Fried PC or Hardrive?

GreySteelFox

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Today I started up my PC, checked my email and got an email from ebay about a dell laptop, I didnt bid on a laptop. Then shortly after, the completely freezes. So I restart the PC only to get an error message saying that an inportant file is missing and I need to repair or reinstall windows. I try to repair windows but it fails to even start repairing, so I start reinstalling windows. It usually takes 30-45 minutes to completely format the 120 gb HD, its been 10 minutes and its at 4%. My question is, did my harddrive fry itself because of the extreme heat today? Its only about 80 degrees in the computer room. Or is it that the cheaply made DELL motherboard has seen so many years now thats its fried? This is such an annoyance because just last night a bought another 512 of ram for the same computer only to have it completely stop working. Although I could use this for a reason to salvage my DELL and finally build one.
 
Try to reboot, run an anti-virus program and anti-spyware/adware program. That email probably did something bad, so this might just be a quick fix. I don't think you need to go reformatting your computer though. Just run the anti-spyware/adware, and anti-virus programs and it should find whateever is making your computer act funky.

I use AVG Free Anti-virus, and Lavasoft's Ad-aware for anti-spyware/adware.
 
Couldnt do that, when I would restart the computer it would stay on the dell startup thing that looks like the BIOS and say that a critical file was missing and now its going on a half an hour on the reformat and at 5%. I really think the harddrive is broken or something.
 
It will not boot up! It wont even finish reformatting. I cant believe this, I either have to buy a new HD or PC.
 
You probly could of used a little 30 GB hd. installed window's On that. And then see if the hd was dead. :p But anyway.

Is the format finished?
 
Turns out it was the 120 GB HD I was using. What causes Hard Drives to fudge up like this? I've only had it for about 1 and a half years. I guess the ram wasnt a waste now that i dot the damn thing going again. But out of this crap thats happened to day I do have some good news for myself, my granny's giving me her laptop.
 
Could be bad IDE cable, a bad motherboard, anything. Consider upgrading your motherboard.
 
Usually, The Firmware on the HDD will tend to corrupt on newer drives. My mom's drive had this. IT wouldn't work. I tried a test with Maxtor and it failed. I tried low-format and it went worse. The drive renamed itself from 6E040L0 to N40P...meaning Firmaware is corrupted. It's not worth the hassle of flashing it...it will just fill it up.
 
I'll just go on newegg and buy a 200 gig for $75. I kind of wished the motherboard caught fire so I could just get a new PC.
 
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