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Hard drive substitute

1K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  makinu1der2 
#1 ·
I have a compaq P4 notebook that is about 6 years old. The computer itself still works pretty well but the hard drive easily looses a file that is necessary for the computer to boot - can't think of it right now, but last time it disappeared I ended up having to reinstall xp. It just "disappeared" again - I haven't had time to look at it. The hard drive is about a year old, I think is a toshiba 200 gb, 5200 rpm drive. How can I find out what is going wrong?

I have considered reformatting the hd and reinstall xp. My xp disk is about 6 years old. Is it possible that there are errors on it, even though it will install (seemingly) properly, i.e. no error messages?

I am planning on buying a netbook in March or April - don't have the $$ right now - and am looking for options to make this one work for eight more months. I am wondering if it is possible to install xp on a cd and boot from the cd? That is the cheapest option...the other option I thought of is to install an ide to cf adapter and install a 16 GB cf card. I saw a Kingston 133 16 gb hard drive for about $30 I can get the adapter for about $5

I don't want to spend any more $$ than option 2. I use the notebook to do open office (wp and spreadsheets), chatting, surfing, listening to music and watching movies.
 
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#2 ·
Frequent errors and missing or corrupted files can often mean the hard drive is starting to fail (all hard drives fail sooner or later). You can test for this by running the drive manufacturer's diagnostic software. If it's a system drive (ie it has Windows installed on it) you need to download the DOS version. You create a CD from the downloaded ISO file, then boot the faulty PC from that CD.

Toshiba don't supply testing software so you'll have to use Seagate SeaTools for DOS which is able to test any brand. Getit here: | Seagate

Don't forget, you need to download the DOS version so the drive can be thorougly tested without running Windows.
 
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