Possible Hard Drive Emergency
 

1. last night I was playing online poker as usual on my desktop (w/ 1 month old HD).

2. out of nowhere the system halts and i am forced to power off/power on.

3. after power on/bios screen, i get a system message that "Hal.dll" is corrupt and needs to be replaced

4. i insert system restore CD-ROM and reboot

5. system does not allow me to reboot from CD-ROM, despite processes being correct in boot menu. repeat this many times, i still get error message, windows never starts, and i can't boot from the XP CD-ROM

6. today (right now), i power on computer and on 3rd attempt XP boots and i manually extract "Hal.dll" from XP restore CD. for someone reason my XP cd is not giving me an option to restore/repair the entire system. i had just restored it last month from an older HD going completely corrupt. Windows help page says that a corrupt "Boot.ini" may be the real culprit, but I'm not confident I have the power to fix this myself.

7. i am not sure if my computer is stable now, so i am backing up all of my drivers and maybe ghosting my HD to save a lot of heartache. i ran a "CHDSK" and didn't get any errors.

Guys, any advice is really appreciated here... I'm pretty much panicking as I need this computer to play poker on. What else should do in my case as far as repairing/restoring/backing-up?

This could be the last time I'm able to boot from this HD for all I know... then again it could start working perfectly now.

Re: Possible Hard Drive Emergency
 

I don't have a lot of time here and will have to make this short, sorry. Just use google to find the programs discussed.

Is the boot order properly setup in your bios (ie boot from CDROM before HD)? Sounds like it was before at least, hmm...

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i had just restored it last month from an older HD going completely corrupt


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So this was on the same computer? Perhaps not the best omen.

So to test stability I would go this route:

check temps with speedfan -- compare to what 'normal' idle temp is for your processor. If normal proceed, if high try blowing out dust first then retest.

check hd SMART data with utility -- don't remember the name of one I have used, just google.

Run prime95 torture test (two+ instances if multi core) for a couple of hours. Search for +prime95 +affinity in cth for instructions on how to setup multiple instances if you need help. Check your temps during the test. See if you get any errors.

Give all this a shot then let us know whats up.

Re: Possible Hard Drive Emergency
 

i would backup all important data asap to a mass storage device.. Usually when random dll's become corrupt after you replace one something else will come about. I would save all important data and go about formating your hard drive and reinstalling windows. If cdrom is busto then maybe a usb xp boot disk would work. After reformating and reinstalling i would suggest imageing your harddrive to create future headaches. BTW [censored] RESTORE never had anything but problems with it. Acronis True Image works great, can get my computer back to the day i got it within 6 minutes.

Re: Possible Hard Drive Emergency
 

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Is the boot order properly setup in your bios (ie boot from CDROM before HD)? Sounds like it was before at least, hmm...

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yes, boot order is correct. i am actually able to run the Windows Recovery disk now.

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So this was on the same computer? Perhaps not the best omen.

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yes, HP Pavilion A1320n, unfortunately I had to reboot my desktop after I installed Norton Ghost and now I can't get back into XP. The crash occurs during Windows startup, when the "Windows XP" screen appears and the Num Lock/Caps Lock flash. It is hanging there everytime now, no error message.

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So to test stability I would go this route:

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I guess these diagnostics aren't possible since I'm locked out of XP again. I tried to boot from Safe Mode and Last Known Good Configuration, both crashed. I am running a "chkdsk /p /r" right now from recovery console (DOS shell) it is running extremely slow. Also noteworthy is that I was getting "Access Denied" messages while trying to browse most directories from the C:\ prompt. I have never put any login or admin passwords on my desktop.

Starting to wonder if it could possibly be a Virus, but I have AVG up-to-date, and it runs daily.

Maybe I will try to patch up the Boot.ini file if Chkdsk finishes in my lifetime, otherwise it's looking like i'm going to have to re-install XP.

Any other ideas?

Thanks.

Re: Possible Hard Drive Emergency
 

[ QUOTE ]
i would backup all important data asap to a mass storage device.. Usually when random dll's become corrupt after you replace one something else will come about. I would save all important data and go about formating your hard drive and reinstalling windows. If cdrom is busto then maybe a usb xp boot disk would work. After reformating and reinstalling i would suggest imageing your harddrive to create future headaches. BTW [censored] RESTORE never had anything but problems with it. Acronis True Image works great, can get my computer back to the day i got it within 6 minutes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks, I guess I will start imaging my HD's from now on... sucks to learn this the hard way though.

Re: Possible Hard Drive Emergency
 

Well that is unfortunate.

When you do get windows reinstalled I would recommend testing to make sure your comp is stable.

Re: Possible Hard Drive Emergency
 

i recently attempted to re-install Windows on my HD, right as the install was finishing up (99% done) my screen blanked out and the machine froze. i performed a hard reboot, Windows started loading, and somehow I was staring at my old desktop picture with all of my programs and drivers intact from before. while windows was starting it appeared my computer was going to crash, as my desktop was scattered with white sploshes and incomplete toolbars... a few minutes later everything was working, and i'm on the internet???

anyways, i'm not sure how i'm on the original windows install now, but i guess it's a 95% certainty that XP is not stable enough to work after another reboot and will probably crash before that occurs anyways.

just ran Prime95... "Torture Test ran 2 hours, 50 minutes - 0 errors, 0 warnings."

i installed SpeedFan 4.28 to check temperatures, but i have no idea how to interpret the results:

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h2...l/Speedfan.jpg

Re: Possible Hard Drive Emergency
 

I'm not sure what fan 3 and temp 3 refer to but 0 rpm and 128 C is not good. It looks like one fan is not working and something is running very hot.

Re: Possible Hard Drive Emergency
 

I'm guessing your temps are fine, the -128 is probably just some error when speedfan is trying to get info from your board. The 43c is most likely the cpu temp which should be fine.

Your p95 results are good, but a few questions: If you have a multicore proc did you run multiple instances of p95? Did you take a temp reading at idle then while under full load, ie p95 torture test?

It looks like speedfan tests HD SMART data, please check that to make sure your HD is working properly. If speedfan doesn't cover all the bases then google for another HD test utility.

Re: Possible Hard Drive Emergency
 

thanks again. it's not a multicore processor: model

Processor, Memory, and Motherboard

* Hardware Platform: PC
* Processor: 3.06 GHz Intel Pentium 4
* Number of Processors: 1
* RAM Type: DDR SDRAM

Smart HD results

Your hard disk is a ST3500630AS with firmware 3.AAE.
The average temperature for this hard disk is 39C (MIN=29C MAX=50C) and yours is 34C.
Your hard disk's S.M.A.R.T. attributes are now being analyzed and a full report about the reliability, health and status of your hard disk is generated:
Your hard disk is not below any attribute threshold. This is good.
Your hard disk was never below any attribute threshold. This is good.