Computer Problems... again

[Nanor]

A few of you will remember during July my graphics card died. I decided that I'd shell some of my birthday money on some new things. I bought everything. Motherboard, CPU, RAM and a graphics card. Everything except a hard drive. Guess what's on it's last legs. Yes.

I've been getting BSODs with the stop code 0x00000024 with the error NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM.

This stop error means that your ntfs file system is corrupt (damage in the file system, bad hard drive data, corrupt SCSI or IDE drivers or a corrupt ntfs.sys file).

Joy.

These BSODs have occurred when I have been downloading something on all three occasions. I need to get this fixed before Steam autopatches something!

I've tried running a chkdsk /r which BSODs with the same error. Is there a way I can tell my computer don't touch this part of the hard drive?

 

[elDiablo]

The error makes it sound like a software problem, whereas the chkdsk BSOD sounds like a hardware error. You could try backing everything you have to CDs, and then formatting the harddrive (full format, not a quick format) with your Windows install CD. If it still BSODs, it's a hardware fault, and you'll have to buy a new disk. Otherwise it should fix the issue.

Having said that, harddrives are exactly expensive nowadays. Hell, picking one out at random, you can get a Western Digital 320Gb for ~£50. And that's not searching lots, and it's from Scan (which is a pretty expensive site). What size do you have at the moment and what is your budget if you do need a new one?

 

[Nanor]

I have a 320GB at the moment. My budget would be around the £80 mark. Frankly I'm not looking for a new hard drive. This one's fine apart from this corrupt part. Any way around it?

 

[Ronin Storm]

A corrupt drive is a bad thing. Working around it is just delaying the end. Replace, don't circumvent. Seriously.

 

[Nanor]

Cock.

 

[thatbloke]

normally most drives are good enough that when the odd bad sector here and there develops, they can set a flag that will say "dont touch this part of the drive."

In your case it sounds like there is way too much of this. It's possible that some power cut has caused the system to be turned off while a read/write was in progress, which always has the potential to damage the HDD platter. this happened with my parent's PC a few years back - was in the middle of a file copy, a 20 min power cut happened, PC BSOD'd constantly after trying to boot it after - a faulty drive was the cause.

if your system stays alive long enough, try running a S.M.A.R.T. check on your hard drive - it may tell you what, if anything, is wrong with it.

Also try replacing the power and SATA cables it's plugged in with.