long HD test taking forever

[Compuitincolo]

This has happened to me with two different laptops. I'm fixing an HP laptop that after POST, when loading windows, it shows a blue screen error and then, it restarts again. Everything is fine with the tests on DOS, but when I do the Long Hard Drive test, it takes a very long time than usual, and the results is that all tests passed, I would believe that is just the OS being corrupted due to a virus maybe or is this really a HD problem?  Im using PCD 7.5

[fwilson]

Compuitincolo,

The DOS tests are not affected by damaged or corrupted files or highly fragments ed drives it test the hard drive directly for physical operation ignoring the file content.  Windows can be affected by fragmentation and corruption as all IO goes through the OS.

Try running a chkdsk /f from the command prompt, this has a probability of solving your issue.

-Fred

[Compuitincolo]

Would you please explain to me, how can I access the command prompt? on the f8 menu, for any option, all I get is a blue screen error and then a restart, It won't go any further.

[fwilson]

Compuitincolo,

If you can't even get to a DOS prompt in safe mode it may be too far gone to fix. You could try the recovery console from the original installation CD. That will give you a prompt.

Before going further I would mount the drive in another system, backup any data. You may end up doing a fresh install of the OS.

-Fred

[Compuitincolo]

yeah I was thinking doing the back up. thank you  for the recovery info. I'll try that one

[fwilson]

Compuitincolo,

My pleasure, good luck with the repair.

-Fred