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    • Terry’s Computer Tips newsletters October 18th

    Posted By terry on October 18, 2009

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    4 Comments so far

    1. RWeil Schwartz on October 19th, 2009

      The recommendation that Arjun replace his hard drive after his use of the CHKDSK utility seems to me to be a case of panicked overkill.

      I’ve often encountered the symptom of continuous hard drive activity (apparently stuck in the ‘write’ mode) on particularly external drives and found in every case, without fail, that it was the enclosure that was at fault, not the drive.

      Since Arjun’s drive is in a laptop, I’d be inclined to believe he has had a heating problem, which, again, is not indicative of a failing drive. That CHKDSK seems to have solved his problem is, in all liklihood, coincidence.

      Rather than advise him to replace the drive per instructions, I’d advise him to back up his material on an external, if such is available, and await developments.

      There is an excellent chance that the problem will not recurr, and the hassle and expense of exchanging the drive can be avoided.

      Meanwhile, a decent cooler for the laptop should be considered.

    2. Fred Fuzz on October 19th, 2009

      There is a generic USB driver for W98 which I obtained sometime ago and used on two of my (then)computers One of them is still in use with W98SE and the generic USB driver so that no matter what sticks I use there sre no problems.
      I can’t remember where I got it from now but I think it was issued by MS. I still have the software on a Floppy and would be glad to upload it somewhere if it is wanted.
      regards

    3. terry on October 19th, 2009

      RWeil would have a good point if Arjun had only run Chkdsk. However, he had contacted the laptop manufacturer’s tech support, who had him run a diagnostic utility, and based on the resulting error code – they recommended replacement of the drive.

      My point is that Chkdsk makes some filesystem corrections. It does not solve the problems that caused the filesystem errors. Filesystem errors occur because of hardware problems.

      I’ve been down that road, using a more sophisticated utility, too. It “solved” the problem for a month or so. Then, the hard drive problems started again – and got measurably worse day by day – until it completely failed.

      Arjun can wait to do his replacement if he needs to – but RWeil is right – Arjun needs to back up his data. If the drive is failing, he’s going to want that data.

    4. Fred Fuzz on October 20th, 2009

      The generic USB drivers for W98 are located here:
      http://www.technical-assistance.co.uk/kb/usbmsd98.php
      Along with information about them
      regards

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