Laptop giving me trouble - need a quick solution as i use it for work...

Access

I have a Dell Inspiron N5010 which i use for music production and gigs.

I am getting check disk coming up regularly (not always) when booting up, (as pic attached)

Its also very slow to boot... 3 min+ when normally about 1min... and stops responding if i was to open firefox and the likes of word at the same time most of the time. I cannot even do Ctrl-alt-delete as it takes forever to open too. Other times after a full disk check has completed the laptop is running fine with no problems.

Its clean as a whistle... up to date spybot search and destroy and up to date Microsoft security essentials with regular scans run often.

I have everything backed up, but need this laptop running perfect as i just cant afford to replace it at the moment and need it for work.

I would really really appreciate it if anyone could point me in the right way of a solution to this problem. Can anyone tell me a cause for this slow down/disk checks.

Dell N5010 Laptop
Win 7
4 Gig/500GB HD/Intel i5 Core

Dacelonid

Did you have a read of this article

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/check-disk-runs-at-every-startup-windows

PropJoe10

Make sure you have your data backed up, as that sounds like imminent disk failure to me. Try running HD Tune (which you can use on a free trial), do a full disk scan and see if it returns any bad sectors.

Access

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Make sure you have your data backed up, as that sounds like imminent disk failure to me. Try running HD Tune (which you can use on a free trial), do a full disk scan and see if it returns any bad sectors.

Thanks, I was afraid that it could be a hard drive failure slowly coming on. am running HD pro now... i take it that its the error scan part of the program i should run?

PropJoe10

Access wrote: »

Thanks, I was afraid that it could be a hard drive failure slowly coming on. am running HD pro now... i take it that its the error scan part of the program i should run?

Yeah just run a full scan, it should pick up bad sectors. It might not be a hard drive issue, but the likelihood is that it probably is. As I said though, make sure all your data is backed up. Thats always your first priority.

johnnybmac

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Make sure you have your data backed up, as that sounds like imminent disk failure to me. Try running HD Tune (which you can use on a free trial), do a full disk scan and see if it returns any bad sectors.

+1

The fact that chkdsk is regularly running on startup is a pretty big indicator that the HDD is on the way out. As Propjoe said, you need to backup your files ASAP.

You might not manage to get all of your stuff backed up because of the constant disk errors (i.e. the errors have probably been happening because of the corruption of various files on the system...)

Access

HD tune is showing 0.1% red blocks on the error scan (500gb hard in the laptop - WDC WD5000BEVT-75A0RT0 Laptop hardisk)

And in the Health tab, it is showing me a warning stating "number of unstable sectors: 4 - This drive has unstable sectors".

So far i have been able to get all my pics/files/documents backed up off this onto an external drive. I take it this info from HD tune confirms the laptops drive is on the way out?

But my main issue is how to now get this laptop fully up and running 100% again as i need it for work.

Should i go ahead and buy a new 2.5 inch internal hard drive and swap them out and do a new install of windows 7 (my windows code sticker is well worn on the base of the laptop so i dont know how at this point im going to get it to do a fresh install or where to get the win 7 software as i got no disc with this laptop when i bought it)

OR

Can i just buy another 2.5 inch internal hard drive, then take out the drive from my laptop, copy the entire old hard drive onto the new drive (have a usb sata dock handy) and then install the new drive into the laptop?

Also, while im at it can the new drive i buy be a bigger one? say i buy a 1tb vs the 500gb thats currently in it? or should i be looking towards an SSD for this (The laptop gets transported a lot and this might save a regular hard drive from being banged and bumped)

Any help/advice with getting this up and running would be well appreciated!

rolliepoley

Get this to recover your product key and then reinstall a fresh copy of windows, as for the hard drive i would use the same kind as the one thats already in the laptop, just in case you run in to problems installing a bigger hard drive.


http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Access

rolliepoley wrote: »

Get this to recover your product key and then reinstall a fresh copy of windows, as for the hard drive i would use the same kind as the one thats already in the laptop, just in case you run in to problems installing a bigger hard drive.


http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Cheers, got the keys using another program i forgot i had, (magical jelly bean) so at least im half way there.

I think i will have to just do a fresh install of windows... cloning a erroring drive might cause me problems in the long run.

No disc of my OS (Windows 7 Home Premium) came with my laptop, so i head to microsoft website for a copy of my OS and then enter my key when installed?

bonzodog2

http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-58997.iso for Win7 HP 32bit ISO

rolliepoley

Access wrote: »

Cheers, got the keys using another program i forgot i had, (magical jelly bean) so at least im half way there.

I think i will have to just do a fresh install of windows... cloning a erroring drive might cause me problems in the long run.

No disc of my OS (Windows 7 Home Premium) came with my laptop, so i head to microsoft website for a copy of my OS and then enter my key when installed?

Yeah should work.

http://best-windows.vlaurie.com/boot-disks.html#full

Access

Are those links legit?

bonzodog2

The digitalriver ones are legit, you need your own serial tho, and maybe a COA sticker if you're fussy

Access

Can anyone confirm if I can replace the 500gb wd hard drive in this with any 2.5 sata hard drive or even an ssd?

reason I ask is Im not too up to data on the reason why drives are sata 1/2/3 and want to replace the hard drive with one id have no issues down the line. Thanks

rolliepoley

If the wd drive is ide you wont be able to swap them out, sata and ide are different connections, and i think ssd are sata as well except mini ssd.

http://www.diffen.com/difference/IDE_vs_SATA

PropJoe10

If you dont require much internal storage, you can get a 128GB SSD for about 80 euro now. The difference in speed is amazing.

Access

rolliepoley wrote: »

If the wd drive is ide you wont be able to swap them out, sata and ide are different connections, and i think ssd are sata as well except mini ssd.

http://www.diffen.com/difference/IDE_vs_SATA

Thanks for the info.

i know the difference between the ide and sata drives... this is only a newish laptop... about three years old and specs states it has a wdc wd5000bevt -75a0rt0 500gb sata/300 interface hard drive.

its just I need to be sure that if I buy a ssd hard drive to replace that i will have no issues compatibility wise.

are sata drives all the same ie... sata 100/sata 200/sata 300 interface drives?

just want to make sure I dont get the wrong drive for it... and I get a drive I will have no issues with.

yoyo

Access wrote: »

Thanks for the info.

i know the difference between the ide and sata drives... this is only a newish laptop... about three years old and specs states it has a wdc wd5000bevt -75a0rt0 500gb sata/300 interface hard drive.

its just I need to be sure that if I buy a ssd hard drive to replace that i will have no issues compatibility wise.

are sata drives all the same ie... sata 100/sata 200/sata 300 interface drives?

just want to make sure I dont get the wrong drive for it... and I get a drive I will have no issues with.

SATA 1/2/300 are all backwards compatible. Even if you have a SATA 100 chipset a SATA 300 drive/SSD will work. An SSD would be a great improvement over a mechanical drive, especially with a decent spec like you have. You also have Windows 7 which supports SSD drives "out of the box"

Nick