In an off chance this sounds familiar to ANYONE:

[Ashira]

I'm posting my current computer issues, which has rendered me systemless just in time for my class on Monday, which of course is hybrid and more than half our class meetings will be online. -.-

Wednesday night I decide it's been a while since I did a good cleanup of files so I run Spybot, Adaware, and registry software to take care of all that stuff.

After those are complete, I set up a defrag and go to bed.

The next day, I didn't reboot or anything, though I intended to later. However, before that happened, my little sister knocked over my tower (I'd had to pull it out of the cubby in my desk to plug in my headset since it's not USB) and caused it to reboot. And I'm already thinking this isn't a good thing. ._.

On reboot, it wants to run a scan disk. I skip that for now and of course get the "this system has recovered from a seroius error" when I finally get in Windows.

So I shutdown and let chkdsk run. It took four hours and found a ton of unreadable sectors, moved a bunch of files around, deleted a lot of empty files.

When I got back in Windows, everything was extremely slow as compared to normal. 3 minutes to log in, 2 minutes for like.. add/remove programs list to fill, etc. And most of my programs were fucked. Had to reinstall firefox, etc; most of my other programs were just not working/missing files.. ventrilo, ffxi, photoshop, etc. Some of them I couldn't even uninstall properly without the system just freezing up.

Doing an anazlyze of the drive, files were severely fragmented again, but I didn't run a defrag at any point.

I downloaded some FFXI installs to try to reinstall the program but wasn't able to do so: POL, CoP,and ToAU installed no problem, but the first FFXI disc said it was unable to retrieve files from the data cabinet.

I tried two other FFXI installs, downloaded from two other places, same result. Plus I know these all worked fine for others. (Ironically enough, I was able to find each of my FFXI discs EXCEPT #1...)

In having multiple problems with other programs, I figured a reformat was the best thing to do. I moved files (and macros!) into folders on my second HDD; got a windows install disc downloaded, and set it up to reformat.

Doing a quick format, I got a similar error trying to install Windows: the system is unable to retrieve files from the data cabinets.

So I tried a long format, which took numerous hours. Next day... same thing.

So I'm thinking it's something wrong with the HDD; so I try to install on another HDD. Same thing.

Friend suggested I try taking out one, then the other, stick of RAM. Same problem on both.

Am right now working on the last thing I can think of, which is to download the windows install on another computer (I have no idea where my Windows disc is which would have made this a ton easier - it's probably hanging out with my FFXI #1 disc) - thinking that somehow my own system messed up the downloads which then of course would make them useless. If this doesn't work, I don't know what else to try, outside of taking it in somewhere which I can't afford.

Does anyone know what the problem might be, or where the error is? Even if I can't fix it, I'd like to know wtf happened. -.-

[levish]

wierd, have any cd/dvd drives to swap with for a test?

[shaddix]

your hdd got pwned is what happened

[Ashira]

wierd, have any cd/dvd drives to swap with for a test?

hmm, possibly, though the ffxi installs weren't from cd, just mounted isos on daemon, since I couldn't find my disc 1 and i'd have to have d/l'd cop (in storage in michigan) and toau (do not have a dvdrom) and wotg (bought PS2 version for code because of the PC fuckup) anyway.

[Ashira]

your hdd got pwned is what happened

And I had thought that too, except trying to install XP on a different HDD (which was working in a different case and had 98 on it - wouldn't boot up in mine cuz of registry errors or something) I got the very same error. So I dunno. :/

[Nibe]

A

[shaddix]

where did you get the xp image?

edit: grammar

[Ashira]

Well, for those who... care... downloading and burning a Windows disc on a separate computer worked. So something in downloading into my HDD corrupted the files.

Currently on a new HDD, but will be trying to setup on my old one later, to see if it's salvageable. Which will also be annoying as fuck because if it works, then I have to redownload all these fking drivers. -.-

[shaddix]

you should toss old one in trash

[Izzy]

Ashira, try turning off any advanced features in your BIOS. Sometimes these things Q_Q your system up when installing any OS. Whenever I install XP I have to turn off some advanced features of newer motherboards just to get XP to install.

[Ashira]

Well, due to advice from a number of people, I've opted not to try to return to my old HDD. Which will be a challenge because this one is very very.. tiny. So far all I've downloaded is drivers/codecs, IM tools, IRC, uTorrent, foobar, Firefox and Thunderbird, and FFXI/Windower and I'm down to like, 4 gigs free. Yes, this is a 20 gig HDD....

Just means I have to save money and no audio/video/photo editing tools until I can upgrade.

It's a good thing it happened really; the old HDD was failing a SMART diagnostic and had been for quite some time. Didn't spin at proper speeds; now and again I'd have issues with it not wanting to boot up with the rest of the computer.

Now to find a good sized HDD at a reasonable price; still have a SATA port left - current one I was never able to get BIOS to recognize, though all this forced me to redo everything and now that's actually working - but since I used it for storage only, it's currently holding about 130 gigs of music. >.>

Anyone have any suggestions: brand loyalties, good experiences, etc? And where to find good deals (if besides newegg, of course)?

And is anyone looking to get rid of a decent laptop with preferably wireless networking capabilities, a browser that won't make me scream at the slowness, and word processing capabilities... at a decently low cost? I think I'm going to need an extra something to work on during the day while I'm watching the kids I watch and can't get to my system.

[Sigi]

Ashira, you can pick up a new dell for about 500 bucks online. >_> I'm not parting with my current system till it dies!

[shaddix]

anything western digital or seagate is good.