is my hdd going south?

[SuperT]

hi all, a quick question on my hdd. i have an older 17gb maxtor that has been formatted several times. no matter which o/s i put on it, i always get errors and lockups. all hardware seems to funtion ok with the exception of this 17gb drive. i d/l the maxtor utility and tested the drive and it says its ok, but if i leave the browser open for to long or try to play solitaire freecell etc... i get lockups, then upon rebooting there are always lost clusters and file allocations that norton wants to fix. let me know if you have ANY ideas. thanks.

 

[SuperT]

bump, bump, bump.

 

[Duvie]

Well if you have done many reformats with diff. OS's then I think it may be safe to rule out software issues...most hardware issues could lock up system but when entering back into windows the scandisk shouldn't really have errors...

Improper shutdowns I have seen cause corruption to registry file and such...

I really dont know for sure...

Try running the system with limited hardware period...just the cpu/mobo/ram/vid card/hdd/cd-rom for install...

Do a fresh install then see if this happens...try leaving the vid card as generic pci to rule out hardware drivers.

Also what is the make of the system...give full specs of comp as of know...

 

[SuperT]

thanks for the input duvie, here are sys specs.

win 98se
amd 750 duron, not o/c
256mb generic ram
17gb hdd, 4gb hdd> both maxtor
tnt2 32mb
santa cruz sound
win go tv board
linksys nic
etc...

i have done a complete clean install with all components (except the bare necessities) out of the case and reinstalled one by one.

 

[Duvie]

Have you tried placing os on 4gb drive and take 17gb out and see if you have same issues? If you don't I would think that may point a big finger towards the 17gb as the problem...

In maxtor utility did you do the quick test or the advanced test? In powermax.exe porgram I am talking about?

Otherwise run with bare essentials, not including tv tuners, and nic cards which can cause havoc if conflicts exist. Let it run for a day or so do some samll task and such and try to see if it will freeze up and get same errors. If it does at least it rules out those sometimes problemsome cards as the reason.

 

[SuperT]

good idea duvie , i think thats what i will do, put win98se and office xp etc.. operating system stuff just on the 4gb, which im sure is good and then use the 17gb for games, mp3 etc.., do you think the low level utility from maxtor is worth trying?

 

[Duvie]

I have never had to use it with my maxtor drives so I don't want to advise you on that...Is it still covered under warranty? maybe as a storage drive it may be fine but I think I would like to be sure anyways...

Go to maxtor web page and read on the low level utility and see what it does? It may help, I dunno...