PC Resurrection
As most of you know, I’ve been having problems with my primary Windows PC’s C drive. It’s turned out to be a fairly complex problem, and the solution has been challenging. The process also shows how easy it is for multiple problems to turn up simultaneously.
The initial problem was slow read performance on the C drive (lots of solid disk activity lights, random slowness), which was finally traced to bad blocks on the disk. Since that’s an easy swap, I ordered a replacement 500GB Seagate drive, opened the case, connected it to a spare SATA port, and powered on the system. It would no longer boot, and wasn’t even running its self tests. I theorized that the board itself was going bad, and this was causing the disk errors.
Since the board was a 2003 model, a full upgrade seemed useful. My new Intel board and 3.0GHZ processor, along with 2GB of 800MHZ Corsair memory, arrived a few days later. A quick hardware swap occurred, only to discover the system disk had apparently lost some Windows executive files. I really wanted my original OS back and didn’t just want to re-install, so I decided to try an experiment.
The original XP installation CD was put in, and Recovery Console was booted. I tried both bootfix and fixmbr to see if they’d restore the drive’s boot blocks, but they were inadequate to the task. The XP CD was again booted, and I told it to Repair the existing Windows installation. An hour later, the system booted on its own. Phase one was accomplished.
I then installed the new motherboard’s drivers and a shiny new GeForce 9500GT SLI video card, and checked performance again. The original disk is still throwing errors, so we now know the problem was probably a combination of a failing motherboard and a flaky disk. The original drive is now being cloned onto a brand new 500GB Seagate Barracuda. Hopefully this will be the end of the diagnostic process and my (completely refurbished) system will be back to normal.
The object lessons are as follows. First, good backups (which I have) are key. Second, not all performance issues are software related. Event Viewer can be your friend. And keep a copy of a partitioning package (I use Partition Commander) around at all times. It might just save the day when a disk decides it’s fed up with life.