why hdd light always on

Using w98se, when I boots up, the pc goes to the startup manual. so I choose
safe mode and I did a scan and also on-line scan, both give zero infections.
Now, when I do a Scandisk, it will scan until half way of the hdd (Maxtor 54k
rpm, 20gb) size. I do not think the hdd light should always be on (light
perpetually on). am I correct? Does that means my hdd is just ablout to go?

Now I am doing the disk defragmentation. and hope it will not freeze half
way thru,

look forward for your comments on my hdd, thanks

Using w98se, when I boots up, the pc goes to the startup manual.

What do you mean by "the startup manual" - a selection of different boot
options?

so I choose safe mode and I did a scan and also on-line scan, both give
zero infections.
Now, when I do a Scandisk, it will scan until half way of the hdd (Maxtor
54k
rpm, 20gb) size. I do not think the hdd light should always be on (light
perpetually on). am I correct? Does that means my hdd is just ablout to
go?

My old hard drive(Maxtor 40GB, 72K rpm) broke a short while ago and it
didn't do those things, Scandisk just kept getting bigger and bigger errors
until the hard drive gave in. I never did a Defrag.

jkb

"jack" wrote in message
news
Using w98se, when I boots up, the pc goes to the startup manual. so I
choose
safe mode.

So far so good. And then what did you do? Restart in Normal mode?

and I did a scan and also on-line scan, both give zero infections.

I assume you mean you scanned for viruses. But you didn't do that in
safe mode. You can't go online in Safe Mode. In any case, the type of
behavior you describe, if it's due to malicious software, is probably
not a classic virus. It's more likely one of any number of
Spyware/Adware, etc.

Now, when I do a Scandisk, it will scan until half way of the hdd
(Maxtor 54k
rpm, 20gb) size.

And then what happens? Error message? Or does it simply start the scan
over again, and again, and again?

I do not think the hdd light should always be on (light
perpetually on). am I correct? Does that means my hdd is just ablout
to go?

Not necessarily. It means something is continuosly writeing or reading
from the HD. Some "legit" programs do that--like FastFind, a file
indexer that's from MS Office. But many "spybots" also cause the HD to
run continuously, as they are searching for your personal info,
passwords, bank accounts, etc.

Now I am doing the disk defragmentation. and hope it will not freeze
half
way thru,

I would stop doing that until you determine for sure that teh drive
itslef is in good shape. If it's not, Defrag can make the situation much
worse.

look forward for your comments on my hdd, thanks

Read the two articles listed in my signature. Spend a couple of days
getting used to the procedures, scanning for other malicious software
besides viruses, cleaning up your system, etc. DO NOT let scandisk fix
anything if it finds errors without reporting back here first to make
sure it's wise to let scandisk "fix" errors. It may fix you, but good,
instead. DO NOT defrag until you're sure the disk is healthy.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

Imean to say 'safe mode menu' where you have to option to satrt in safe
mode. normal etc.
Defragmentation has just completed and surprise it ddi not give the result
of the scan. Dont we get the details of the scan when we d it in 'safe mode'?

Do you think my hard disk is failing soon?



"jkb" wrote:

Using w98se, when I boots up, the pc goes to the startup manual.

What do you mean by "the startup manual" - a selection of different boot
options?

so I choose safe mode and I did a scan and also on-line scan, both give
zero infections.
Now, when I do a Scandisk, it will scan until half way of the hdd (Maxtor
54k
rpm, 20gb) size. I do not think the hdd light should always be on (light
perpetually on). am I correct? Does that means my hdd is just ablout to
go?

My old hard drive(Maxtor 40GB, 72K rpm) broke a short while ago and it
didn't do those things, Scandisk just kept getting bigger and bigger errors
until the hard drive gave in. I never did a Defrag.

jkb

Imean to say 'safe mode menu' where you have to option to satrt in safe
mode. normal etc.
Defragmentation has just completed and surprise it ddi not give the result
of the scan. Dont we get the details of the scan when we d it in 'safe
mode'?

Defrag isn't a scanner. It just reorganizes your hard drive so that it's all
in proper order. As Gary said - I wouldn't do that until you are sure that
your hard drive isn't about to give in.

Do you think my hard disk is failing soon?

From my experiences - no.

Let me start from the top. When I boot up the pc, it always goes to the
safemode menu. So, I have the hdd scan as a secondary drive on another
computer using NAV and on line scan, both yield negative results.

When I put back the hdd into its original computer, it still give me the
safe mode menu when I power up.

I then choose the 'safe mode' and do the scan disk and it can only scan half
way thru the hdd (as seen by the cluster numbers). So, I stop the scandisk
and start the defragmentation. It completes the defragmentation process
without giving any result (such as bad sectors etc) which you normally
expect at the end of the defragmentation.

All these while, the hdd light is always on from the every first boot up.
Just realised that the pc diid not detect the floppy and cd room.

At this point, When I try to boot up in normal mode, it does that it has
problem in loading the window as as seems to be stuck at the 'window logo'.
However, its able to get to desktop under safe mode. At the moment, I am
doing the scandisk again (safe mode) and its still on progress. Guess, I may
have done things that does not resolve the light on the hdd., thanks

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

"jack" wrote in message
news
Using w98se, when I boots up, the pc goes to the startup manual. so I
choose
safe mode.

So far so good. And then what did you do? Restart in Normal mode?

and I did a scan and also on-line scan, both give zero infections.

I assume you mean you scanned for viruses. But you didn't do that in
safe mode. You can't go online in Safe Mode. In any case, the type of
behavior you describe, if it's due to malicious software, is probably
not a classic virus. It's more likely one of any number of
Spyware/Adware, etc.

Now, when I do a Scandisk, it will scan until half way of the hdd
(Maxtor 54k
rpm, 20gb) size.

And then what happens? Error message? Or does it simply start the scan
over again, and again, and again?

I do not think the hdd light should always be on (light
perpetually on). am I correct? Does that means my hdd is just ablout
to go?

Not necessarily. It means something is continuosly writeing or reading
from the HD. Some "legit" programs do that--like FastFind, a file
indexer that's from MS Office. But many "spybots" also cause the HD to
run continuously, as they are searching for your personal info,
passwords, bank accounts, etc.

Now I am doing the disk defragmentation. and hope it will not freeze
half
way thru,

I would stop doing that until you determine for sure that teh drive
itslef is in good shape. If it's not, Defrag can make the situation much
worse.

look forward for your comments on my hdd, thanks

Read the two articles listed in my signature. Spend a couple of days
getting used to the procedures, scanning for other malicious software
besides viruses, cleaning up your system, etc. DO NOT let scandisk fix
anything if it finds errors without reporting back here first to make
sure it's wise to let scandisk "fix" errors. It may fix you, but good,
instead. DO NOT defrag until you're sure the disk is healthy.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

OK, that's a better description than we had. Unfortunately, I'm not
available to comment in detail this evening, and perhaps not for the
rest of the weekend. With any luck, someone else will jump in, or
perhaps I'll find a moment free when my brain isn't as frazzled as it is
now.

Don't despair. Help will be here eventually.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

"jack" wrote in message
...

Let me start from the top. When I boot up the pc, it always goes to
the
safemode menu. So, I have the hdd scan as a secondary drive on
another
computer using NAV and on line scan, both yield negative results.

When I put back the hdd into its original computer, it still give me
the
safe mode menu when I power up.

I then choose the 'safe mode' and do the scan disk and it can only
scan half
way thru the hdd (as seen by the cluster numbers). So, I stop the
scandisk
and start the defragmentation. It completes the defragmentation
process
without giving any result (such as bad sectors etc) which you
normally
expect at the end of the defragmentation.

All these while, the hdd light is always on from the every first boot
up.
Just realised that the pc diid not detect the floppy and cd room.

At this point, When I try to boot up in normal mode, it does that it
has
problem in loading the window as as seems to be stuck at the 'window
logo'.
However, its able to get to desktop under safe mode. At the moment, I
am
doing the scandisk again (safe mode) and its still on progress. Guess,
I may
have done things that does not resolve the light on the hdd., thanks

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

"jack" wrote in message
news
Using w98se, when I boots up, the pc goes to the startup manual. so
I
choose
safe mode.

So far so good. And then what did you do? Restart in Normal mode?

and I did a scan and also on-line scan, both give zero infections.

I assume you mean you scanned for viruses. But you didn't do that in
safe mode. You can't go online in Safe Mode. In any case, the type of
behavior you describe, if it's due to malicious software, is probably
not a classic virus. It's more likely one of any number of
Spyware/Adware, etc.

Now, when I do a Scandisk, it will scan until half way of the hdd
(Maxtor 54k
rpm, 20gb) size.

And then what happens? Error message? Or does it simply start the
scan
over again, and again, and again?

I do not think the hdd light should always be on (light
perpetually on). am I correct? Does that means my hdd is just
ablout
to go?

Not necessarily. It means something is continuosly writeing or
reading
from the HD. Some "legit" programs do that--like FastFind, a file
indexer that's from MS Office. But many "spybots" also cause the HD
to
run continuously, as they are searching for your personal info,
passwords, bank accounts, etc.

Now I am doing the disk defragmentation. and hope it will not
freeze
half
way thru,

I would stop doing that until you determine for sure that teh drive
itslef is in good shape. If it's not, Defrag can make the situation
much
worse.

look forward for your comments on my hdd, thanks

Read the two articles listed in my signature. Spend a couple of days
getting used to the procedures, scanning for other malicious software
besides viruses, cleaning up your system, etc. DO NOT let scandisk
fix
anything if it finds errors without reporting back here first to make
sure it's wise to let scandisk "fix" errors. It may fix you, but
good,
instead. DO NOT defrag until you're sure the disk is healthy.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

Just to keep you updated. So, the re-scandisk at last give me a detail report
with about 200k bad sectors. I also managed to sort out the light on hdd
(jumper setting and msconfig).

Howvever, I still not be able to boot up in normal mode. You can see the w98
logo and hang there. If I boot up in safe mode by pressing (F8) (since I have
disable the safe mode menu in msconfig), I am able to go to desktop.

Now, since there are so many bad sectors, some of the system files may be
there, which may explain when I cannot boot up in normal mode. How can I
replace them? Any assistance is much appreciated, thanks.

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

OK, that's a better description than we had. Unfortunately, I'm not
available to comment in detail this evening, and perhaps not for the
rest of the weekend. With any luck, someone else will jump in, or
perhaps I'll find a moment free when my brain isn't as frazzled as it is
now.

Don't despair. Help will be here eventually.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

"jack" wrote in message
...

Let me start from the top. When I boot up the pc, it always goes to
the
safemode menu. So, I have the hdd scan as a secondary drive on
another
computer using NAV and on line scan, both yield negative results.

When I put back the hdd into its original computer, it still give me
the
safe mode menu when I power up.

I then choose the 'safe mode' and do the scan disk and it can only
scan half
way thru the hdd (as seen by the cluster numbers). So, I stop the
scandisk
and start the defragmentation. It completes the defragmentation
process
without giving any result (such as bad sectors etc) which you
normally
expect at the end of the defragmentation.

All these while, the hdd light is always on from the every first boot
up.
Just realised that the pc diid not detect the floppy and cd room.

At this point, When I try to boot up in normal mode, it does that it
has
problem in loading the window as as seems to be stuck at the 'window
logo'.
However, its able to get to desktop under safe mode. At the moment, I
am
doing the scandisk again (safe mode) and its still on progress. Guess,
I may
have done things that does not resolve the light on the hdd., thanks

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

"jack" wrote in message
news Using w98se, when I boots up, the pc goes to the startup manual. so
I
choose
safe mode.

So far so good. And then what did you do? Restart in Normal mode?

and I did a scan and also on-line scan, both give zero infections.

I assume you mean you scanned for viruses. But you didn't do that in
safe mode. You can't go online in Safe Mode. In any case, the type of
behavior you describe, if it's due to malicious software, is probably
not a classic virus. It's more likely one of any number of
Spyware/Adware, etc.

Now, when I do a Scandisk, it will scan until half way of the hdd
(Maxtor 54k
rpm, 20gb) size.

And then what happens? Error message? Or does it simply start the
scan
over again, and again, and again?

I do not think the hdd light should always be on (light
perpetually on). am I correct? Does that means my hdd is just
ablout
to go?

Not necessarily. It means something is continuosly writeing or
reading
from the HD. Some "legit" programs do that--like FastFind, a file
indexer that's from MS Office. But many "spybots" also cause the HD
to
run continuously, as they are searching for your personal info,
passwords, bank accounts, etc.

Now I am doing the disk defragmentation. and hope it will not
freeze
half
way thru,

I would stop doing that until you determine for sure that teh drive
itslef is in good shape. If it's not, Defrag can make the situation
much
worse.

look forward for your comments on my hdd, thanks

Read the two articles listed in my signature. Spend a couple of days
getting used to the procedures, scanning for other malicious software
besides viruses, cleaning up your system, etc. DO NOT let scandisk
fix
anything if it finds errors without reporting back here first to make
sure it's wise to let scandisk "fix" errors. It may fix you, but
good,
instead. DO NOT defrag until you're sure the disk is healthy.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

Reading through some of the postings here, I tried to do a "logged boot" and
use the "Bootlog Analyser" , but how can I analyse it when I try to boot in
"Normal mode" when it even dont go past "window logo"?

can someone help please, thanks

"jack" wrote:

Just to keep you updated. So, the re-scandisk at last give me a detail report
with about 200k bad sectors. I also managed to sort out the light on hdd
(jumper setting and msconfig).

Howvever, I still not be able to boot up in normal mode. You can see the w98
logo and hang there. If I boot up in safe mode by pressing (F8) (since I have
disable the safe mode menu in msconfig), I am able to go to desktop.

Now, since there are so many bad sectors, some of the system files may be
there, which may explain when I cannot boot up in normal mode. How can I
replace them? Any assistance is much appreciated, thanks.

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

OK, that's a better description than we had. Unfortunately, I'm not
available to comment in detail this evening, and perhaps not for the
rest of the weekend. With any luck, someone else will jump in, or
perhaps I'll find a moment free when my brain isn't as frazzled as it is
now.

Don't despair. Help will be here eventually.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

"jack" wrote in message
...

Let me start from the top. When I boot up the pc, it always goes to
the
safemode menu. So, I have the hdd scan as a secondary drive on
another
computer using NAV and on line scan, both yield negative results.

When I put back the hdd into its original computer, it still give me
the
safe mode menu when I power up.

I then choose the 'safe mode' and do the scan disk and it can only
scan half
way thru the hdd (as seen by the cluster numbers). So, I stop the
scandisk
and start the defragmentation. It completes the defragmentation
process
without giving any result (such as bad sectors etc) which you
normally
expect at the end of the defragmentation.

All these while, the hdd light is always on from the every first boot
up.
Just realised that the pc diid not detect the floppy and cd room.

At this point, When I try to boot up in normal mode, it does that it
has
problem in loading the window as as seems to be stuck at the 'window
logo'.
However, its able to get to desktop under safe mode. At the moment, I
am
doing the scandisk again (safe mode) and its still on progress. Guess,
I may
have done things that does not resolve the light on the hdd., thanks

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

"jack" wrote in message
news Using w98se, when I boots up, the pc goes to the startup manual. so
I
choose
safe mode.

So far so good. And then what did you do? Restart in Normal mode?

and I did a scan and also on-line scan, both give zero infections.

I assume you mean you scanned for viruses. But you didn't do that in
safe mode. You can't go online in Safe Mode. In any case, the type of
behavior you describe, if it's due to malicious software, is probably
not a classic virus. It's more likely one of any number of
Spyware/Adware, etc.

Now, when I do a Scandisk, it will scan until half way of the hdd
(Maxtor 54k
rpm, 20gb) size.

And then what happens? Error message? Or does it simply start the
scan
over again, and again, and again?

I do not think the hdd light should always be on (light
perpetually on). am I correct? Does that means my hdd is just
ablout
to go?

Not necessarily. It means something is continuosly writeing or
reading
from the HD. Some "legit" programs do that--like FastFind, a file
indexer that's from MS Office. But many "spybots" also cause the HD
to
run continuously, as they are searching for your personal info,
passwords, bank accounts, etc.

Now I am doing the disk defragmentation. and hope it will not
freeze
half
way thru,

I would stop doing that until you determine for sure that teh drive
itslef is in good shape. If it's not, Defrag can make the situation
much
worse.

look forward for your comments on my hdd, thanks

Read the two articles listed in my signature. Spend a couple of days
getting used to the procedures, scanning for other malicious software
besides viruses, cleaning up your system, etc. DO NOT let scandisk
fix
anything if it finds errors without reporting back here first to make
sure it's wise to let scandisk "fix" errors. It may fix you, but
good,
instead. DO NOT defrag until you're sure the disk is healthy.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

"jack" wrote in message
...
Just to keep you updated. So, the re-scandisk at last give me a detail
report
with about 200k bad sectors. I also managed to sort out the light on
hdd
(jumper setting and msconfig).

Your hard drive is dead. The more you mess with it, the more you'll
lose.

Howvever, I still not be able to boot up in normal mode. You can see
the w98
logo and hang there. If I boot up in safe mode by pressing (F8) (since
I have
disable the safe mode menu in msconfig), I am able to go to desktop.

Yes, but I would imagine that some file (or more than one) that is
critcal to Normal Mode, like a driver, happens to have been on one or
more of those bad clusters.

Now, since there are so many bad sectors, some of the system files may
be
there, which may explain when I cannot boot up in normal mode. How can
I
replace them? Any assistance is much appreciated, thanks.

You can't. You need to get a new hard drive and reinstall from scratch.
DO NOT use that hard drive anymore. Put a new hard drive in as the
Primary Master drive, then install Windows and additional applications.
Lastly, reattach the old hard drive as as the Primary Slave, or a
Secondary drive, wherever it fits, and without running Scandisk or any
other disk utility, *copy* the files you need from the old drive to the
new one. You can copy the entire contents, it's just a bit more tedious
since you will encounter a handful of files that won't let themselves be
moved--and that will stop the Copy process wherever that occurs, so that
to copy the rest you need to figure out which file can't be copied and
then omit it from the next try.

PLEASE BELIEVE ME! There is nothing you can do for that drive, and the
more you try to fix it, the more data you're likely to destroy. Perhaps
even irreplaceable files. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you last night,
but it was an evening just packed with To-Dos.

Good luck,

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm



"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

OK, that's a better description than we had. Unfortunately, I'm not
available to comment in detail this evening, and perhaps not for the
rest of the weekend. With any luck, someone else will jump in, or
perhaps I'll find a moment free when my brain isn't as frazzled as it
is
now.

Don't despair. Help will be here eventually.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

"jack" wrote in message
...

Let me start from the top. When I boot up the pc, it always goes to
the
safemode menu. So, I have the hdd scan as a secondary drive on
another
computer using NAV and on line scan, both yield negative results.

When I put back the hdd into its original computer, it still give
me
the
safe mode menu when I power up.

I then choose the 'safe mode' and do the scan disk and it can only
scan half
way thru the hdd (as seen by the cluster numbers). So, I stop the
scandisk
and start the defragmentation. It completes the defragmentation
process
without giving any result (such as bad sectors etc) which you
normally
expect at the end of the defragmentation.

All these while, the hdd light is always on from the every first
boot
up.
Just realised that the pc diid not detect the floppy and cd room.

At this point, When I try to boot up in normal mode, it does that
it
has
problem in loading the window as as seems to be stuck at the
'window
logo'.
However, its able to get to desktop under safe mode. At the moment,
I
am
doing the scandisk again (safe mode) and its still on progress.
Guess,
I may
have done things that does not resolve the light on the hdd.,
thanks

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

"jack" wrote in message
news Using w98se, when I boots up, the pc goes to the startup manual.
so
I
choose
safe mode.

So far so good. And then what did you do? Restart in Normal mode?

and I did a scan and also on-line scan, both give zero
infections.

I assume you mean you scanned for viruses. But you didn't do that
in
safe mode. You can't go online in Safe Mode. In any case, the type
of
behavior you describe, if it's due to malicious software, is
probably
not a classic virus. It's more likely one of any number of
Spyware/Adware, etc.

Now, when I do a Scandisk, it will scan until half way of the
hdd
(Maxtor 54k
rpm, 20gb) size.

And then what happens? Error message? Or does it simply start the
scan
over again, and again, and again?

I do not think the hdd light should always be on (light
perpetually on). am I correct? Does that means my hdd is just
ablout
to go?

Not necessarily. It means something is continuosly writeing or
reading
from the HD. Some "legit" programs do that--like FastFind, a file
indexer that's from MS Office. But many "spybots" also cause the
HD
to
run continuously, as they are searching for your personal info,
passwords, bank accounts, etc.

Now I am doing the disk defragmentation. and hope it will not
freeze
half
way thru,

I would stop doing that until you determine for sure that teh
drive
itslef is in good shape. If it's not, Defrag can make the
situation
much
worse.

look forward for your comments on my hdd, thanks

Read the two articles listed in my signature. Spend a couple of
days
getting used to the procedures, scanning for other malicious
software
besides viruses, cleaning up your system, etc. DO NOT let scandisk
fix
anything if it finds errors without reporting back here first to
make
sure it's wise to let scandisk "fix" errors. It may fix you, but
good,
instead. DO NOT defrag until you're sure the disk is healthy.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm