loninappleton

Two things seem to be going on with this error:

Bootup shows an error which it says will be fixed by scandisk. But scandisk won't load.

There is a directory on the desktop with file names that
are garbage and directory names that are garbage.

The drive is pretty new.

Scandisk won't run from even the cd repair disk from
Seagate.

Everything loads on the drive _but_ I get the error
each time a cold boot is made.

Last ditch was to try and reinstall the operating system
and get a fresh scandisk from that.

But the install operation finds the grabage files and
after about 10 minutes of saying yes to fix corrupted files,
I quit.


The answer seems to be 'you can't get there from here"
and I've tried just about every workaround I can think of.

enoctis

It sounds to me like you've ended up with a virus on your computer. It doesn't seem to be very malicious, seeing as your OS is still functional. There are 2 programs that I strongly recommend to everyone. They both can be found at download.com:

Avast! Home Edition
Spybot Search & Destroy

They are both free, though Avast requires you to register (free). After installing Avast, it will popup asking you to enter your license number. There will be a link on the window to obtain one. Just click the link, which will take you to their website, enter your email address, and a license number will be sent to you.

Also after installation, I would attempt to update both programs before actually scanning. Furthermore, I suggest running Spybot first to remove spyware/adware. Why? Avast will remove only the files from spyware that actually send information, whereas Spybot will remove the spyware entirely.

Hope this helps!

sinclair_tm

have you tried booting with the cd that came with the drive, and told it to format the whole hard drive, writing zeros to it? this should kill any and all info, including the files giving you greif, on the disk, allowing to again do a fresh install of windows, and not having this error any more.

OldGrayGary

Hi loninappleton

I think the suggestion to check for malware presence on your system was a good one. The zero-write suggestion is a very thorough method for starting over from scratch: which leads to my question - Do you have data on the hard drive that you wish to save?

I'm guessing that yes, you do have data and programs on the hard drive that you'd like to save - and that this is the reason you've tried the repairs, such as ScanDisk and reinstalling.

You might want to consider pulling the hard drive, placing it in an external hard drive enclosure, and attaching it to another computer - copying all treasured data you wish to save onto removable media. The 'helper computer' would need to be up-to-date on its antivirus protection before you try this. You can scan it while 'slaved' in this manner, too. You can run diagnositics on the drive while slaved, and if the Windows versions are compatible, you can run a ScanDisk from there too.

Should using an external enclosure (or slaving the drive via IDE cable inside antoher computer) isn't an option you wish to try -- there are strategies you can try with the hard drive still in it's current case: to run the Windows utility ScanDisk, boot your computer into Safe Mode (start tapping the F8 key as the computer is powering up), and run ScanDisk from there --- Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/ScanDisk.

I'm puzzled by your mention of the Seagate disk... Are you referring to the Sea Tools diagnostics? You can choose between several versions of the diagnostics --- http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/ --- These tools are operating system independent, run entirely from either bootable floppy diskette or bootable CD, and do not include ScanDisk - which is a Windows utility. Run both the quick and advanced SeaTools diagnostics, these can take a while, but will either confirm or rule-out any physical problems with the drive itself.

Once you've removed any malware presence (if any), and verified by running diagnostics that the drive is physically sound, you can try using the over-the-top instructions in the following link to get the Windows files healthy again --- http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=70846 Pay close attention to the details, to avoid nagging gotchas.

Best of luck & Happy Holidays
. . . Gary

[P.S. ... how big is the "fairly new" drive? Many older motherboards have trouble with today's giant drives = and must use 'drive overlay' software (I imagine DiscWizard uses some form of this to get around motherboard limitations) . . . If the newer drive is larger than 127 gb, the Windows 98 versions of ScanDisk will have trouble running --- for more info on such limitations, see http://www.hexff.com/w98_hd.php ]