Hard drive going south?

[dubber]

I didn't know where to put this post, so if it goes somewhere else, a moderator is welcome to move it.

Computer boots normally.

After about 10 to 15 seconds, the mouse still functions but nothing responds to a mouse click.

The first CAD does nothing.

The second CAD results in a BSOD that says:
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System is busy... The system is busy waiting for the Close Program dialog box to be displayed. You can wait to see if it appears or you can restart your computer.

Press any key to return to Windows and wait.

Press CAD again to restart your computer. You will lose unsaved information in all programs that are running.

Press any key to continue.
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When I press any key to continue, I get another BSOD that says:
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Unable to write to disk in drive C:
Data or files may be lost.
Press any key to continue.

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When I press any key, I get a black screen. No mouse. No nothing.
After a minutes the Unable to write to Drive C BSOD reappears.
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Pressing any key brings a black screen again. After a few minutes another BSOD appears that says:

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A fatal exception OE has occurred at 0167:BFF9DFFF. The current application will be terminated.

Press any key to terminate the application.
Press CAD again to restart your computer. You will lose unsaved information in all applications.

Press any key to continue.

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When I press any key a black screen appears. A few minutes later a white box appears that has Msgsrv in black letters with three gray buttons giving the choices YES, NO and CLOSE.
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Clicking YES brings back the BSOD that says:

Disk write error.
Unable to write to Disk C.
Data or files may be lost.
Press any key to continue.
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Pressing any key brings back the Black screen and nothing else happens unless I CAD it a few times and another BSOD appears that says:

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WARNING!
The system has become unstable. You can wait and see if it becomes available again, or you can restart your computer.
Press any key to return to Windows and wait.
Press cad to restart your computer. You will lose unsaved information in any program that is running.
Press any key to continue.
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When I press any key I get a BSOD that says:
WARNING!
The system is either busy or has become unstable. You can wait to see if it becomes available again, or you can restart your computer.
Press any key to return to Windows and wait.
Press cad to restart your computer. You will lose lose any unsaved information in any programs that you are running.
Press any key to continue.
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Nothing happens now and I have to reboot using the on/off switch on the front of the computer.

The computer is a Dell Optiplex, running Windows 98SE, on a 1.9gig(350mb used) hard drive with 192mgs of memory. It is a PII 400. The only thing added to the original install of Win98se is AVG, Tiny firewall and UD.

Well, I got it restarted and got it to run for a few minutes. It was slow to respond to a mouse click and everytime it responded the computer would make a sound that I can best describe as a relatively loud squeaky-click coming from inside the computer case. It might squeaky-click 4 times before it dispalys a new window.

I'm guessing it is a hard drive biting the dust.

Anyway, I got as far as starting a thorough scandisk and the screen froze before it got very far into the scandisk.

If it is the hard drive, that's ok, because I have a few laying around and there is nothing on the computer that I need to save. It's just a UD cruncher.

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

[Rando]

Dubber, sounds like it's poo-poohed:( Have you run diagnostics on it?

[dubber]

How do I run diagnostics on it?

[Rando]

Whatever brand it may be, IBM, Seagate etc., go to their website and download their diagnostics program. I know IBM, Maxtor, WD, and Seagate have a diagnostics program, but not sure of other brands. One other thing, you may try another cable, and make sure all of the power pins on the molex are making contact.

Edit: Dub, there are also third party drive diagnostics programs out and about there, and some are free, I'll see what I can dig up.

[dubber]

Thanks, Rando.

I think I have a few different hard drive floppies around here somewhere.

Now all I have to do is put a floppy drive in the computer to be able to use them.

[floppybootstomp]

dubber:

You can d/l the IBM drive fitness test from Here (http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm)

With it you create a bootable floppy and boot from that to test your HDD.

I'm fairly certain it works with any brand of HDD.

Let us know how you get on.

[ralpha6]

The reason behind each HD manufacturor providing their own diagnostics is that they don't want you using someone else's software diagnostics on their HD.

Don't know if you will void your warranty or not (probably don't affect you as your HD is probably too old for warranty replacement anyway) ;)

[dubber]

Thanks, guys.

I am downloading the IBM bootable floppy disk maker now.

Tomorrow I'll install a floppy disk drive and try it out.

I managed to get the puter through a thorough scandisk and it's 45 minutes into a UD work unit so far.

Well, crap, I have to stay over at work tomorrow so it'll be Saturday before I can work on it.

If it conks out completely, I have another beater in the shed I can use to crunch instead. It's a K6-2 500 with an 8gig HDD and 192mb memory.
I've just been too lazy and stingy to get a monitor and modem for it.