My laptop(a Win98 machine) decided that it wouldn't boot up this morning. Safe mode loads up fine but that isn't too helpful since I don't know the cause of my problem. So I have it save a bootlog record while trying to boot up normally and the last message I got was [000CF4B5] Load Success = C:\Windows\Ifshlp.sys . This is the last device it loads up on my system before starting windows and loading the drivers. So I did a step by step confirmation and like before all the drivers loaded up and windows started. It didn't crash until I hit Load all Windows drives. This is entiryly unhelpful since I don't know which driver isn't good :P. After trying to load all Windows drivers the hard drive flashes on and of a bit then hangs indefinantly so I;m assuming something gets done before it blows up. Next I tried booting up in safe mode and removing all the devices from my system hardware to see if the ofending driver just won't be auto recognized. But it still crashes before ever getting past the Win98 logo. So I ran scandisk without it checking for bad harddisk sectors and it came up with nothing. Now I'm checking for bad disk sectors.
Anyone have any idea what my problem is or other possible things I can try?
(Edit)
I just ran scandisk in DOS and in Windows Safe mode and niether of the programs found any bad disk sectors. So I think I'm just going to try and reinstall Windows.
(Edit)
ID:189909
 Apr 28 2003, 9:56 am (Edited on Apr 28 2003, 3:13 pm)
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My dad's laptop had bad sectors. We had to send it back to Compaq (bleh). It happened almost 5 times on the same laptop. I keep telling my dad to take it back but he doesn't want to. His lost =)
~Blaz3 | |
Well whatever went wrong was cleaned up by reinstalling Windows :P. I guess this is a good reminder that I need to back up my stuff!
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Rule of thumb, Windows (all versions even the "flawless" XP) needs to be reinstalled every once in a while, after so long.
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Foomer wrote:
Agreed. I disagree... I've been running WinXP Pro at my office for at least a year now. It stays on nearly 24/7 (it acts as a remote testing webserver and fileserver, so I need to reach it from home sometimes), and I use it quite heavily - from rendering 3D to web design, to playing a little Half-Life, B&W, or good old Quake 2, as well as surfing the net. Have not needed to re-install it yet... Sometimes these screw-ups an also be caused by conflicting programs - if you keep track of what gets installed, where, and when, you can often back-track until the problem disappears... I also have seen (especially on Win98se) that some software replaces certain dlls with newer versions, which can cause other programs (even Windows itself) to stop working... just keep a backup of old dlls! (Or just switch to MacOS or Linux!) =D | |
Nope, bad sectors sounds about right.
Hard drives still do fail, and have pieces just go suddenly. Usually a hard drive that's rated at a certain size is really rather bigger, because bad sectors have been blocked out.
Lummox JR