My computer just decided to be a jerk

HerbalistHerbalist
in Help Wanted!
I went to use my PC today and all was well, then my computer froze. This happens occasionaly so I didnt think anything of it, but when this happens I have to manually power it off.
So I hit the reset button. Now my computer will boot up into windows to the point where my desktop picture shows, but none of the icons load. It will then start a loop of restarting itself and get back to the desktop point and restart etc.

I assume my hard drive is just dying?

Im using my computer right now with a Xubuntu boot CD and everything is working fine. I plugged in a USB HD and xubuntu recognized it right away and lets me view the files on it. I cant seem to find the files stored on my internal harddrive though in xubuntu. Its possible that xubuntu isnt recognizing the drive, but Im not a linux person so I could just as easily be overlooking something.

Im pretty bummed out right now. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I figure worst case scenario I take out the HD and put it in a external USB shell and run a data recovery program on my other computer. Then either reformat my HD or buy a new one.

I guess I've been too lucky lately and this is probably just God reminding me that he still hates meimage

Comments

  • AllYourBassAllYourBass
    Sounds kinda like what happened to my HD... It's probably on its way out.

    Try running Spinrite, that might fix it to the point where you can back everything up and possibly keep running it for a while longer.
  • HerbalistHerbalist
    I think I have Spinrite burned to a CD already, so I'll give that sucker a shot here in a few moments
  • AllYourBassAllYourBass
    Originally posted by: Herbalist

    I think I have Spinrite burned to a CD already, so I'll give that sucker a shot here in a few moments

    If you have any kind of a decent sized hard drive, be prepared to run that sucker nonstop for a week or two... image

  • NESHomebrewNESHomebrew
    Have you tried booting into safemode (by pressing f8 while booting)? It could just be a corrupted file causing a system crash. Also, if the HD is dying, I'd try and get your data off as quickly as possible.
  • ElijahElijah
    Yes, buy some large thumb drives quickly, and get all the personal stuff off there you can't just reinstall.

    My laptop went through a period where it would freeze almost every other day. But it's been months sinces it's done it. You might just try wiping the hard drive. Some people swear on doing this once a year, I just wait till I have problems though.

    You don't run your pc in a cold place, or sometimes unheated, like an unheated closed off office or your basement do you? I think temperature changes can do funky things to any computer.
  • AllYourBassAllYourBass
    ^Unless you're in something crazy like subzero temperatures, running at a low temperature won't hurt a computer. I had a laptop that kept randomly shutting off, so I turned it on and put it in the refrigerator for a couple hours. When I checked it out, it was still running just fine. It turned out that it was an overheating issue. I cleaned out the fan and it worked great again.
  • KHAN GamesKHAN Games
    I use Ubuntu and the way I can view my local windows C drive is by going to Places > 56 GB Filesystem (or whatever your HD is called).
  • HerbalistHerbalist
    Thanks for the tips.

    I was able to back up all my files to a external HD and did a reformat.

    Everything seems to be working great so far.
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