HELP!!!! Serios HD problem

[Racer_Z]

Well here's my problem:

For some time now I am getting random reboots while accesing my HD, it can happen when I run a proggie, acces a folder on a HD, or a encode a video file, nd sometime it happens when I run a game.

The system reboots, if I set it not to reboot if there's an eror, I simply get a blue screen without any writing on it( unlike the BSOD if Win98).

I tried defregmenting, reformating, reinstalling windows,, lowlevel formating with the MaxBlast.... NOTHING helps!!!!!

Getting a new HD is not an option for me, so you are my last line of defence, I dont know what to do.

Oh, one more thing, sometimes the HD makes a strange noice, it didnt use to do it before........

So if you can point me to some diagnostic software that can check the HD for bad sectors, I'll be gratefull.

Here's my Rig

OS: Win2k pro + sp3

Mobo: gigabites GA-8SRX with the latest bios

CPU: P4 1700 ( Willamette, dont go blaming the problem on the CPU, I've been using this pice of shit for 2 years alredy)

Graphics: Radeon 9500 128 mb, not pro, not moded( rivatuner's 9500 - > 9700 softmod)

Memory: 256 mb 266(or is it 133?) ddr sdram

HD: maxtor 40 GB, bought it about 2 years ago, so the waranty is out, cant just return it to the store

Optical Drives: noname 48x cdrom and 52/24/52 LG CDRW

[cowmomo]

how 'bout scheduling a chkdisk (scandisk) to see if there are bad sectors or clusters that are reparable? i don't think this is done automatically when you defrag but I can't imagine that it is not done on re-install. sorry, don't know win2000 so well but others do.

[Racer_Z]

Done that, been there, not helps at all

[tamarisk]

go on my computer

right click on c: or whatever the harddisk drive is

go on tools

and there is an option error checking

at least that's how it is on XP

[iAvalance]

A bad sector shouldn't bring down the OS... Sounds to me there is a more severe thing going on. Have you tried using partitions?

[tamarisk]

Another reason may be bad memory.

The OS crashes because it cannot write to memory

[Racer_Z]

Bad memory........
Hm.... i dont think that its the problem here, i will test my memory with some progies that I saw on Overclockers.ru, but memory isnt the problem here, I'm almost shure of it.

The thing is, lately my PC crashed when I tried to accec a folder, a random folder, not a specific one(I wish it was that easy), or when i played System Shock 2, but it had NEVER crashed when I played Oni or GTA: Vice City. It had never crashed during System Shock 2 before!!!!

And one more thing, are there any progies that can TEST the HD for bad sectors?

[iAvalance]

Norton Disk Doctor and the CHKDSK programs are designed to find and repair such things and other inconsistencies your filesystem can have.

[tamarisk]

So memory is out of question

Did you try what i said in previous post?

go on my computer

right click on c: or whatever the harddisk drive is

go on tools

and there is an option error checking

at least that's how it is on XP

[Racer_Z]

Ye I did it before, it's the checkdisk, it doesnt help.
But I havent still tried to check the memory

[Racer_Z]

Correction, I did it again and 7 GB disspeared in thin air!

And the System does a random reboot trick, not as often as before, but still to often.

[Sinkalip]

Right click on My Computer, then Manage. Under System Tools is the Event Viewer.Click the "+" and select System. Look for any errors, but more importantly look for memory dumps. If you have it set to halt on errors, but get nothing on the screen, perhaps it's more serious.

It sounds like memory to me as well. Try memtest86 or something like that. What makes me think that it is the memory is the random reboots. Another sure sign is bad data on the hard drive (If you seem to get alot of corrupt files) as most harddrives use some sort of DMA mode (Direct Memory Access) nowdays.