PC just shuts down and reboots... also, theres a spinning noise...

BumpSkillz

Solid State Member
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Hello everyone,

I am having a problem where my computer just shuts down out of nowhere (no pattern at all) and reboots itself automatically. There is no "blue screen of death" or anything. All I hear is a click (sounds like hard drive or something) from the inside of the computer as my screen just goes black. Then it reboots.

Now the part that is most interesting is that when I first start up my computer after it has been off for a while, I hear a very "aggressive" spinning of some sort from inside the case. It almost sounds like the hard drive spinning loudly. For the first minute or so this will happen, and it WILL NOT completely boot up Windows XP at all until this spinning suddenly calms to a normal sounding spin. The computer WILL boot, and it WILL start to boot Windows, but then it will shut off and tell me that Windows did not boot properly during the last attempt, and asks how I want to start up. (Safe Mode, Regular, etc.) I usually just wait at this screen until the spinning sound calms, then I start up normally and it is fine... UNTIL it decides to just shut off for no reason. (and when it shuts off with a normal spinning hard drive -- if that's what it is -- it doesn't give me that message... it just reboots normally)

Once in a while it will tell me that a registry file had to be recovered or that there was a serious error that Windows recovered from.

Keep in mind... This happened to me starting a couple of weeks ago, so I installed a fresh copy of Windows XP and it still happens.

Any ideas? Is my hard drive at the end of its 4 year life?
 
Harddrive is dying. Back up all data you have. I will provide you with a link as soon as posible.

Also, the error you got was beacause of the bad sectors in the Harddrive. This is caused by improper handling of the Harddrive, Power Outages, Old Age....
 
I thought so..... :(

I have TWO hard drives in my computer. Would there be any way to know which hard drive is going bad, or is it definitely the one with Windows installed on it?

Also, to add some possibly-important info about the situation I have... Sometimes I will get 30 seconds before it decides to reboot, sometimes I'll get 30 minutes... it's SOOO random.
 
Try to get a Live CD version of Linux. The one with Windows is almost most surely the cause of the clicking, if you are getting a startup error in Windows
 
Mr. F said:
Here : http://us.releases.ubuntu.com/releases/5.10/
'
Get the PC (Intel x86). Burn it as an IMGAE, not just a file, when getting it on a file

Thank you.

Most of my data is already backed up on my second HDD... I update it all (on the 2nd HDD) every once in a while in case this ever happened. :cool:

Should I just pull the old one out and put my new one in? Then just reinstall Windows on it? (I have a spare laying around somewhere) I may not need a backup program. (though I appreciate you getting the link for me)
 
Wait...... Is that link for a CD of Linux?

So.... :rolleyes: .... Are you trying to say I should ALSO use a new OS?
 
No, its a live CD meanning that it will run off a disk, it won't install on to your harddrive
 
OMG!!!! what kind of service is that? for data recovery alone costs $900?that's ridiculous. Anyway,whose their prospect customer?
 
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