Computer Gurus...need help
- Thread starter Akdiesel
- Start date
You could use a live cd to test it. That would take out the os or software being corrupted as an issue. But you would need to find the live cd with anti virus software to be the most effective.
Man things go from bad to worse lol...tried to run chkdsk and now everyone it boots it boots running chkdsk and freezes after 6% and having quite a few bad sectors. Is there a way to bypass this and get it to start with command prompt? If I buy a new HD could I install a Linux OS right off the bat and not mess with windows? Also is there any definitive way to tell without a doubt it is the HD?
Yes, if you installed an new HDD you could install Linux.
You need to run a diagnostic test on the HDD. That will tell you for sure if it's bad or not. From the symptoms that your having it sounds like a bad HDD.
http://majorgeeks.com/Ultimate_Boot_CD_UBCD_d4981.html
Download this ISO from the "authors site" and burn it to a CD. Then boot to that CD and pick the manufacturer of the HDD and that will run their diagnostic utility. Let me know if you need any help. :hug:
Is there a way to put them onto an SD card or USB drive? It is a netbook without a CD drive. It is a Dell Inspiron Mini 1012. I will look up who the mfgr of the HDD is. Thanks for the help guys. I'm letting Chkdsk run and it hasn't frozen just showing a ton of File record segment xxxxxx is unreadable...know of a good site to build my own laptop the way I want lol
what would cause this? Is there anyway to keep a damn computer nowadays? I mean my HP Pavilion monster from 2005 still works and if it had a good power cable I would still use it and wouldn't have bought this POS Dell a year or so ago to begin with...maybe it runs so good cause I formatted the HDD and ran Windows XP Black (a Linux version of XP without all the BS)
There is here is the link
http://wiki.ultimatebootcd.com/index.php?title=Tutorials:USB_Installation#Requirements
The Dell Mini's are not an easy laptop to get into either FYI. I wouldn't bother with Check disk anymore.
There are alot of vendors online that you can choose from.
Malibal.com, powernotebooks.com, Dell (ect) it really depends on how "customised" you want your system to be.
HDD are mechanical, just like a truck engine. Eventually all HDD will fail. SSD(Solid State Drive) are the new fad in storage due to no moving parts and blazing fast read speeds. But just like a new beefed up tranny with twins, it's going to cost yah.
Two things 1 yes SSD's are much faster and are far more shock resistant however the life of the drive it not as long as a traditional drive do to how its designed. I will say though is in most cases a new SSD drive will last longer then you will keep the laptop. My second thing is make sure you get a seagate drive. I am a IT guy for the government as well as a computer business owner, and i have used/replaced a million HD. I only use seagate as they have proven to be the best drive for your money IMO. If you have any questions or need any help feel free to pm me and ill give you my number to answer any of your questions. After reading this thread so far i think you should back up your data in a secure place and install a new SSD HD then install a fresh windows (or other OS) image. this will insure you start with a clean drive and hopefully a much faster more reliable machone. ALSO NOTE make sure you scan your saved files when putting them back on the machine to insure you dont infect the new HD. As far as anti virus goes the best one I have found that takes care of viruses, maleware, spyware, and general security is called Security shield. Here is a link http://www.pcsecurityshield.com/PP/dspSecurityShield.aspx
Good luck,
-Drew-
Good luck,
-Drew-
Drew,
Thanks a ton for the help man. Of course everything looks easy looking on youtube so I will be trying to pull the HDD on my own and replacing it. Is it worth spending the $ for an external case to use the old HDD that way? I also plan on upgrading the memory while I'm in there since it is colocated by the HDD unless I buy/build a new laptop...any advice?
As far as the building a custom laptop I'm not wanting anything crazy just something that I can choose the OS that is on it (IE not paying the huge fee that is tacked onto a computer for Windows when I won't run it.) Now don't get me wrong I'm not a Microsoft hater just my personal exp. with any Windows OS newer than 98 has been bad with the exception of Vista oddly enough. Back on track...basically I want to be able to pick the HDD size/type, CPU type, RAM available and a non-mainstream OS. I have found system76 laptops they're just pricey...I'll check the links out and thanks bud
Thanks a ton for the help man. Of course everything looks easy looking on youtube so I will be trying to pull the HDD on my own and replacing it. Is it worth spending the $ for an external case to use the old HDD that way? I also plan on upgrading the memory while I'm in there since it is colocated by the HDD unless I buy/build a new laptop...any advice?
As far as the building a custom laptop I'm not wanting anything crazy just something that I can choose the OS that is on it (IE not paying the huge fee that is tacked onto a computer for Windows when I won't run it.) Now don't get me wrong I'm not a Microsoft hater just my personal exp. with any Windows OS newer than 98 has been bad with the exception of Vista oddly enough. Back on track...basically I want to be able to pick the HDD size/type, CPU type, RAM available and a non-mainstream OS. I have found system76 laptops they're just pricey...I'll check the links out and thanks bud
As for the dual booting thing, you could try using a virtual machine. Those things are awesome. As many OS's as you have memory and HDD space for. And if you do it right, set it up once. Save the image or profile of it, and if you have problems with it. Just delete the file on the main computer and copy over from the original and you have your OS back like new. You can even play around with whatever you want on it. Screw it up and just copy over from original and you are right back to a fresh OS. Quicker than installing a new one. As for building a laptop, if you want high end, Alienware. Low end can be a crap shoot but Dell is pretty good as well at that end. Or gateway. And yes, I know, Gateway sucks. But I have 2 of them, one of which I have have had since 07' and am still using right now as I type this. All I needed to do is upgrade the RAM to max and upgrade the HDD to something bigger. When I got my laptop I looked at the features and Processor cause the ram and Hdd can be upgraded easily. Something with an Esata (External Serial ATA) port and maybe an HDMI port. One of my laptops can take 2 internal HDD's which is a feature I love. If you are looking for the best bang for the buck. Look for one with a good graphics card and decent processor. But get it with the smallest amount of ram you can. Reason I say this is when you upgrade the ram, it's not like a desktop where you just add to what you have. You are replacing what you have. So you would be taking out what is already there and putting something bigger in. Hope all this helps. Sorry for the long read. My side work is specializing in laptop repair and upgrading. Just not much business for it since it's usually cheaper to buy a new one.:thumb:
Good post Wayne. It's great to see what's available. I'm looking into something midrange...not to jinx myself but I decided to let Chkdsk keep running and see what happened and it's at 28% but so far it has recovered some unindexed files, deleted some bad files, replaced bad clusters and seems to be chugging along...now can anyone make sense to me of what I typed :roflmao: I just typed it as I saw what the screen said haha...hoping this may fix the issue...it deleted some weird looking mp3 and m4a files...and apparently a jpg of Jim Rome :rofl: idk if what it's doing is good or bad but it can't be worse than it already is
With the bad sector stuff, all it is doing is marking it so they can't be used anymore by the OS to store anything. It does replace anything. Your files are never really gone until you write over them. When a file is deleted it just deletes it from the TOC or Table of Contents in the hard drive that the end user doesn't see. As for the files your not familiar with, they might have been files from your internet browsers Cache. And for the mid range laptops, same rules still apply.
when upgrading ram there are several things you need to look at. first is how much ram can your processor/ mother board handle. The second is how much ram will your OS recognize. These 2 factors will help you pick whats going to work best for you. Finally get a reputable product ( I personally like corsair ) and make sure its compatible with the other hardware you have in place. In regard to your laptop building question there are options when it comes to this however if you want to go for cost effectiveness your limited. My suggestion would be to go to dell and build your own laptop. It is possible to build one from scratch but unless you do it regularly i think you might get overwhelmed. Im not positive if Dell will allow you to do this or not but you might want to try buying a laptop from them with the screen size, board, graphics card, and processor that your looking for. Leave out the HD, OS, and ram and buy those on your own. (it will save you more money when your trying to go high end on a custom build laptop). I would imagine you will have to talk to a rep on the phone in order to do this but i may be wrong you may be able to do it on line. Also newegg.com will be a good place to get your parts from and you will be able to see reviews of the products before you buy them. hope this helps
-drew-
-drew-
Thanks Drew. I would go with Dell but this the second Dell we've had die within less than 18 months of ownership...won't be buying another Dell. Should I buy an off the shelf laptop and upgrade or buy like a system76 ubuntu laptop and go from there
well I understand it's not a permanent fix but I got chkdsk to repair what it could and the computer seemed to be running better...I am now running Jolicloud (Linux) for the time being until I can find a new HDD for this thing then will permanently run some form of Linux OS most likely Jolicloud..the plus side is even though the HDD is still failing I can actually use my little computer again and it will actually stream video like a computer should vice being all choppy and screwed up