Computer boot time extremely slow and won't boot into windows

[Henry_14]

So one day my friend told me to torrent games so I did and most of them worked. But then I torrented a game with a virus in it and I got the virus and it gave me 100% Disk usage. So I restarted my computer a couple hours later and a random update started to happen. But after the update it said my boot mgr was missing so I just did a clean install of windows7 64bit. It didn't work so I tried it again but with win10 and also tried the 32 bit ones.
So it finally worked once and I got into the desktop with 100% disk usage and decided to restart it. After the restart it became a 10 min boot time (the setup also took 4 hours for some reason) and it would stop after logging in and become a black screen with a movable mouse cursor. Since then I've tried repairing it and startup repairs but with no luck at all. Unfortunately it won't give me any error messages so it's been hard to figure out .
Specs:CPU I5-4690K GPU GTX970 MOBO ASUSZ97A PSU EVGA GOLD 750W RAM 16G CRUCIAL BALLISTX TACTICAL HDD:SEAGATE BARRACUDA 2TB

IF THE ONLY WAY IS TO BUY A NEW HDD TO FIX MY COMPUTER THEN I WILL GLADLY DO IT

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Henry_14,

This sounds a lot more like a failing HDD(or cables issue) rather than a virus one. In case it was a virus, you should have sorted this out with reinstalling the OS.
You can try:
- Attaching the HDD with different SATA and power cables to a different port.
- In case the issue persists, you can use some HDD testing tool for DOS and check out its health status. Another thing you can do is to just attach it to another system and test it with some of these: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
- In case you really think that all of this is virus related, some tools can write zeros on drives. The process will fill in zero value in each sector. You can try that as well.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[Henry_14]

Doesn't a failing HDD make a lot of noise? I'll try replugging my cables right when I get home from school. But all of this happened after I tried to torrent a game so I thought it was virus related.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Not really. Sometimes, failing drives could make noises but sometimes they just stop being recognized. Just try using different cables(in case you have them) and test the drive afterwards. Also, you can write zeros on it to completely rule out the virus infection possibility.

D_Know_WD

 

[Henry_14]

How can I write zeros on my drive?

 

[Henry_14]

Also can I fix a failing hard drive or do I need to buy a new one

 

[jsmithepa]

If you re-install Windows from scratch, you shouldn't have to zero the drive as the clean installation should override everything.

When you clean install, you should:

1. Save needed data to an external, flash, whatever.
2. An option on Win7 install, says NEW, that's the one you should choose. The new option treats your drive as a new drive and writes a new boot loader which sounds like it was corrupted.

If that doesn't fix it then you have a bad drive.

 

[Henry_14]

Yeah then I think I have a bad drive but it loaded once to windows but then it didn't work after so is it still a bad drive?

 

[jsmithepa]

Yeah then I think I have a bad drive but it loaded once to windows but then it didn't work after so is it still a bad drive?

Negative, it should work every time.

I mean, if not the drive then something happened to the SATA controller on the motherboard, which is highly unlikely. Two more options:

Reset Motherboard's CMOS as per manual's instruction.

Have an old HD sitting around? just big enough to load OS and test.


One more thing: If it won't cold boot (HD spins up from 0 rpm), but after the HD spins up and you hit the reset button and that boots it up, the PSU is suspect.

 

[Henry_14]

But that was my old iso and I have reinstalled my windows at least 4 times since that incident and cleared my bootmgr

 

[Henry_14]

Oh yeah I didn't really explain it well but my computer DOES boot but it stops after logging in with a black screen and cursor and I have tried every form of safe mode, startup repair and system repair even the reformatting my HDD. But it'll always stop in the end with a movable cursor and a black screen.

 

[jsmithepa]

Bad RAM?

Look, we won't be here day after day, it's mostly your task to perform the troubleshooting. The gist of troubleshooting is, remove as many variables as you can as to zero in the real culprit. If you have no spare drive, no spare RAM, that's gonna be tough.

 

[Henry_14]

My rams fine my mobo can identify it perfectly fine

 

[Henry_14]

Should I just take out one stick and see if it boots up if you can detect your RAM in your mobo doesn't mean it's good

 

[Henry_14]

So I fixed it somehow. I dropped my HDD on the floor and I tried to use it again and IG works fine now lol

 

[D_Know_WD]

It's good that it works now. 😀
You shouldn't store important data on it though. It may be a good idea to consider replacing it.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD