Nightmare Computer Problem

BustedSpleen

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Jan 9, 2013
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Okay so a week or two ago I noticed that my pc (custom built) started taking longer to start up than it ususally did. This happened everyday until last night for some reason when I started it up it just showed a black screen for like 20mins and then displayed the login screen. Once I signed in it took another 20 mins to get to the desktop. Then, it took another 5 mins to display just the taskbar and wallpaper background with a few error messages and one message something along the lines of "windows.exe has stopped working". I then thought this was a virus and tried to go into safe mode to get rid of it. It the literally took 30 mins to load safe mode and even then it was extremely slow and I could not pull up any programs. I tried this about 5 times and still could not get anything o work. I then read that I should try the AVG rescue disk. So I put in the rescue disk and let it scan my computer and all it came up with were a few suspicious installers (one of them was a skype installer) and no infections. Did that about three times and it came up with the same results. I then thought that Windows had just corrupted itself. I reinstalled windows onto my C drive not my D drive and windows is to some degree faster but still slow. One problem is that whenever I try to open up my D drive it takes forever to load and just stops. I hope to God it did not wipe my D drive. Thing is though is that, my C drive still says it contains 110gb out of the 120gb. I also cannot connect to the internet for some reason. Plus my computer is now running off of my internal graphics card in the motherboard and not my gtx 670.I seriously think something is wrong with my computer and hope to God my SSD (C Drive) is not flawed. Even though I have a feeling it is. Should I take it to get looked at? Is this a virus? Is my SSD toast?

Computer specs:
i5 3570k
8gb RAM
125gb SSD + 1tb HDD
GTX 670 graphics card
 
Solution
your warrantied drive won't refund your money- they'll send you a refurbished replacement drive.

A much more common sign of a failing drive is that you can't read or access it from a working os instance. in other words, if you have windows installed on the C drive, and it's working ok, but can't access the D drive, it's much more common that the D drive is failing than for the C drive to be failing. If the C drive was failing and one of its symptoms was that it couldn't access the D drive, the windows installation on the C drive would be having a lot more symptoms than just that.

And when you say it can't access it, do you mean you're getting permission denied errors or whatever the windows equivalent to that wording? or it just...

bliq

Distinguished
so most SSDs begin to have degraded performance as it gets close to filling up. Also are you sure you have TRIM turned on and that it's working? I always thought it was automatic but I don't know much about how Windows works anymore.
 
You said you had slow access to your D drive, that may be going bad. I'd make a backup of it immediately then run a low level scan on it with a disk check utility.

After you re-installed Windows did you install all the drivers? Test the system with the second drive unplugged.
 

BustedSpleen

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Jan 9, 2013
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Okay so here's the update, I installed some drivers and am now able to connect to the internet. Thing is, when I reinstalled windows it saved all my old data on that drive and now I have only 2gb of space left on that drive. I still have no acess to my D; drive. I did a TON of research, asked a few of my geeky friends and I'm 90% sure that my SSD is dying. So now I ordered a new Samsung 840 Evo 250gb ssd which should arrive tomorrow. All I have to do now is clone it with a bootable disc since I'm not able to download/write/open any program. I'm glad my SSD has a 5 year warranty so I can just get a refund.
 
I am not sure how not being able to access your D drive is a sign your SSD is going bad. Is the D drive a second hard drive? If that is what you are having issues with, why are you replacing another drive? Remove the second drive and test it in a second computer first. You missed a bunch of troubleshooting steps.

If you re-installed Windows without wiping the drive first, yes you would have ended up with a buch of space taken up, should delete the partition first and start clean. But since you ordered the new one at least you'll have more space either way.

Test the second drive first though.
 

BustedSpleen

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Jan 9, 2013
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Okay well one of the symptyms of a failing hard drive (that I read) was that it couldn't read or access another hdd/ssd. So I immediately thought that it was my C drive (SSD). Before the reinstallation of windows, I literally could not start windows, it was just a black screen. How could a secondary drive affect the boot of an operating system? Also, I can't test the hdd on another computer because I only have another laptop. Then again, maybe you're right, I'm not enitrely sure.

 

bliq

Distinguished
your warrantied drive won't refund your money- they'll send you a refurbished replacement drive.

A much more common sign of a failing drive is that you can't read or access it from a working os instance. in other words, if you have windows installed on the C drive, and it's working ok, but can't access the D drive, it's much more common that the D drive is failing than for the C drive to be failing. If the C drive was failing and one of its symptoms was that it couldn't access the D drive, the windows installation on the C drive would be having a lot more symptoms than just that.

And when you say it can't access it, do you mean you're getting permission denied errors or whatever the windows equivalent to that wording? or it just tries and tries but never is able to get a directory listing of the d drive? My guess is still a failing D drive.

as far as having only 2GB left on a SSD, that will definitely degrade performance. It's too close to being full and SSD's don't really like that because of the way SSDs work.

 
Solution

BustedSpleen

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Jan 9, 2013
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Is there a bootable hdd evaluation software that you would recommend I try? I saw this program called ultimateboot but I'm not sure if it would work. I would try a regular program but like I said I cannot install or download any program . Thanks for help btw.
 


There is a very simple test to do there. Unplug the second hard drive and see how things work. As long as you did not move any system files over to it or have any programs on the second drive that run at startup, it will tell you immediately if te issue is with the second drive. Many people with SSD drives install programs on another drive or move files over to the second drive from the SSD, if those files are run at boot, it will cause issues. Remove the second drive, install clean Windows on the SSD to make sure there are no files on the other drive it's looking for and I'm thinking your system will work just fine.
 

BustedSpleen

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Jan 9, 2013
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Alright I think you're right. I just unplugged the second 1tb (D drive) and started evreything up. Everything is smooth now I can save and install programs. Thanks a ton. So now I just buy a new hard drive and clone the old dying one?

 


Yes, new drive is in order. I would not do a clone, that has more issues with bad drives. If you can read it at all, copy the files to another drive then move it over to the good one. If you can't access the drive there is a Linux utility called ddrescue that may get the data off. http://www.bootmed.com/using-ddrescue-for-windows-machines/