Decent utils for defragging & virus checking.

[StevieP]

My hard drive seems to be on its way out, when I scandisk it, it pauses at 30% on the 4th check and just stops. Windows loads up fine and stuff, everything else works. Can't help but thing I might have some bad sectors/CRCs on the hd and its going to f**k everything up soon.

Is there any 3rd party software that is good for the following; anti-virus, defragmenting the hd and also an anti-spam thing (got Lavasoft AdAware not sure if there is anything better)

Might in the end have to reformat and install to see if its fixable, but don't want to have to go down that route yet.

Windows disk defragmenter also causes a BSOD, kernal page fault or something like that.

Cheers.

 

[Final Maxim]

id just go through a few programs such as pc doctor/registry repairer etc, see what they dig up, available for free from your usual websites

 

[Mike_182]

Possible disk failure. As for a good defrag tool, try Raxco Perfectdisk.

 

[ViolentJ]

Tuneup Utilities is good for cleaning up crap and includes defrag utils.
http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/ They offer a trial.

Bitdefender Antivirus 2008 is good for antivirus, spyware and the like. Again they offer a 30 day trial.
http://www.bitdefender.com/

If you decide you want to buy them then shop around. A download will be cheaper than buying the CD and packaging. You can also buy them via ebay.

 

[Nez]

I'd just back up your stuff and do a system recovery, that will formatt your hard drive and normally sorts any problem.

 

[Final Maxim]

system recovery has always been b****cks for me, ive never been able to do a single one, always unable to

 

[Nez]

I do this to all of the PC's and laptops I get back at work.. fixes them 99% of the time..

You just need to make sure you delete the old partitions when you do it.

 

[StevieP]

I've got 3 partitions on my h/d, one for my system & software, docs etc and the other two are for music and the third partition is for vids and large image files etc, formatting the primary partition via windows setup should fix any disc errors solely on that partition, no? Is there a chance the disc errors could somehow formulate(?) themselves onto the other two partitions? I've ran defrag on the other partitions and it works fine, so this leads me to assume that formatting the first parition should fix it for now.

If it f***s up and I lose my 90gb of music, I will probably kill someone.

 

[Mike_182]

If it f**ks up and I lose my 90gb of music, I will probably kill someone.

Back it up then - it's not like you face the problem I have which is where do I backup my 2 terabytes of music and p**n.

 

[Don]

You can get 320Gb for next to nothing these days...get a new disk rather than having partitions, perform clean OS install and use the disk you're using now as a storage drive.

This is a 500Gb IDE with 16Mb cache which should be fast enough for your needs if you're a 'standard' user. http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...+Digital+Caviar+-+16MB+-+IDE+?productId=29972

Something cheaper (320Gb)
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...B+Seagate+Barracuda+IDE+16MB+?productId=24307

Using www.aria.co.uk as an example supplier...there may be cheaper out there

 

[StevieP]

Cheers donnnnny! Current drive is a maxtor, i've always stuck with those in the past, are western dig drives any better these days?

Mike, dare I ask what the ratio of p**n:music is!!?

 

[StevieP]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124228/show_product_reviews

Ace.

 

[StevieP]

Got more problems now! Used the Tuneup utilities and it deleted some of my registry, but its caused a problem with a dll file, psapi.dll. Everytime I run any program it says 'The procedure entry point GetProcessImageFileNameW could not be located in the dynamic link library psapi.dll'

I've copied a new psapi file from my Windows setup cd, downloaded another, and to no avail. Its preventing me from opening any kind of program, so I cannot run any disk cleaners etc. Internet Explorer refuses to open too.

Can't do a clean install either as Windows setup is refusing to recognise my Sata drive. Got the sata drivers on a floppy disc and it loads 'ulsata.sys' but just shows 'unknown disk'. Then, pressing any key on the keyboard results in another bsod! Usually saying that setupdd.sys has caused a pagefault in non paged area or something.

Think my system has finally had it after 3 years. Time to convert to Apple perhaps!?

 

[ViolentJ]

Tuneup Utilities has a rescue centre where you can undo any changes it's made. If you're using the 2008 version then the option is at the top next to update wizard. That's if it will allow you to open it. Perhaps try safe mode?

Which version of Windows do you have? My XP Pro without any SP's included installes to my SATA without any extra drivers.

 

[StevieP]

Damn, I uninstalled it in haste, I'll try putting it back on and seeing what happens. Think I'm going to have to dig out an old 540mb IDE drive and use that as my primary drive, then add the sata drive as a secondary drive and start looking for whats wrong. I've also tried Maxtor Powermax but that freezes when it detects the HD, and there is a Seagate utility but that crashes too!

Am running XP w/SP2, I have not got a clue how I managed to put XP on last time I did it, I'm sure I used a floppy disc with the sata drivers on, but this time, well its just not playing ball. Dare I go back to Vista?! That installed without any need for faffing about with an A: drive.

 

[@Spoonie]

Sounds like you have a rouge PSAPI.DLL somewhere. Search the disk to see if the are any additional ones other than what you'd expect to find in \windows\system32. If you find any rename them.

Also, have you run CHKDSK?

 

[StevieP]

Chkdsk will run after a reboot, but it pauses at 30% on step 4 I think. Deffo got hard drive issues.

Have searched for other PSAPI.DLL's and have either deleted or renamed them to PSAPI.OLD.

 

[JoelDee]

CCleaner
Adware
AVG

 

[StevieP]

Dug out an old Fujitsu 10gb IDE hd and whacked that in, clean install of XP system running as stable as it can be, although I'd forgotton how loud this drive bloody is. Anyway, put my sata drive back in as a secondary (so to speak) drive so I could use the fresh IDE xp install to check this misbehaving sata drive. Ran a few different disk checking progs, also chkdsk and windows defrag. No problems, no bad sectors, can't find a single thing wrong with the drive or any of its partitions. f**king great what a waste of time.

Removed the old ide drive leaving the sata one. Tried putting XP on this, but it won't recognise my sata drive, it just doesn't see it, it can see two unknown devices but won't play with them. This is followed by a typical BSOD. Even by using the mobo disc to create a sata drivers disklette doesn't work. I've had this problem before and never figured it out so I just f**k it off and dare I say, reach for the Vista DVD.

Vista takes an age to install, but it recognised my sata drive no problem, didn't need to use the sodding A: drive. Can't believe I'm going 'back' to Vista, this forum can probably expect an angry post from me in a few weeks time when Vista does something it shouldn't do. Maybe since I last had it installed there have been some decent updates for it.

 

[Mike_182]

Ratio of p**n to music is around 500Gb music (around 2 years worth continuous play) and 1.5tb p**n which just seems to have accumulated. The music is all I'm bothered about!