mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
|
Computers started freezing then unfreezing so probably the hard drive on it's way out. Or could this be something to do with Windows XP support ending?
If it is the hard drive failing am I likely to be able to plug my external hard drive in to copy off files? I'm at work at the moment so can't get to the computer in question until about 6 tonight. Just trying to get an idea of what the problem might be before I get there and what I can do.
Computer hasn't been backed up lately, was going to be backing it up and installing Windows 8 this weekend 
|
Brett
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
User status: Offline
|
lol @ it being because XP support ending
Is that just a wild guess it's the HDD failing? Could be something else entirely.
IMO soldier on, see if it'll backup your stuff and do the new windows install. If it freezes, try doing the backup outside of windows.
|
willay
Moderator
Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
User status: Offline
|
Event Viewer system logs will show write/read failures if its a HDD failing. You will also hear a click if its really fucked.
Keep the PC off until you want to copy the files off and just do it in one swoop.
BTW if you are running Windows XP on this machine I have a funny feeling it may not be fast enough for Windows 8  - how old is it?
|
mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
|
I was thinking as XP support has ended could it be a virus that's causing it.
Yeah it's a wild guess that the HDD is failing.
|
mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by willay
Event Viewer system logs will show write/read failures if its a HDD failing. You will also hear a click if its really fucked.
Keep the PC off until you want to copy the files off and just do it in one swoop.
BTW if you are running Windows XP on this machine I have a funny feeling it may not be fast enough for Windows 8 - how old is it?
It's about 3 years old, maybe 4, when he bought it he had the option to get Windows 7 or Windows XP so if it's good enough to run 7 it should be ok for 8 I was hoping as they have the same requirements.
I've told him to turn it off
[Edited on 17-04-2014 by mwg]
|
willay
Moderator
Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
User status: Offline
|
Do you run any anti virus on it?
|
mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
|
Yeah Avast
|
willay
Moderator
Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
User status: Offline
|
Okay, you should know the spec of the machine before putting Windows 8 on it, could not install or be completely shit.
To be fair the Win8 spec is quite low:
quote:
Windows 8.1
If you want to run Windows 8.1 on your PC, here's what it takes:
Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with support for PAE, NX, and SSE2 (more info)
RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver
If you're running Windows 8 you can get a free update to Windows 8.1. Just tap or click the Windows Store tile on your Start screen.
But that doesn't mean it will run nicely
|
mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
|
I'm waiting for that to be the next problem Trying to do it the cheap way, if it was down to me I'd just buy a new PC with Windows 8 already on it. Not like they are expensive
|
mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
|
It does have a higher spec than those requirements. The only thing I was unsure of was the graphics card but rightly or wrongly I went on the idea that if it was good enough to run 7 the graphics card must be good enough to run 8 as it's the same spec required for both
|
willay
Moderator
Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
User status: Offline
|
Why not just install Windows 7?
|
mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
|
Thought might as well go straight to 8. It's still in it's packaging so might return it yet
|
Bart
Member
Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by mwg
Thought might as well go straight to 8. It's still in it's packaging so might return it yet
Just wop 8 on if you have it.
system requirements aren't staggering different between 8 and 7.
|
dannymccann
Member
Registered: 9th Aug 06
Location: Doddington, Lincolnshire
User status: Offline
|
Usually if the HDD is buggered you hear the click of death like Willay said. Sometimes you can hear it try to spin up then cut out as well. Get all your files off and just use it as normal. I've had a few hard drives fail on me in the past and I don't think they have instantly just let go, they died slowly.
The freezing issue though could be totally unrelated, could be an overheating issue for the CPU or GPU. If it's 4 years old chances are no one has bothered to hoover the inside out and 99.99% likely no one has applied any new thermal paste to the CPU so it could very well be that 
|
Scotty_B
Member
Registered: 11th Jun 03
Location: East Kilbride
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by willay
Event Viewer system logs will show write/read failures if its a HDD failing. You will also hear a click if its really fucked.
Keep the PC off until you want to copy the files off and just do it in one swoop.
BTW if you are running Windows XP on this machine I have a funny feeling it may not be fast enough for Windows 8 - how old is it?
I'm running Windows 8.1 update 1 on an 8 year old XP machine and it's given it a new lease of life. Way fast than XP.
[Edited on 17-04-2014 by Scotty_B]
|
Brett
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
User status: Offline
|
Fresh install of xp would've probs done the same tbf
|
dannymccann
Member
Registered: 9th Aug 06
Location: Doddington, Lincolnshire
User status: Offline
|
Love doing a fresh xp install, computer flies. Only problem used to be the gb's of updates, especially on 2mb
|
willay
Moderator
Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by Scotty_B
quote:
Originally posted by willay
Event Viewer system logs will show write/read failures if its a HDD failing. You will also hear a click if its really fucked.
Keep the PC off until you want to copy the files off and just do it in one swoop.
BTW if you are running Windows XP on this machine I have a funny feeling it may not be fast enough for Windows 8 - how old is it?
I'm running Windows 8.1 update 1 on an 8 year old XP machine and it's given it a new lease of life. Way fast than XP.
[Edited on 17-04-2014 by Scotty_B]
that is amazing, I can't imagine it being fast thou. Perhaps our definitions of fast are different.
|
mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
|
Managed to get the hard drive out and get all the files off ok. Got a new computer coming with Windows 8.1 on it seen as the other computer was a few years old anyway so not worth messing around with it for the price of a new machine.
I don't think it was the hard drive anyway, it worked fine when I had it connected to my computer. No clicking
[Edited on 28-04-2014 by mwg]
|
mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
|
Returned the other copy of Windows 8.1 to Amazon too.
|
Rob_Quads
Member
Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: southampton
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by Scotty_B
I'm running Windows 8.1 update 1 on an 8 year old XP machine and it's given it a new lease of life. Way fast than XP.
[Edited on 17-04-2014 by Scotty_B]
Agree. Just put it on my wife's laptop and it feels slightly faster (compared with a fresh 7 install I just did on it before realising that after patching the OS took it 30gb) windows 8.1 seemed to take up around 18gb all installed and patched
|
