Help with Hardware Failure

[Ext User(Chris)]

Hi guys,

Need some basic help with some problems i'm having,

I'll give you a run down on what's happening and let me know what's the best
thing to do.

*Computer contiually fails/freezes the windows loading page before user login.
*Computer again contiues to freeze if it does correctly load, blue screen
appears with physical memory dump.
*Computer has a Seagate Serial ATA NCQ 160GB HDD, Seems to be making twice
the amount of noise as i remember it making, when the noise goes back to what
the level it was originaly it freezes.
*Even in Safe mode the computer freezes.
Have tried to reformat but haven't been sucessfull as it states the c: is
locked.

As you can tell i have limited knowledge of computer systems but everyone
has to start somewhere.
I was thinking first that it was a software problem so i removed all but the
nessicary software with no effect.
So i believe the hdd has failed from the above can anyone conferm it for me
and is there anyway to conferm it before i purchase a new hdd.

Thanks

Chris

[Ext User(Andrew E.)]

Usually a memory dump isnt hd failure,but to chk youre drive,download
seagates MS-DOS drive chk utility to a formatted MS-DOS floppy,then boot
computer to floppy (1st boot device priority) or similiar.Then run the tests.
Also,to reinstall xp,you need to boot to xp cd,select install xp,new
copy,delete
the partition (xp) create one,then xp formats and installs auto....

"Chris" wrote:

> Hi guys,
>
> Need some basic help with some problems i'm having,
>
> I'll give you a run down on what's happening and let me know what's the best
> thing to do.
>
> *Computer contiually fails/freezes the windows loading page before user login.
> *Computer again contiues to freeze if it does correctly load, blue screen
> appears with physical memory dump.
> *Computer has a Seagate Serial ATA NCQ 160GB HDD, Seems to be making twice
> the amount of noise as i remember it making, when the noise goes back to what
> the level it was originaly it freezes.
> *Even in Safe mode the computer freezes.
> Have tried to reformat but haven't been sucessfull as it states the c: is
> locked.
>
> As you can tell i have limited knowledge of computer systems but everyone
> has to start somewhere.
> I was thinking first that it was a software problem so i removed all but the
> nessicary software with no effect.
> So i believe the hdd has failed from the above can anyone conferm it for me
> and is there anyway to conferm it before i purchase a new hdd.
>
> Thanks
>
> Chris

[Ext User(Jim)]

"Chris" <Chris@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1705B3D5-FC5C-4951-BB3F-D370D341E908@microsoft.com...
> Hi guys,
>
> Need some basic help with some problems i'm having,
>
> I'll give you a run down on what's happening and let me know what's the
> best
> thing to do.
>
> *Computer contiually fails/freezes the windows loading page before user
> login.
> *Computer again contiues to freeze if it does correctly load, blue screen
> appears with physical memory dump.
> *Computer has a Seagate Serial ATA NCQ 160GB HDD, Seems to be making twice
> the amount of noise as i remember it making, when the noise goes back to
> what
> the level it was originaly it freezes.
> *Even in Safe mode the computer freezes.
> Have tried to reformat but haven't been sucessfull as it states the c: is
> locked.
Were you trying to reformat drive C when it was being used as the system
drive? If so, you found that Windows will not let you make it commit
suicide. To reformat the drive, you must boot from the CD drive.
Jim
>
> As you can tell i have limited knowledge of computer systems but everyone
> has to start somewhere.
> I was thinking first that it was a software problem so i removed all but
> the
> nessicary software with no effect.
> So i believe the hdd has failed from the above can anyone conferm it for
> me
> and is there anyway to conferm it before i purchase a new hdd.
>
> Thanks
>
> Chris