Windows Vista - Start up repair?? (1 Viewer)

[Marty]

When i switched on my computer today it said that it was unable to load windows and sent me to a screen that said it was trying to repair the fault, after about 10 minutes a little pop up came on saying that it was unable to repair the problem, I'm running Vista home edition, my computer is maybe 3 years old made by HP, never have any problems with it and ran a virus scan last week which came back with no problems, I don't download anything unless i know it's from a safe site, I have noticed in the pass 2-3 weeks that it has been running loudly and seen to get like a scratching sound almost but i thats usually only on start up so guessing that may be the Hard Drive??

I have an AMD Athlon processor and 3gb RAM.

Any help would be great.

 

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[Nick]

What is it doing now? Was it shut down properly? Did it say anything about Checking a Disk?

 

[Marty]

it seems to be running ok if a little bit slow, It was shut down properly. It said something about system restore but i chose not to do this as the last time i done that was like a month after i got the PC. it didn't say anything about checking a disk.

 

[TheRoyalScam]

It should automatically have made many restore points before Windows updates, so System Restore is worth a try. However it sounds like a hard disc problem to me. PC's are much cheaper now - rather than throw money at it (probably £100+ for a new drive and overhaul) I'd recommend buying a new quad-core PC with Windows 7 and 4gb ram. Amazon's worth a look, as well as high street retailers. You only need the tower - keep your monitor. Good luck.

 

[Marty]

Thanks TRS. When the system restore thing came up it said i wouldn't be able to come back to a earlier date/restore point so i chose not to do it as i wasn't sure about it. Once these things start to go wrong how long does it take for them to totally fail? I've just spent a heap of money so don't really fancy spending any more till i'm a bit more flush.

 

[Nick]

It is hard to say if the hard drive is on it's way out as it could be many things.

Try doing a Check Disk , a defrag and a good cleanup with Malware bytes

If you don't already, use ccleaner to clean some of the crap off!

 

[im-confused]

Reformatting the drive would perhaps be a hassle, but could be worth a go.

 

[Marty]

Thanks nick, I'll do that check disk tomorrow, whats a defrag?? Would you think it's safe for me to continue to use my debit card online?? last thing i want is my ID Stolen. :facepalm:

 

[Marty]

Reformatting the drive would perhaps be a hassle, but could be worth a go.

I wasn't supplied with windows disk so wouldn't be able to do that i dont think.

 

[Coventry La La La]

Thanks nick, I'll do that check disk tomorrow, whats a defrag?? Would you think it's safe for me to continue to use my debit card online?? last thing i want is my ID Stolen. :facepalm:

"defrag" - defragmentation is a process that reduces the amount of fragmentation in file systems. It does this by physically organizing the contents of the mass storage device.

Since this is going to be the first time you're computers first defrag it may take a while.

[video=youtube;xyeNxlaKwas]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyeNxlaKwas[/video]

 

[TheRoyalScam]

Doesn't Vista automatically defrag??? What make is your PC? To be honest three years isn't bad - that's all I'm expecting from my PC - things aren't made to last these days - now back in the olden days...............http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTD7xyQ76vk (just to cheer you up a bit!)

 

[AngryAnt]

I'd recommend buying a new quad-core PC with Windows 7 and 4gb ram. Amazon's worth a look, as well as high street retailers. You only need the tower - keep your monitor. Good luck.

Aria.co.uk is probably cheaper than Amazon, its where i generally get all my stuff.

Sounds like the hard drive is on its way out, they are only discs (well a platter) so any little bit tends to go after a few years and so many rewrites.
Solid drives are on their way and coming down in price.

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Also isn't there a web program thats better for disc frag than the windows one with vista? Seem to recall the vista one is a little buggy since its basically not been updated since XP (typing at 4am so could be wrong).

 

[Marty]

I gave up on the defrag, nearly 8 hours and it wasn't done so i just cancelled it,

My PC seems to be working fine now, so it was probaly nothing serious.

I have a HP for the poster who wanted to know what make it was.

Thanks for the help people. :wave:

 

[Nick]

Yeah, best to let the defrag do it's job over night. You will notice a difference

 

[Bantam48]

You could try a full system recovery (that'll wipe all your drive clean though, so back up first!). Usually F10 or F11 at start. Give it a fresh lease of life.

 

[Trond Egil Soltvedt]

mine did it a couple of times over the last month, not done it since mind