Hard Drive going out?

Question

I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop that has been experiencing some problems as of late.  First, here lately the computer has been crashing a lot.  I've kept up with the Windows Upgrades, and, out of the blue, it started acting up.  After I would reboot, it would start the Scandisk procedure.  This would literally, take around 7-8 HOURS to complete.  Occasionally, it would find some bad clusters on the disk.  Afterwards, the computer seems to work fine for awhile, until, out of the blue, it locks up again.  I want to just reformat the hard drive and start over, but is there really a point if the hard drive is going out?  Also, is this a sign the the hard drive could be going out?  I appreciate any assistance.

gellmann · Answer

I would recommend running the Dell Diagnostics on the drive. If the drive is still under warranty and there is a problem with the drive, you can get Dell to replace it.

One thing to consider is since you have a laptop, how much are you traveling with it? Is it getting jarred and thrown around a lot? If it is, it can cause the heads on the hard drive to hit the platters and cause sector problems, which is what it looks like scandisk is finding.

Windows General

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