faulty hard disk or virus ?

Topcat · #1 (**permalink**) 03-01-2006, 02:54 AM

Hi,

When I switch on my Gateway PC runnning Me it appears to start OK but
then 4 options appear with Safe Mode highlighted. When I hit return
all I get is the sound of the hard drive (kerchick...kerchick...........)
I can't restart the PC unless I kill the power button.

Any thoughts anyone ?

jephree · #2 (**permalink**) 04-01-2006, 04:56 AM

Just to clarify: you always get the Safe Mode screen but you cannot get into any of the Safe Mode options?

Same behavior every time?

Do you have the Gateway Recovery CD's?

You could also try a boot floppy:

http://www.bootdisk.com/

Topcat · #3 (**permalink**) 04-01-2006, 05:20 PM

Hi,

I always see the following on boot up (after Windows Me Logo).

1) Normal
2) logged
3) Safe Mode
4) Step by Step confirmation

I'm clueless as to what I would achieve by choosing options 1,2 or 4 so I''ve avoided
them until I can work out their use !

When I select Safe Mode all I get is blank screen and what appears to be the hard disk continually being (presumably) read. At this stage the keyboard is dead and the only thing I can do is power
off.

I wonder about the hard drive as it is only 5 months old (40 MB Hitachi) - might not have been a
wise choice.

I had a start up disk (first thing I did when I bought the machine) but Lord alone knows where it is now. I think I will try to transfer the small amount of data on it to another drive before I do any more. I'm worried a write operation on the disk may killl it if its not already dead.

jephree · #4 (**permalink**) 05-01-2006, 02:03 AM

Here is the Hitachi Diagnostic:

Drive Fitness Test (v4.05)

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

This download creates a self-booting DOS diskette to run the DFT utility.

Topcat · #5 (**permalink**) 05-01-2006, 11:39 AM

Whilst I was replying to your last post I left my faulty PC running with the 4 options displayed.
For some reason when I went back to it about an hour later Scandisk had started to run on its own.
I left it running - took 5 hours to complete ! Powered down and back up again - computer works fine.
Beats me why Scandisk started running on its own but everything now seems OK.

I will try the Hitachi test software just to see what happens.

Many thanks.