Question Weird Error With Windows?

[victorthelama]

I'm working on a coworker's computer when suddenly Windows completely died... but not exactly? Rather than giving me a BSOD, I was stuck on the desktop of a computer that seemed like it had its hard drive ripped out but somehow managed to still function. All of my desktop icons disappeared, I couldn't open the Recycling bin or even execute the run command, and attempting to do an sfc scan give me an error saying that sfc was not "recognized as an internal or external command...", despite the fact that I had been able to run the command before this happened. I've never seen anything like this before, but I assume the hard drive is failing. If anyone knows what this is, please let me know as I am genuinely curious as to what is happening.

 

[onespeedbiker]

Such a freeze is not unusual, but the extent of the damage, if any won't be known until you restart your computer. Try to bring up the task manager (ctrl/alt/del) to shutdown, if you are not able to, that do a forced shutdown by holding the power button down until windows shuts down. Next unplug your pc, and hold down the power button for 10 seconds and wait ten minutes, then plug your PC back in and push the power button to boot. Advise what happens.

The cause can be varied, anything from a virus, power surge, failing drive to a failing graphics card or corrupt graphics driver.

 

[victorthelama]

I've determined that it is in fact due to a failing hard drive, thankfully the system is still under warrenty so I'm able to get a replacement drive free of charge

 

[onespeedbiker]

Great! Well not great, but at least the fix won't cost you anything.