[est1895]

When I took my system in, I got a new Western Digital hard drive.  I thought the store was giving me a Velocoraptor (pardon my spelling).  Years later I found out that it was a Western Digital Scorpio hard drive?  So whats a Scorpio?  A very slow Notebook drive about 5400rpm.  I have been getting errors ever since.  So I use CCleaner and yes it is all thats holding the system together.  I get errors everyday and use CCleaner everyday.  But I would like more advice about which hard drive I should buy next.  Just a reminder, I have a desktop Windows XP SP3 home 32 bit.

[Ghostavo]

What kind of errors do you get?

[KyadCK]

Western Digital:
Velociraptor: 10k/15k drives. Generaly low storage. 3.5" only.

Caviar: 5400/7200 drives. Normal drives from 320 to 3000gb. 3.5" only.
(Green = power efficient, Blue = normal, Black = performance)

Scorpio: 5400/7200 drives. Laptop drives. 120 to 1000gb. 2.5" only.

Note: It is extremely rare for any prebuilt desktop to come with a Caviar Black HDD, let alone a Velociraptor. In fact, 90% of the time, they come with Caviar Green drives. Same applied to laptops, only substitute Caviar with Scorpio.

If you're going to get an HDD, get it from bestbuy. They're much cheaper 'cause they have HDDs in storage because who the hell goes to bestbuy to buy an HDD, right?

And no, using CCleaner does not hold a HDD together... CCleaner wipes data off an HDD, which is causing the HDD to do work. If there is a hardware problem, nothing can help it besides getting a new HDD or possibly a new controler board for the existing one, which requires that you buy an exact match of your existing drive.

[est1895]

What kind of errors do you get?

Well I would get Blue Screens and lockups.  But when I use the CCleaner, it tells me what the errors are.  There is a good possiblity that Windows was not installed properly.  How do you check for improper installation of Windows?

[KyadCK]

What kind of errors do you get?

Well I would get Blue Screens and lockups.  But when I use the CCleaner, it tells me what the errors are.  There is a good possiblity that Windows was not installed properly.  How do you check for improper installation of Windows?

That would be Registry errors wouldn't it... That is not a sign of a bad install, that's a sign that things have changed on your system at some point in time and references don't exist (a shortcut to a program you uninstalled for instance), they are natural.

Cleaning your registry is a dangerous game, even with the praise CCleaner gets for it. I hope you at minimum make backups before each clean.

[est1895]

 

[est1895]

Well when I went to that place that installed Windows onto my new hard drive, the tech had said that he mistakingly put the OS on drive D and not on drive C.  So he wipped the hard drive.  Then, the drives were mapped in a different order than I have seen after going to this place.  And then I couldn't defragment to 0%. 

Is there a program to see if Windows was improperly installed?

[Cobra]

Okay. You are completely wrong on all counts. CCleaner will NOT save your hard drive. You are looking at the initial signs hard drive failure. Trust me, I've had enough off themselves to know what the symptoms are. Him installing Windows on a different drive isn't going to do anything. The different order just means a different hard drive is your primary.

Get a non-****ty hard drive now and back your stuff up before it outright crashes and you get blue screens spouting general hardware failure errors. Scratch that, you're already getting them. Just get a new one.

[Nuke]

id suggest running whatever diagnostic tools are available from the drive manufacturer and give the hard drive a scan (iirc western digital had pretty good ones). avoid doing any destructive tests or procedures (for example, a low level format), just run the diagnostics. many things could be wrong, the tech could have dropped the drive before installing it, it could have been a refurb model, the tech might have zapped the cache memory chip on the drive with esd (frankly from what you said he sounds rather incompetent).

another thing you may want to consider is run a memory scan, like memtest 86. if it reports any errors, then the tech may have screwed up your memory timings (they may have reset your bios and lost the manufacturer's timing settings). if your getting crashes and not filesystem errors, it is far more likely to be a memory issue.

tldr: find a better computer tech, the one you had sounds like a real noob.

[LHN91]

^And from the sounds of it, the tech sounds like he's also taking advantage of people and sucking money out of them.

[Nuke]

that is also a distinct possibility. computer techs are under paid and will exploit you in any way they can.

[est1895]

Well I already have a hard drive waiting for this one to fail.  Then who do you go to have you system reinstalled?  I've been to about every computer shop in town and always gotten burned.  One shop stole $700 of my stuff and left in the middle on the night with it.  I have all my stuff already backed up; so that when my hard drive fails, I will be ready.  I just have to find a good and honest place.

[Cobra]

...or, you can get a copy of windows yourself and install it. It's really damn easy. And much less expensive than paying some sleazy tech.

[LHN91]

I don't go to anybody. I spent a few hours learning how to do it myself, 6 or 7 years ago Most hardware replacements are trivial to do, and in 90% of cases so are OS reinstalls. Usually, its a case of putting in the replacement hard drive, putting in the OS disc, booting the system from it, and hitting next a whole pile of times.

The only thing I can think of is that especially with XP, you should really grab drivers for your hardware and put them on a flash drive before you reinstall, so you have the drivers available if, for example, your network adapter doesn't have drivers built into XP.

Seriously, once you work through your first reinstall, you'll wonder why you paid to have it done.

[est1895]

Can Windows be installed only so many times, then the key is dead?  I've had xp since it first came out and had it installed over and over again.

I have one example.  Years ago when Fujitsu made desktop hard drives, I had a place put one in for me.  He put it in and fried it, I had to wait for a replacement.  When the replacement arrived, he fried that one too.  And this guy was a trained tech too.   

[Nuke]

the keys are usually valid unless you change your hardware drastically. like a mobo or cpu change. is ms even supporting xp anymore?

[KyadCK]

Can Windows be installed only so many times, then the key is dead?  I've had xp since it first came out and had it installed over and over again.

XP can be installed 2 times every 6 months, Vista can be installed once per year, and Win 7 can be installed once every 6 months using the same key. The key never permanently dies.

And if that doesn't work, call them and say you had to reinstall. They really dont care why.

the keys are usually valid unless you change your hardware drastically. like a mobo or cpu change. is ms even supporting xp anymore?

MS doesn't care about CPUs as long as its the same family (or else overclocking would trip the key), they register the OS with some form of motherboard UUID or something. And yes, they will support (but not make new patches) for XP sp3 till 2014.

[Nuke]

im curious what they are gonna do about xp after 2014. they should do the right thing and release an official patch to activation. of course im sure they will just unplug and reallocate the activation servers to some other job. its been a concern to be for some time what will happen to software that has drm that requires a call home to activate it, after the developers decide to no longer support it.

[Cobra]

I have one example.  Years ago when Fujitsu made desktop hard drives, I had a place put one in for me.  He put it in and fried it, I had to wait for a replacement.  When the replacement arrived, he fried that one too.  And this guy was a trained tech too.   

You're an idiot. Fujitsu just made bad drives.

[Nuke]

i have a 5 year old drive who's model was famous for self destructing, and it still works. even a ****ty hard drive should still be functional for a few years. the fact that this "trained tech" ****ed up 2 hard drives should have been a big red indicator light to go somewhere else for tech services. a ****ty hard drive in the hands of some one who knows what they are doing will still work.