Is my hard drive bad, and can it be fixed?

[WhoIsDaveGalt]

Please excuse the length of this post, as I am not certain what to omit because of my lack of expertise in computer repair. I should admit that some of my information may be 'mis-remembered', but this is the best I have from the notes I took. Plus sometimes my reboots were from a recovery disk, but I'm not sure which times.

This is my computer:

- HP Pavilion Elite m9300t PC with TV/PVR
- Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
- Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q6700 (2.66GHz)
- 8GB DDR2-800MHz dual channel SDRAM (4x2048)
- 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT, 2 DVI (VGA and HDMI adapters)
- 750GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
- 802.11 a/b/g/n Wireless LAN card
- LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
- 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, 1394, video, audio
- ATSC-NTSC TV tuner with PVR, FM tuner, remote
- Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer

I've had this computer for 4 years, and leave it on all the time. 2 weeks ago I found it sitting at the HP welcome screen (the one with the options for F10=Setup, Esc=Boot Menu, etc.) as if it had rebooted itself and then got stuck. The only way out of this screen was a hard reboot. This happened again a few days later. I tried chkdsk but chkdsk slowed down on step 4 of 5 (verifying file data), and after more than an hour at 12% I canceled the chkdsk.

I ran the HP Diagnostic Tools by PC-Doctor, and everything passed (CPU, Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Boot Path, and Ram).

An hour later I found the computer at the HP Welcome screen again. I did another hard reboot, and I think this is when I got this error message saying, "LogonUI.exe - Corrupt File. The file or directory C:\$Secure is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility."

I tried to run System Restore and I believe this is when I got this error message: E00640068: Failed to create the scheduled task. Error #1722 - "The RPC server is unavailable (0xFFF0)"

I ran Startup Repair and it said it could not detect a problem.

I ran Diagnostic Tools again, but this time, the Hard Drive test ran 3 times (the progress bar would go to 100% and then restart), and then it marked the hard drive portion of the test as "Canceled".

Then I disconnected everything but the monitor, keyboard and mouse and re-installed the computer from the install partition (D:\) by pressing F11 at the Welcome screen. The computer appeared to be re-installing OK, but then stopped with a blank screen showing just the HP wallpaper and an empty dos window labeled "D:\PC-Doctor 5 for Win PE\pcdrcddrive.p5x"

I ran the Diagnostic Tools and again it marked the Hard Drive result as "Canceled".

That brings me to yesterday afternoon when I ran chkdsk again, starting at 2:20 pm. By 2:30 it was at 18% (of 173,225,792 clusters). By 5:20 it was at 61%. By 10:00 pm it was at 71%. By 3:00 am this morning it was only at 72%. And by 7:00 am it was at 73% and then seemed to stop.

My question are:
1. Am I right in assuming the problem is with the hard drive?
2. Does this sound like it's the type of problem which can be repaired?
3. If so, how?
4. Would it be better to replace the hard drive?
5. How could I salvage the software that came with the computer and is in the current boot drive (D:\)?

I would take this to a computer repair person, but I don't know one I have confidence in, so I am thinking that I either repair it myself or replace the whole computer, which would cost me at least $1000 (the price of ignorance I suppose ). Thank you if anyone has any advice.

[WhoIsDaveGalt]

I should also mention that when I ran chkdsk, I selected the checkbox for: "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors"

[jdc2000]

It certainly sounds like the hard drive is going bad. To verify, you could run the manufacturer's diagnostics on it. Most of those can be found on the Ultimate Boot CD. You can download an .iso file to create the bootable CD from the link below. If the drive is not too corrupted, you may be able to clone it to another drive with appropriate hardware and software. Otherwise, a backup of the recoverable data and a clean install of Windows and other software on the new drive would be needed. Note: The more you use the drive, the worse it will get until it fails completely. Backup needed files now.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com

Also, see SuperSparks post #6 at the link below:
http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...=Ultimate+Boot

[Midknyte]

1. Am I right in assuming the problem is with the hard drive?
2. Does this sound like it's the type of problem which can be repaired?
3. If so, how?
4. Would it be better to replace the hard drive?
5. How could I salvage the software that came with the computer and is in the current boot drive (D:\)?

1. Sounds like it.
2. No.
3. n/a
4. Yes buy a new drive
5. You would have had to make a backup BEFORE you had problems. Did you create the recovery discs?

[WhoIsDaveGalt]

Thank you all. The hard drive is 4 years old. Yes, I backed up everything I could think of while I could. I DID make a recovery disk when I first got the computer, plus I have an Acronis True Image of each of the past 4 months.

However, if I buy a new drive, is there some way to retrieve the software which came with the computer, which I assume would be on the installation partition? Is there a way to clone that installation partition onto a new hard drive so that in the future if I hit F11 at start-up, I could re-install the same way as always?

My recovery disk only seems to see one particular external hard drive, so I'm currently transferring my Drive Image to that hard drive. I plan on replacing the hard drive and then recovering the image to the new drive. But I hope I can also make the new hard drive just like the old one, so that like I said, I could re-install from it in the normal way if I needed to in the future.

Thank you again. I do appreciate this information.

[Midknyte]

I DID make a recovery disk when I first got the computer, plus I have an Acronis True Image of each of the past 4 months.

When you say recovery disk, are you sure it's the HP recovery discs? There should have been multiple DVDs.

However, if I buy a new drive, is there some way to retrieve the software which came with the computer, which I assume would be on the installation partition? Is there a way to clone that installation partition onto a new hard drive so that in the future if I hit F11 at start-up, I could re-install the same way as always?

That's what the recovery discs are for. It rebuilds the recovery partition so you can return the PC to factory condition. If anything, you can order a new set from HP.

[WhoIsDaveGalt]

Of course! I forgot I made a set of 3 recovery disk when I first got the computer. OK, thanks. The Amazon truck will be here tomorrow with my new hard drive.