Please help. (Problem with "scanreg"???)

[james_lancs]

Hi,
can someone PLEASEEE help me! i have a problem on my mums old (6 years!!) PC that im using at the moment to write a novel on. A few days ago it refused to start so i ran "scandsk" and found there to be a few corrupted and messed up sectors on it (about 3 in total), it repaired them ok, or so i thought, and i carried on writing, only to find that the next day it had found another 3 (6 in total now!). now the computer starts up win98 partially and then informs me that i have a problem with my registry and that it is somehow corrupted, restores the backup copy only to continue to do it all again. it seems to be running round in circles and i cannot even start it in safe mode, although the command prompt is working fine. i cannot afford a new PC or to have it repaired so i was hoping someone out there could assist me? if u need any further information, i would be happy to give it you, and ill be your friend for life if u can fix it for me and make sure my months toil was for nothing!
please help!!!! im desperate and more than a little frightened!!! hehe
thanks
James Walton.

[Cricket]

Hi james_lancs,

Sorry to have to say this, but it really looks like that hard drive is dying.

If you don't want to lose the data you have saved on it now (your novel), you'll need to replace that old hard drive with a new one and have the data tranfered. Do this as soon as possible so you don't lose your novel.

Once those bad sectors start, they keep multiplying until the drive is unusable.

:) Cricket

[highrisemech]

I agree back up your files once this is done you can then you can simply replace the drive. We can help with that if you need it.

[james_lancs]

I knew this was gonna be bad news!
im beginning to think that i may aswell sack the whole lot and buy a new (or decent) second hand PC!
Ill back up my files onto disk like you said and may as well just bin it then?
Thanks for your help guys anyway!
James.

[Statica]

Before you chuck the drive entirely, might be worth your while to backup your files, then download a drive integrity analysis program from the drive mfg-er website. It will probably ask you to clean out the drive as well. What scandisk marks as bad sectors/clusters need not be the case. Either way you are going to have to run a windoze setup as well, seeing how the registry seems to have gone to the dogs

[Hpro]

I almost agree with all above here - only that on the same time I have to disagree with some of it - if Windows is shutting down or Windows98 detects a error like bad clusters it certainly will tell you so on the next restart -

OK it can be a failing hard drive - but registry error usually pointing to BAD MEMORY - try to boot to safe mode and test memory (automatically invoked)- this will close down the GAP by 1 if there aren't any memory failures then as soon you have repaired the hard drive with Scandisk or whatever utilitiy - DO NOT WRITE ON YOUR NOVEL instead backup what you have written so far - and then make sure taht you get this computer checked well in order to assure that you can safely write data to your hard drive..

May also you check for Viruses this also can be the cause - the MONGOLIAN virus would write BAD (faked bad) sectors to a hard drive and then double them if Scandisk or Norton Utils are run on the drive..

This just a thought...

[dtex]

If it's a small HD you're needing for an older machine, I've got a few IDE
around. I'll be glad to mail one to you, got no use for them anymore. Or you can pick them up used and tested at most computer repair places for a few bucks if you want to save the machine. LMK

[james_lancs]

ok thanks, ill try both the things you suggested (integrity wotsit and the virus scanner) and keep you posted,
as for the offer of a hard disk, then i thank you for the offer, but i do live in the UK so i think that the price for postage would be a little too hefty. As i said, thanks for the offer but ill have a search closer to home and keep you posted. thanks for everyones help! keep the advice coming, ill give anything a go at the moment
James.

[highrisemech]

James let us know what you need I'll be glad to help out myself as I'm more than sure the other members here to. good luck.........

[james_lancs]

i need someone to tell me first how to find out the manufaturer of my hard drive, so i can find the intergrity checker or whatever it is i need.

[Hpro]

Open up the box and look at the label of the drive note everythings down - there aren't that much choices out there - if this is a 6Year old comp as you wrote it is eventually hard to find the disk utilitiy - then let us know here - I'm sure we can help - there are also some software programs which can tell you the name of them - MAXLLF is one of them - Quantum ZEROFILL is another - palcing them on the boot disk they will show name , model, size and manufacturer of the Drive.. you don't need to use them but this way you can find out easy without to open up the box...