help please!!!

[flexkill]

my wife has a sony vaio :irk: ...enough said!!! anyway the hard drive started making a beeping sound...as if it was trying to shut down and restart or something...well it started only once in a while , then got worse over time...now it loads windows and thats it ...just freezes up :coocoo: ...well i have allready ordered another HD from newegg...i just wanted to know if any of you had seen or heard of this before....and could she have gotten a virus... you think that could have caused such a thing??? she has always had virus protection??? any insight would be great ....thanx :beer:

[joeMan]

flexkill, I'm sorry to hear of your troubles. If it is indeed the HD then none of this following stuff will help. but it's still good info. nonetheless...

Maybe you already know, or have tried all this. If not - and if it's not too late, try these things: I am assuming she has XP installed on it for this routine...

1 - Go to IE Explorer > Internet Properties: Delete Cookies, Delete Files (click the "delete all offline files" box, then choose OK), Clear History,

2 - START Menu > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup. Run it. Put an X in all the boxes, (!!except for any that say "...setup files" i.e. MS Office, leave these there because they will make it easier for you to patch/update without having to insert the original program CD when you do!!). Run it and let it do it's thing.

3 - Now run a spyware program. Adaware SE Personal v 1.05 (http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/) latest version, is available for free. Easy Install. Check that your definitions are current, then run it and quarantine all of that junk it finds.

- OR - Go find & download Spybot Search and Destroy v 1.3 (also free) and do the same, but with it instead.

4 - Run a registry cleaner. I use a free utility called RegSupreme 1.2 (http://www.macecraft.com/downloads/RegSupreme_setup.exe) , also an easy install and easy to use. Just load it and run it. After it finds all invalid registry entries, in the upper left choose Select>All, then in lower right Fix, then OK.

5 - Clean out the Windows > Prefetch folder. It is in START > My Computer > C:\ (Assuming C:\ is where her OS is installed) > Windows > Prefetch. Open the folder called Prefetch and Select All, Delete. ( DON'T DELETE THE PREFETCH FOLDER!! - Delete what's IN the Prefetch folder).

6 - Empty Trash.

7 - Run Disk Defragmenter.

8 - START > My Computer > Right Click on C:\ (Again, assuming C:\ is where her OS is installed), Properties, Tools tab, Error Checking, put an X in the top box only, click START (a message will appear - click YES), then OK.

9 - Reboot. Your PC will go through an Error-Checking session, and will reboot after that.

If you make it through all this - her VAIO should be in better shape than before.

Also, here's a link to a real good XP Tweak Guide (http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review&dId=324&dPage=3) to give XP a nice tune up to make it your be-hotch... :rock:

Good Luck friend :thumbs:

[Hawk]

Before anything, can you boot into SAFE MODE?

[flexkill]

Before anything, can you boot into SAFE MODE?

well here is the problem...i figured i would just do a clean install of windows...but the dam HD won't let me format...gets to a certain spot and just stops...no BSD or anything just keeps running!!!i do think however i can get it to start in safe mode... any suggestions hawk??? and joeman thanks ...but i have tried all of the options you suggested...but thanks anyway for the quick response and for trying to help me... :beer:

[Hawk]

Safe mode and do a checkdisk. Or get Spinrite and check the drive.

[flexkill]

hmmm spinrite...never heard of that i'll give it a try....i ran the microsoft scandisk it keeps saying no bad sectors!!! :scratch: :beat:

[Hawk]

Flexkill,

Let me know if you need help getting the software.

[flexkill]

ya, the only one i saw was like 90 bucks...same as new HD :look: :(

[Hawk]

Flex,

check your PM. ;)

[flex22]

well here is the problem...i figured i would just do a clean install of windows...but the dam HD won't let me format...gets to a certain spot and just stops...no BSD or anything just keeps running!!!i do think however i can get it to start in safe mode... any suggestions hawk??? and joeman thanks ...but i have tried all of the options you suggested...but thanks anyway for the quick response and for trying to help me... :beer:
don't mean to hijack this :bow:
hello i think I'm on the right thread i just experience the same problem with my hard drive.
except its my slave drive. it did all of the above it went as far as going into the BIOS
and on the screen it said bad salve hard drive will not boot. but when i cut the power to it my main drive will boot. :beat: I'm screwed all my back ups are there :yikes:
any way to get to it. :(

[Hawk]

You can try it on another machine, and of you have an adapter to convert it from the laptop to put it on the IDE of a desktop, try doing that also. Sometimes you get lucky using another controller.

If you can get into the drive, pull that data off quick.

[flex22]

You can try it on another machine, and of you have an adapter to convert it from the laptop to put it on the IDE of a desktop, try doing that also. Sometimes you get lucky using another controller.

If you can get into the drive, pull that data off quick.
OOPS
its an ide hard drive already, i was just trying not to type the hole question
over so pull it out use it as a slave on the other machine? :bonk:

[Hawk]

Yep, or try and give it a little :smash: to make it work. . . .