad
exit, the bit will be found set on the next boot. This indicates the
file system may be left in an intermediate state, and that requires
logic-level repair. So Scandisk will do a logic scan of that volume.

2) Failed disk access on drive

If Windows cannot access the hard drive, it sets a different distress
bit in the file system. That bit is not cleared when the system shuts
down properly, as the problem it is flagging has nothing to do with
the logical state of the file system.

When that bit is found to be set, all volumes on the afflicted
physical hard drive are surface scanned, after a logical check to
ensure cluster relocates will be safe to do.

The reason all volumes on the same physical HD are checked is because
the problem lies below the file system level of abstraction, thus can
affect *all* volumes on the same hard drive.



-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Hmmm... what was the *other* idea?
-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

Back on line, sorta. New hard drive installe with 98 SE.
Have some start up issues but will get back to that later.
Posting new post about setting up OE as newsreader. Forgot
how to do so. See ya'll soon I hope. Thanks.
-----Original Message-----
Something new has come up. Computer and modem where
on but idle for
quite a while. Computer just at desktop. Clicked for
internet and hard drive
started making a clicking sound. Similar to ,but slower
than, the sound made
when booting up with one or more keyboard keys depressed.
Mouse and screen
frozen. Then error message about 'one or more of your
discs may have
developed possible bad sector'. Not an exact quote.
Surface scan
self-started - it was different than the usual scandisc
routine. 1,219,741
sectors scanned, no bad sectors found, then a self-
started reboot.
A little scary but all seems to be OK now.
Could a hit and stuck key ,while system idling,
cause such a glitch?
Count my blessings? Any ideas?
Dell Optiplex GX1p, Win 98, Pent II, 400 mhz., MS
updates up to date I
think.
Use Spyware Blaster, Spybot S&D, and Ad Aware about
every other day and
find just some minor tracking items. No new installations
or problems of
late.

Thanks for any suggestions. And special but belated
thanks to all for
past ideas and suggestions. Keith






.