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Programs won't launch or are very slow

G

GaryGnu

Member
Yesterday, my computer (Windows 7 64 bit Dell Inspiron) had a disk failure error. Ever since, my computer has been behaving strangely. First, it would report that Bitdefender was turned off. I finally managed to boot in safe mode and uninstall it.

If I boot in normal mode, the computer is very sluggish, and it takes forever to launch programs, if they even come up. Then, they don't always run successfully. e.g. I use Winamp to listen to internet radio. If I do manage to get Winamp loaded, it will play music, but the music will distort on a periodic basis, every few seconds.

I can't really shut the computer down properly. I have to power down with the button.

The computer functions fine in Safe Mode.

Checking the task manager, I don't see anything hogging the CPU. There are Google Chrome processes running, even though I have it set to not run programs in the background.

I am unable to run chkdsk. I get a message that the drive cannot be locked.

I really don't know what to do at this point. Any help would be appreciated.
 
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Unless you had a dodgy flash drive or external hard drive plugged in, the disk failure is probably pointing to you computer's hard drive failing.

The BEST thing to do would be to buy a replacement drive (maybe a good time to upgrade to an SSD). If you have a desktop that can hold a couple additional drives, you can use that to clone your old hard drive to the new one. A new SSD will come with cloning software.

If you don't have a suitable desktop for this task, buy a hard drive enclosure, like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._re=rosewill_enclosure-_-17-173-042-_-Product

Whatever you do, I would back up important data, and do not use the laptop until you are ready to replace the drive. The longer it runs, the better the odds it will fail completely.
 
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You can download a program like seatools to check the drive if you think it's ok, but a failing hard drive fits the issues you are having.
 
ketchup79 said:
You can download a program like seatools to check the drive if you think it's ok, but a failing hard drive fits the issues you are having.
Click to expand...

OK, well I have a backup drive that is up to date. I will look into getting a new hard drive though. Question: I won't be able to deal with this for several days. Would it be better to shut the computer down, or leave it running?
 
GaryGnu said:
OK, well I have a backup drive that is up to date. I will look into getting a new hard drive though. Question: I won't be able to deal with this for several days. Would it be better to shut the computer down, or leave it running?
Click to expand...

Down. It would be hard to say 100% as a failing hard drive won't like running for days, and it wouldn't like the power on/off sequence. But the less running time the better, since the message wasn't clear, and even a diagnostic would add stress to the drive.
 
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