So is my HD going bad or do I have a error somewhere?

[Beefcake]

Hey guys I'm in need of some computer help. Recently my laptop got infected with a virus and I wanted to make sure that my Desktop PC hadn't been infected either. Neither computer "talks" to each other and I don't share or connect drives or USB sticks between the two computers. Basically I use my laptop for surfing the web and light gaming while I'm on break at work, otherwise it does nothing and has no contact what so ever with my Gaming PC.

Anyway I wanted to be sure my desktop wasn't infected so I did a series of scans using Avast and Malwarebytes and both came back that my system was clean. Just to be sure though I started my PC in safe mode with no networking and ran another scan with Malwarebytes as this is what I had to do to clear the virus off my laptop. I shutdown and then restarted the machine normally, however, after getting passed the bios screen it said "Operation system not found". Obviously this concerned me but to be sure I did a hard shutdown and then restarted the machine after waiting for a minute. This time the computer booted normally with no problems.

Ok fast forward a week. My machine is giving me this Operating System Not Found error about once in every 8-10 startups, so I'm wondering could a startup file be damaged or is it just a coincidence that maybe my HD is starting to die? I'm looking for opinions on which direction I should go from here.

[Bizman]

Download the Ultimate Boot CD and boot from it. In the HDD section run a diagnostic tool for your HD brand, or the one for Seagate or IBM/Hitachi. Before doing that I'd recommend you mount the disk to the working machine for copying your personal data, if there's some. That's the way to find out if your drive is damaged. If not, then you can run checkdisk either from the installation disk or from within Windows hooking the disk to the working rig.

[ozrocker]

Sounds like HD is ending its run on life.

                                                 <S> Oz

[Ghosth]

I think I'd get anything off that drive that you want saved. Sounds like the beginning of the end.

[Beefcake]

That really sucks. It never did this before I ran the safe mode thing, but the drive is a little over a year old so I guess it's doomed to fail. I got lucky with my older computer as the drive lasted 6 years with no problems.

[Masherbrum]

That really sucks. It never did this before I ran the safe mode thing, but the drive is a little over a year old so I guess it's doomed to fail. I got lucky with my older computer as the drive lasted 6 years with no problems.

If you're gonna replace it, get one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007603%2050001306%20600003340%20600003459%20600003338&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&SrchInDesc=caviar%20black&Page=1&PageSize=100 (I bought a 750GB last year and love it).   

[BaldEagl]

It may not be your HD.  Try running a system restore to a day or two before you ran the AV in safe mode.  The AV may have somehow messed up a file.  I'm not saying that's it but it's worth a shot before you start moving data and buying a new drive.  At a year old I doubt the HD is going.

[Delirium]

At a year old I doubt the HD is going.

It depends on the drive, Raptors can go tits up rather quickly.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

It depends on the drive, Raptors can go tits up rather quickly.

Not only raptors, any drive can die anything from dead-on-arrival to a few weeks. Or last a decade.

[capdavis]

There are a few reasons this might happen.

- Third-party software, probably AV, can deactivate or corrupt your Master Boot Record (probably the case).
- The boot settings in your BIOS were changed.


Make sure your boot settings are correct and use a windows boot disc, or partition if you have a newer notebook (Read any manuals that came with it). And use the system restore setting and revert back to a previously saved restore point.

If the drive suffered a physical crash, you would definitely hear noises coming from it and would probably never get past the "No Fixed Disk Present. Insert System Disk and Press Enter" error. If you do get this error even after checking if your boot settings are correct and all connections are seated properly in the disk, or hear noises... DO NOT run stuff like chdisk or any diagnostic software. Because any further writing/re-writing could cause permanent data loss.

If the above didn't render any results, try using software like Norton Ghost or mount the drive in an external HDD case and backup data using a healthy machine. Run the backed up data through an anti-virus just to make sure. Once everything is backed up, then you can run diagnostic software on the hard drive to see if it can still be used.  

If all else fails--bricked hard drives make great targets.  

[TilDeath]

This sounds like a corrupt file to me.  I see this a lot when overclocking systems or even back when Vista should only be installed with 2GB ram.  You can check your HD with software such as HDTune or HDtach.  These can let you know if your HD is actually failing or something else is wrong.

TD

[ImADot]

Spinrite is your friend.  Saved a couple of hard drives for me.  As log as your BIOS detects the drive, it does amazing things; from general maintenance to corrected "uncorrectable" errors and data recovery.

[Beefcake]

Thanks for the help guys.

So far I've done a system restore back to a point before I did the safe mode scanning, that didn't work.

I did download HDtune and let it run it's scans and they all said my HD was 100% healthy, no bad sectors at all. However, sometimes when I boot the computer and go into the bios or boot menu it doesn't show a hard drive number there, but it shows something is connected. (I think) Which confuses the heck out of me as I'm still unsure if the drive is bad or if my MBR is hosed. All I know is it's a PITA to get the system to boot, but when it does boot up it's stable as a rock.

[Chalenge]

Spinrite is your friend.  Saved a couple of hard drives for me.  As log as your BIOS detects the drive, it does amazing things; from general maintenance to corrected "uncorrectable" errors and data recovery.

Quoted for truth. Best money you will ever spend.

[Beefcake]

I've looked into Spinrite and I think I'll be buying it as soon as I can afford it, however, I doubt Spinrite is going to solve my current problem. All my testing shows that the drive is good it's just that it has trouble on boot which leads me to a corrupted boot file somewhere. After reading up on it I assume my next step is to boot the system off the Win7 disc and then attempted to do a /fixmbr command. Any other ideas on this?