Topic: 98se question. (Read 15046 times)

Iceman · « **on:** January 14, 2004, 01:38:11 pm »

So, I came home from school today round 2:30 and started up the computer. I go to open my mp3's, and all my folder settings have been returned to default. Any ideas? I know for a fact that I did not change them and neither did my mother, the only other person in the house at the current time.

DreadlordGW · « **Reply #1 on:** January 14, 2004, 01:47:51 pm »

Improper shutdown can sometimes cause the defaulting.

Beyond that i'm not sure

Iceman · « **Reply #2 on:** January 14, 2004, 02:11:09 pm »

No, that wasn't it. I shut it down correctly last night so that's ruled out. Is it a virus possibly?

Another question that may/may not be related. My dad uses outlook express for e-mail through his comcast account. Lately we've been getting 10-15 undeliverable messages daily. (that weren't sent from him). Is this possibly a virus? I know he's not sending these cause he's simply not here.

Sirgod · « **Reply #3 on:** January 14, 2004, 02:25:42 pm »

It almost probably is a Virus given the email part. I would def. update the virus deff. and or grab a virus scanner, I think AVG is free still. Check that out first, run a complete scan and see what comes up.

Stephen

Dallas · « **Reply #4 on:** January 14, 2004, 02:38:03 pm »

When I used 98 sometimes the associations would get wonky for no reason.
What you said about Outlook Express sounds funky. I'd run a scan just to be
safe and then I would turn off the preview window in Outlook Express.

Malystryx_XC · « **Reply #5 on:** January 14, 2004, 02:41:37 pm »

Quote:

My dad uses outlook express for e-mail through his comcast account. Lately we've been getting 10-15 undeliverable messages daily. (that weren't sent from him). Is this possibly a virus? I know he's not sending these cause he's simply not here.

That definately sounds like it could be a virus. Also, do you use a firewall on that machine? If you do not, do you at least religously keep the system updated from the Microsoft Windows Update site? There are a lot of viruses now that can infect your system quickly (within 5 minutes or less) of simply being on the Internet. They make use of vulnerabilities in Windows code to imbed themselves into your computer.

The first thing to do is scan your system for viruses using a modern and current anti-virus program. There are even free ones on the web that will scan your machine using the Internet. Trend Micro has one at: Free Anti-Virus Scan

Once you rule out any viruses (or remove them if detected) you should also run a sypware/malware detection program. These little buggers can also cause security issues for you. A great free program is called Spybot Search and Destroy which you can find here: Spybot Search and Destroy Be sure to run the update for it once installed to download the latest pattern file before using.

Lastly, get yourself a firewall if you do not already have one! These are an absolute must in today's age of computing. There are a number of free personal firewall packages that you can get. One which a number of people use here is called Zone Alarm and can be retrieved from: ZoneAlarm

Good luck and don't forget to keep your system up to date from Windows Update Site !

Iceman · « **Reply #6 on:** January 14, 2004, 04:38:59 pm »

I have Norton 2003 (with the subscription, so Im up to date). I'm going to install ZoneAlarm and that Search and Destroy program you suggest, although I've run AdAware and Norton before, I hope maybe it'll find something this time. Thanks for all the advice guys!

Javora · « **Reply #7 on:** January 15, 2004, 11:35:23 am »

Since no one has mentioned this I would suggest running HiJack This. This program seems to find things that others miss. If you need help with this program you can go to the Tech Support Forums for assistance. You may also want to go ahead and run that other virus scan, this might be a new virus that Norton has not had time to release an update for. IMHO Norton has a poor track record in this regard. Hope this helps.

KOTH-Steel Claw · « **Reply #8 on:** January 15, 2004, 12:22:31 pm »

It could be that someone else with your dad's email address in their contact list got hit as well and the virus is using his addy to send out crud.

When was the last time you did a re-install of the OS? 98 had a tendency to need a little re-installing from time to time. You can also run Spider, AdAware, and Spybot (in that order) as well (besides keeping your AV up to date).

Iceman · « **Reply #9 on:** January 15, 2004, 02:22:39 pm »

Spybot found 35 or so things, which were in turn removed. Most benign, but i think it's all better now! Thank you all so much!

Towelie · « **Reply #10 on:** January 15, 2004, 07:25:14 pm »

Srorched Earth time for 98se! Deltree /windows /e/a (I think that was it) and deltree \progra~1 /e/a and then re-install! Anytime I had an improper shutdown or something just didn't look right...

Just messing around. I did re-install W98se a few times though when ever my father or something killed it.

Iceman · « **Reply #12 on:** January 16, 2004, 10:25:44 am »

That's not really a possibility, since it's Comcast and I don't think they support multiple addresses, but I'm not sure. I'll have to look into it. Thanks.

Iceman · « **Reply #13 on:** January 16, 2004, 02:34:14 pm »

I seem to be getting closer and closer to a catastrophic failure here. I found 6 trojan horse infections that Norton ID'd but could not repair. Luckily it was nothing vital, so I quarantined and deleted them. So I went to play Homeworl2, and found some issue with displaying the ships geometry. So I download the patch, restart, and it says my ATI Drivers are out of date. Duh, I say thats why the geometry was all buggered. So I update. It says to reboot, I do, and I get a bad sector error. Can someone explain what a bad sector is?

Maxillius · « **Reply #17 on:** January 16, 2004, 03:27:27 pm »

Be careful when booting in DOS mode. I've only done this once because the time I did it the thing wouldn't start Windows ever again, so I had to reinstall anyway.

Iceman · « **Reply #18 on:** January 16, 2004, 04:50:45 pm »

I did what you said, Sethan. Restarted in DOS mode, ran scandisk C and when it finished its thing (didn't get to the surface scan part) it said the free space is being reported incorrectly, fix, don't fix. I chose fix and then this message popped up.

Not enough free conventional memory to perform surface scan.

You may need to remark (REM) some device drivers from your CONFIG.SYS fle. Or, in your CONFIG.SYS you may need to load EMM386.EXE drive to load your other device drivers into upper Memory Blocks using DEVICEHIGH= statements.

This is kind of outta my league here, but it sounds almost like a bad ram problem.

Malystryx_XC · « **Reply #19 on:** January 16, 2004, 04:59:51 pm »

Hi Iceman, don't be scared... that's actually normal because you are booting to DOS without the proper device lines being loaded to setup HMS and XMS memory (ie. Himem.sys and EMM386.exe).

With Windows 98 you can still effectively do a scandisk from within the operating system. Just boot back to windows and click "Start>Run" and type "scandisk" at the prompt and press <ENTER>. It will bring up the graphical Scandisk utility and you can choose to check your drive from here. Just make sure (as was noted above) that you are choosing the "thorough" method so that it does a bad sector scan on your hard drive. It will alert you of any problems and give you the opportunity to fix them.

As was also previously mentioned, back up any important data first... just in case!

Iceman · « **Reply #20 on:** January 16, 2004, 05:01:58 pm »

Already did that, though I have a few e-mails I should print first, just in case.

Iceman · « **Reply #23 on:** January 16, 2004, 07:14:36 pm »

See, I just bought this WD 120GB drive from Circuit City not 6 months ago. How would I go about transferring critical data to my secondary HD? (20GB). Is it possible to transfer the entire system? (OS?)

Javora · « **Reply #31 on:** January 17, 2004, 06:29:28 pm »

Malystryx makes some real good points and that point about xcopy is sheer genius. If the drive is still under warranty definitely send it back. That will give you an extra hard drive. I did the same thing about two months before I dumped my old Dell for my new system. That drive went bad just at the right time. Now I use that drive solely for backups. However if that drive is not under warranty then I still recommend destroying that hard drive to prevent anyone accessing any of your data.

Iceman · « **Reply #33 on:** January 17, 2004, 09:20:48 pm »

Well I did the scandisk surface scan through the GUI style, and it did find some bad sectors. However, me being the idiot that I am never told my mother she couldn't actually do ANYTHING until it finished, and so I had to restart. The second time it found no bad sectors. So we'll see. I've already backed up vital data to a memory stick and/or my second hard drive, so I should be good. But I AM going to buy a new hard drive, probably a smaller one round 80GB and swap out the older 20GB. If this continues it IS going back to WD though! (It's still warrantied). Thank you all so much for your wonderful help! This is why I'm proud to be a Taldrenite.

Towelie · « **Reply #34 on:** January 17, 2004, 09:24:44 pm »

WOW, WD is one of the few I have alot of faith in. Never lost a file on one yet.

It would seem it found and locked out those bad sectors on the first pass. Hope you get it stable again, but stay prepared to move it to a new drive. Sounds like you already got it under control.

Iceman · « **Reply #35 on:** January 17, 2004, 09:29:30 pm »

Thank god. I'm going to get a new Seagate 80GB and swap out the smaller 20GB. THen I think I'm going to buy XP Pro, install that on the new one and send the old one back to WD. sounds like a plan.

E_Look · « **Reply #37 on:** January 18, 2004, 12:07:42 am »

Guys, I think when it comes to buying HDs, it's the luck of the draw, or reverse lottery. Chances are with any name brand, you'll get a good drive that lasts quite some time, but every now and then, you get a lemon. I think this is true also of stuff like RAM sticks and mobos and CPUs. Most of the time, this stuff is okay.

E_Look · « **Reply #39 on:** January 18, 2004, 01:54:01 am »

Yeah, I always worry whenever I recieve a shipment of an OEM packaged hardware item. It always seems to come with 1) less protective looking (doesn't mean that it IS, however) packaging and 2) a much, much shorter warranty than the same thing in a retail package.

Towelie · « **Reply #40 on:** January 18, 2004, 02:07:45 am »

I've had zero issues with Seagate. Maxtor has been trouble free. I remember the two most unreliable, Fujitsu, and Conner. But that was a while back.

IMHO, I trust companies that have been at it a while. I know WD and Seagate have had a long history, not to say others haven't. And there is also the treatment of the drives, enviroment, cooling, motion ect.

Bonk · « **Reply #42 on:** January 18, 2004, 10:40:06 am »

Strange I've heard so many say this of WD now, yet I have sworn by them for years, never had a problem. I think they have been aquired by Maxtor recently? Perhaps the WD drives are not getting the attention they used to? I did get a bad sector on a Maxtor once, but have found Seagate and Quantum pretty reliable in the past.

Iceman · « **Reply #43 on:** January 14, 2004, 01:38:11 pm »

So, I came home from school today round 2:30 and started up the computer. I go to open my mp3's, and all my folder settings have been returned to default. Any ideas? I know for a fact that I did not change them and neither did my mother, the only other person in the house at the current time.

DreadlordGW · « **Reply #44 on:** January 14, 2004, 01:47:51 pm »

Improper shutdown can sometimes cause the defaulting.

Beyond that i'm not sure

Iceman · « **Reply #45 on:** January 14, 2004, 02:11:09 pm »

No, that wasn't it. I shut it down correctly last night so that's ruled out. Is it a virus possibly?

Another question that may/may not be related. My dad uses outlook express for e-mail through his comcast account. Lately we've been getting 10-15 undeliverable messages daily. (that weren't sent from him). Is this possibly a virus? I know he's not sending these cause he's simply not here.

Sirgod · « **Reply #46 on:** January 14, 2004, 02:25:42 pm »

It almost probably is a Virus given the email part. I would def. update the virus deff. and or grab a virus scanner, I think AVG is free still. Check that out first, run a complete scan and see what comes up.

Stephen

Dallas · « **Reply #47 on:** January 14, 2004, 02:38:03 pm »

When I used 98 sometimes the associations would get wonky for no reason.
What you said about Outlook Express sounds funky. I'd run a scan just to be
safe and then I would turn off the preview window in Outlook Express.

Iceman · « **Reply #49 on:** January 14, 2004, 04:38:59 pm »

I have Norton 2003 (with the subscription, so Im up to date). I'm going to install ZoneAlarm and that Search and Destroy program you suggest, although I've run AdAware and Norton before, I hope maybe it'll find something this time. Thanks for all the advice guys!

Javora · « **Reply #50 on:** January 15, 2004, 11:35:23 am »

Since no one has mentioned this I would suggest running HiJack This. This program seems to find things that others miss. If you need help with this program you can go to the Tech Support Forums for assistance. You may also want to go ahead and run that other virus scan, this might be a new virus that Norton has not had time to release an update for. IMHO Norton has a poor track record in this regard. Hope this helps.

KOTH-Steel Claw · « **Reply #51 on:** January 15, 2004, 12:22:31 pm »

It could be that someone else with your dad's email address in their contact list got hit as well and the virus is using his addy to send out crud.

When was the last time you did a re-install of the OS? 98 had a tendency to need a little re-installing from time to time. You can also run Spider, AdAware, and Spybot (in that order) as well (besides keeping your AV up to date).

Iceman · « **Reply #52 on:** January 15, 2004, 02:22:39 pm »

Spybot found 35 or so things, which were in turn removed. Most benign, but i think it's all better now! Thank you all so much!

Towelie · « **Reply #53 on:** January 15, 2004, 07:25:14 pm »

Srorched Earth time for 98se! Deltree /windows /e/a (I think that was it) and deltree \progra~1 /e/a and then re-install! Anytime I had an improper shutdown or something just didn't look right...

Just messing around. I did re-install W98se a few times though when ever my father or something killed it.

Iceman · « **Reply #55 on:** January 16, 2004, 10:25:44 am »

That's not really a possibility, since it's Comcast and I don't think they support multiple addresses, but I'm not sure. I'll have to look into it. Thanks.

Iceman · « **Reply #56 on:** January 16, 2004, 02:34:14 pm »

I seem to be getting closer and closer to a catastrophic failure here. I found 6 trojan horse infections that Norton ID'd but could not repair. Luckily it was nothing vital, so I quarantined and deleted them. So I went to play Homeworl2, and found some issue with displaying the ships geometry. So I download the patch, restart, and it says my ATI Drivers are out of date. Duh, I say thats why the geometry was all buggered. So I update. It says to reboot, I do, and I get a bad sector error. Can someone explain what a bad sector is?

Maxillius · « **Reply #60 on:** January 16, 2004, 03:27:27 pm »

Be careful when booting in DOS mode. I've only done this once because the time I did it the thing wouldn't start Windows ever again, so I had to reinstall anyway.

Iceman · « **Reply #61 on:** January 16, 2004, 04:50:45 pm »

I did what you said, Sethan. Restarted in DOS mode, ran scandisk C and when it finished its thing (didn't get to the surface scan part) it said the free space is being reported incorrectly, fix, don't fix. I chose fix and then this message popped up.

Not enough free conventional memory to perform surface scan.

You may need to remark (REM) some device drivers from your CONFIG.SYS fle. Or, in your CONFIG.SYS you may need to load EMM386.EXE drive to load your other device drivers into upper Memory Blocks using DEVICEHIGH= statements.

This is kind of outta my league here, but it sounds almost like a bad ram problem.

Malystryx_XC · « **Reply #62 on:** January 16, 2004, 04:59:51 pm »

Hi Iceman, don't be scared... that's actually normal because you are booting to DOS without the proper device lines being loaded to setup HMS and XMS memory (ie. Himem.sys and EMM386.exe).

With Windows 98 you can still effectively do a scandisk from within the operating system. Just boot back to windows and click "Start>Run" and type "scandisk" at the prompt and press <ENTER>. It will bring up the graphical Scandisk utility and you can choose to check your drive from here. Just make sure (as was noted above) that you are choosing the "thorough" method so that it does a bad sector scan on your hard drive. It will alert you of any problems and give you the opportunity to fix them.

As was also previously mentioned, back up any important data first... just in case!

Iceman · « **Reply #63 on:** January 16, 2004, 05:01:58 pm »

Already did that, though I have a few e-mails I should print first, just in case.

Iceman · « **Reply #66 on:** January 16, 2004, 07:14:36 pm »

See, I just bought this WD 120GB drive from Circuit City not 6 months ago. How would I go about transferring critical data to my secondary HD? (20GB). Is it possible to transfer the entire system? (OS?)

Javora · « **Reply #74 on:** January 17, 2004, 06:29:28 pm »

Malystryx makes some real good points and that point about xcopy is sheer genius. If the drive is still under warranty definitely send it back. That will give you an extra hard drive. I did the same thing about two months before I dumped my old Dell for my new system. That drive went bad just at the right time. Now I use that drive solely for backups. However if that drive is not under warranty then I still recommend destroying that hard drive to prevent anyone accessing any of your data.

Iceman · « **Reply #76 on:** January 17, 2004, 09:20:48 pm »

Well I did the scandisk surface scan through the GUI style, and it did find some bad sectors. However, me being the idiot that I am never told my mother she couldn't actually do ANYTHING until it finished, and so I had to restart. The second time it found no bad sectors. So we'll see. I've already backed up vital data to a memory stick and/or my second hard drive, so I should be good. But I AM going to buy a new hard drive, probably a smaller one round 80GB and swap out the older 20GB. If this continues it IS going back to WD though! (It's still warrantied). Thank you all so much for your wonderful help! This is why I'm proud to be a Taldrenite.

Towelie · « **Reply #77 on:** January 17, 2004, 09:24:44 pm »

WOW, WD is one of the few I have alot of faith in. Never lost a file on one yet.

It would seem it found and locked out those bad sectors on the first pass. Hope you get it stable again, but stay prepared to move it to a new drive. Sounds like you already got it under control.

Iceman · « **Reply #78 on:** January 17, 2004, 09:29:30 pm »

Thank god. I'm going to get a new Seagate 80GB and swap out the smaller 20GB. THen I think I'm going to buy XP Pro, install that on the new one and send the old one back to WD. sounds like a plan.

E_Look · « **Reply #80 on:** January 18, 2004, 12:07:42 am »

Guys, I think when it comes to buying HDs, it's the luck of the draw, or reverse lottery. Chances are with any name brand, you'll get a good drive that lasts quite some time, but every now and then, you get a lemon. I think this is true also of stuff like RAM sticks and mobos and CPUs. Most of the time, this stuff is okay.

E_Look · « **Reply #82 on:** January 18, 2004, 01:54:01 am »

Yeah, I always worry whenever I recieve a shipment of an OEM packaged hardware item. It always seems to come with 1) less protective looking (doesn't mean that it IS, however) packaging and 2) a much, much shorter warranty than the same thing in a retail package.

Towelie · « **Reply #83 on:** January 18, 2004, 02:07:45 am »

I've had zero issues with Seagate. Maxtor has been trouble free. I remember the two most unreliable, Fujitsu, and Conner. But that was a while back.

IMHO, I trust companies that have been at it a while. I know WD and Seagate have had a long history, not to say others haven't. And there is also the treatment of the drives, enviroment, cooling, motion ect.

Bonk · « **Reply #85 on:** January 18, 2004, 10:40:06 am »

Strange I've heard so many say this of WD now, yet I have sworn by them for years, never had a problem. I think they have been aquired by Maxtor recently? Perhaps the WD drives are not getting the attention they used to? I did get a bad sector on a Maxtor once, but have found Seagate and Quantum pretty reliable in the past.

Iceman · « **Reply #86 on:** January 14, 2004, 01:38:11 pm »

So, I came home from school today round 2:30 and started up the computer. I go to open my mp3's, and all my folder settings have been returned to default. Any ideas? I know for a fact that I did not change them and neither did my mother, the only other person in the house at the current time.

DreadlordGW · « **Reply #87 on:** January 14, 2004, 01:47:51 pm »

Improper shutdown can sometimes cause the defaulting.

Beyond that i'm not sure

Iceman · « **Reply #88 on:** January 14, 2004, 02:11:09 pm »

No, that wasn't it. I shut it down correctly last night so that's ruled out. Is it a virus possibly?

Another question that may/may not be related. My dad uses outlook express for e-mail through his comcast account. Lately we've been getting 10-15 undeliverable messages daily. (that weren't sent from him). Is this possibly a virus? I know he's not sending these cause he's simply not here.

Sirgod · « **Reply #89 on:** January 14, 2004, 02:25:42 pm »

It almost probably is a Virus given the email part. I would def. update the virus deff. and or grab a virus scanner, I think AVG is free still. Check that out first, run a complete scan and see what comes up.

Stephen

Dallas · « **Reply #90 on:** January 14, 2004, 02:38:03 pm »

When I used 98 sometimes the associations would get wonky for no reason.
What you said about Outlook Express sounds funky. I'd run a scan just to be
safe and then I would turn off the preview window in Outlook Express.

Iceman · « **Reply #92 on:** January 14, 2004, 04:38:59 pm »

I have Norton 2003 (with the subscription, so Im up to date). I'm going to install ZoneAlarm and that Search and Destroy program you suggest, although I've run AdAware and Norton before, I hope maybe it'll find something this time. Thanks for all the advice guys!

Javora · « **Reply #93 on:** January 15, 2004, 11:35:23 am »

Since no one has mentioned this I would suggest running HiJack This. This program seems to find things that others miss. If you need help with this program you can go to the Tech Support Forums for assistance. You may also want to go ahead and run that other virus scan, this might be a new virus that Norton has not had time to release an update for. IMHO Norton has a poor track record in this regard. Hope this helps.

KOTH-Steel Claw · « **Reply #94 on:** January 15, 2004, 12:22:31 pm »

It could be that someone else with your dad's email address in their contact list got hit as well and the virus is using his addy to send out crud.

When was the last time you did a re-install of the OS? 98 had a tendency to need a little re-installing from time to time. You can also run Spider, AdAware, and Spybot (in that order) as well (besides keeping your AV up to date).

Iceman · « **Reply #95 on:** January 15, 2004, 02:22:39 pm »

Spybot found 35 or so things, which were in turn removed. Most benign, but i think it's all better now! Thank you all so much!

Towelie · « **Reply #96 on:** January 15, 2004, 07:25:14 pm »

Srorched Earth time for 98se! Deltree /windows /e/a (I think that was it) and deltree \progra~1 /e/a and then re-install! Anytime I had an improper shutdown or something just didn't look right...

Just messing around. I did re-install W98se a few times though when ever my father or something killed it.

Iceman · « **Reply #98 on:** January 16, 2004, 10:25:44 am »

That's not really a possibility, since it's Comcast and I don't think they support multiple addresses, but I'm not sure. I'll have to look into it. Thanks.

Iceman · « **Reply #99 on:** January 16, 2004, 02:34:14 pm »

I seem to be getting closer and closer to a catastrophic failure here. I found 6 trojan horse infections that Norton ID'd but could not repair. Luckily it was nothing vital, so I quarantined and deleted them. So I went to play Homeworl2, and found some issue with displaying the ships geometry. So I download the patch, restart, and it says my ATI Drivers are out of date. Duh, I say thats why the geometry was all buggered. So I update. It says to reboot, I do, and I get a bad sector error. Can someone explain what a bad sector is?

Maxillius · « **Reply #103 on:** January 16, 2004, 03:27:27 pm »

Be careful when booting in DOS mode. I've only done this once because the time I did it the thing wouldn't start Windows ever again, so I had to reinstall anyway.

Iceman · « **Reply #104 on:** January 16, 2004, 04:50:45 pm »

I did what you said, Sethan. Restarted in DOS mode, ran scandisk C and when it finished its thing (didn't get to the surface scan part) it said the free space is being reported incorrectly, fix, don't fix. I chose fix and then this message popped up.

Not enough free conventional memory to perform surface scan.

You may need to remark (REM) some device drivers from your CONFIG.SYS fle. Or, in your CONFIG.SYS you may need to load EMM386.EXE drive to load your other device drivers into upper Memory Blocks using DEVICEHIGH= statements.

This is kind of outta my league here, but it sounds almost like a bad ram problem.

Malystryx_XC · « **Reply #105 on:** January 16, 2004, 04:59:51 pm »

Hi Iceman, don't be scared... that's actually normal because you are booting to DOS without the proper device lines being loaded to setup HMS and XMS memory (ie. Himem.sys and EMM386.exe).

With Windows 98 you can still effectively do a scandisk from within the operating system. Just boot back to windows and click "Start>Run" and type "scandisk" at the prompt and press <ENTER>. It will bring up the graphical Scandisk utility and you can choose to check your drive from here. Just make sure (as was noted above) that you are choosing the "thorough" method so that it does a bad sector scan on your hard drive. It will alert you of any problems and give you the opportunity to fix them.

As was also previously mentioned, back up any important data first... just in case!

Iceman · « **Reply #106 on:** January 16, 2004, 05:01:58 pm »

Already did that, though I have a few e-mails I should print first, just in case.

Iceman · « **Reply #109 on:** January 16, 2004, 07:14:36 pm »

See, I just bought this WD 120GB drive from Circuit City not 6 months ago. How would I go about transferring critical data to my secondary HD? (20GB). Is it possible to transfer the entire system? (OS?)

Javora · « **Reply #117 on:** January 17, 2004, 06:29:28 pm »

Malystryx makes some real good points and that point about xcopy is sheer genius. If the drive is still under warranty definitely send it back. That will give you an extra hard drive. I did the same thing about two months before I dumped my old Dell for my new system. That drive went bad just at the right time. Now I use that drive solely for backups. However if that drive is not under warranty then I still recommend destroying that hard drive to prevent anyone accessing any of your data.

Iceman · « **Reply #119 on:** January 17, 2004, 09:20:48 pm »

Well I did the scandisk surface scan through the GUI style, and it did find some bad sectors. However, me being the idiot that I am never told my mother she couldn't actually do ANYTHING until it finished, and so I had to restart. The second time it found no bad sectors. So we'll see. I've already backed up vital data to a memory stick and/or my second hard drive, so I should be good. But I AM going to buy a new hard drive, probably a smaller one round 80GB and swap out the older 20GB. If this continues it IS going back to WD though! (It's still warrantied). Thank you all so much for your wonderful help! This is why I'm proud to be a Taldrenite.

Towelie · « **Reply #120 on:** January 17, 2004, 09:24:44 pm »

WOW, WD is one of the few I have alot of faith in. Never lost a file on one yet.

It would seem it found and locked out those bad sectors on the first pass. Hope you get it stable again, but stay prepared to move it to a new drive. Sounds like you already got it under control.

Iceman · « **Reply #121 on:** January 17, 2004, 09:29:30 pm »

Thank god. I'm going to get a new Seagate 80GB and swap out the smaller 20GB. THen I think I'm going to buy XP Pro, install that on the new one and send the old one back to WD. sounds like a plan.

E_Look · « **Reply #123 on:** January 18, 2004, 12:07:42 am »

Guys, I think when it comes to buying HDs, it's the luck of the draw, or reverse lottery. Chances are with any name brand, you'll get a good drive that lasts quite some time, but every now and then, you get a lemon. I think this is true also of stuff like RAM sticks and mobos and CPUs. Most of the time, this stuff is okay.

E_Look · « **Reply #125 on:** January 18, 2004, 01:54:01 am »

Yeah, I always worry whenever I recieve a shipment of an OEM packaged hardware item. It always seems to come with 1) less protective looking (doesn't mean that it IS, however) packaging and 2) a much, much shorter warranty than the same thing in a retail package.

Towelie · « **Reply #126 on:** January 18, 2004, 02:07:45 am »

I've had zero issues with Seagate. Maxtor has been trouble free. I remember the two most unreliable, Fujitsu, and Conner. But that was a while back.

IMHO, I trust companies that have been at it a while. I know WD and Seagate have had a long history, not to say others haven't. And there is also the treatment of the drives, enviroment, cooling, motion ect.

Bonk · « **Reply #128 on:** January 18, 2004, 10:40:06 am »

Strange I've heard so many say this of WD now, yet I have sworn by them for years, never had a problem. I think they have been aquired by Maxtor recently? Perhaps the WD drives are not getting the attention they used to? I did get a bad sector on a Maxtor once, but have found Seagate and Quantum pretty reliable in the past.

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