Problem with hard drive, I think

Hermy

I got this screen when I switched on my pc last night and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what it means? The pc had frozen and I cut the mains to switch it off.
PC is Dell Dimension 2400
OS is Windows XP Home SP3

bonzodog2

The disk is in an inconsistent state, possibly due to XP not properly shut down (?). You can cancel the check with the Esc key, but it may want to do it again next time. Try running a disk check from within Xp if you get it to start, often a good idea now and then.

ricman

Reboot ,let it run the check, its no big deal, if hd is 80gig it could take 50 mins to check it,once its checked,thats it, pc should work as normal, press esc to cancel check ,for a normal bootup process.This happens to every pc,especially if you knock off pc,without completing windows shutdown process,or if pc crashes,its just cleaning up temp files,you wont lose any data.

Hermy

Thanks for the responses.
I have cut the power before but this is the first time I'v seen this particular screen.
Anyway I let it run and all seems fine. Here's another pic I should have posted.


The thing is the computer has frozen a few times recently and I'm wondering is it on it's way out or becoming outdated. For instance the latest version of iTunes won't run on it. And I suspect it is having difficulty with Facebook too for some reason.

ricman

try reboot, hold down f8,safe mode,select directory service restore mode,use arrows up down, enter to select option,that should speed it up.Download chrome browser ,or iron browser to use facebook.you are likely using very old version ie browser,which is very slow,download ,install ccleaner ,it speeds up pc,gets rid of old temp file, s frees up around 200meg hd space at least.

Hermy

Thanks again ricman.

The reboot procedure you describe - what does that do?
Browser is Firefox 5.0.
I've been using CCleaner for some time now.

EL_Loco

That machine must be getting on a bit now OP. Things like facebook etc load up alot of data and are hard enough for old machines to render.

Your hard drive might be getting buggy and error prone also, I'd make sure all essential files are backed up in case of a total failure.

If you know how to I'd re-install windows, can give a fresh lease of life to older machines that have gotten clogged up with rubbish. Just put your essentials back on it and take it from there.

Hermy

I tried that reboot procedure and the pc gets as far as the screen where I select which account to log in and locks up.

Hermy

EL_Loco wrote: »

That machine must be getting on a bit now OP. Things like facebook etc load up alot of data and are hard enough for old machines to render.

Your hard drive might be getting buggy and error prone also, I'd make sure all essential files are backed up in case of a total failure.

If you know how to I'd re-install windows, can give a fresh lease of life to older machines that have gotten clogged up with rubbish. Just put your essentials back on it and take it from there.

Hi loco,
I've tried reinstalling in the past but for some reason I can't seem to wipe the hard drive completely. Even though the hard drive is 80gig it tells me at the moment that it's only 60gig.

When reinstalling I get to this screen but I can't figure how to undo those partitions

ricman

there are utilitys that will expand the present partition,i would not worry if theres 5 percent that cant be used,many dell pcs have partition 2 which holds data to restore windows os,,drivers ,some programs, to restore the pc to day 1 purchase settings,if windows gets a virus, or gets too slow.f8 safe mode,directory service restore, replaces some boot up files which may have been damaged ,its perfectly safe,no harm to try it.It may speed up the pc.
I would not delete the 2nd partition,you may need it in future.