Primary hard disk failure

[theheartofwinter]

Hi there. Lately I've been getting either "Primary Hard disk error" or "missing or corrupt hal.dll" error messages during bootup. Restarting the computer a couple of times again these error disappears. Next day I'd get this error again and again, restarting it a few more times. Any ideas whats causing this? Also, I noticed sometimes my computer will suddenly restart whether gaming, browsing or even if its just idle. I'm afraid my hard disk is about to die.

I have a 400GB Seagate Barracuda which I bought about a year ago. priamary drive, standard disk, no partitions, have about 100GB free space left. Another slave drive(Seagate) configured as D:. Using Windows XP Pro SP2. Have NAV 2005/Windows Defender, have Windows Restore enabled.

For the meantime, I'm gonna be backing up my video files to another and maybe perhaps run Scandisk. Are there any tools I can run or test the drive with? Also, about warranty, can I return it and receive a replacement?

Any advise is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[chusteczka]

The first thing to do would be to run the Seatools diagnostic utility to test your drive and see if it finds any errors. Let us know the results.

EDIT: Ok, make Seatools the second thing to do then, after a backup.

 

[RebateMonger]

The backup is a great idea. Even when you AREN'T having disk error messages.

Make the backups NOW. The more the disk is used, the greater the chance of more damage.

After backing up, you can download Seagate's disk analysis tool (SeaTools, I believe). If you find problems, you can RMA the disk on Seagates's site.