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Hard Drive Image


Hamokhamok

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I'm having problems with my PC over the last number of months.

 

The main problem is one where various programs come back with the message 'Not Responding'. If I leave it it will continue but its getting a pain in the arse.

 

I run Windows 7 Professional (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601) on a Dell Inc. Inspiron 560.

 

Processor

2.93 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo

64 kilobyte primary memory cache

3072 kilobyte secondary memory cache

6110 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

 

I'm thinking of doing an Image of the hard drive followed by formatting it and then restoring the Image.

 

Not too sure if that will help or not.

 

I'm thinking that if I take an Image and then restore that Image am I not just putting the same problems back again ?????

 

Any suggestions on what software to use for this Image or any suggestions on what I should do regarding the 'Not Responding' messages I get.

 

I'm trying to avoid having to load everything again apart from the problems with Windows 7 etc.

 

I've tried Restore but that too didn't help.

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baa's suggestions are all good, and you need to run the above checks regardless of which course of action you decide on. I have used Norton Ghost in the past to take an image of a hard drive and restore it to a new hard drive, but that assumes that the problem is with your hard drive - chkdsk will tall you if that is the case:

 

1. Quick chkdsk :

 

chkdsk /f c:

 

(assumes you only have a single hard drive partition - if not, run it on d: etc after you finish checking the first partition)

 

This will usually take less than 30 minutes - you need to be comfortable at the DOS prompt to run it, but you will soon see if it finds errors.

 

2. If the quick chkdsk found errors, I suggest you run the 'long' version to attempt to fix bad sectors on the hard drive:

 

chkdsk /r c:

 

For the virus check, google Malwarebytes - its free - the current version of Norton also seems very good at finding various nasties. Generally speaking, google is your friend - there ARE some very knowledgeable folk on this forum, but most of them have their hands full fighting fires in their day jobs. Good luck.

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Have you done a virus/malware scan?

Have you run a check disk?

Does the PC pass memtest?

 

Have you tried reinstalling the program that isn't responding?

 

Reply to baa99: Thanks for your reply.

 

Yes have done a virus check. I use ESET Virus checker which I understand also does malware.

No haven't done a check disk - will do now.

Memtest not done will also do now.

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baa's suggestions are all good, and you need to run the above checks regardless of which course of action you decide on. I have used Norton Ghost in the past to take an image of a hard drive and restore it to a new hard drive, but that assumes that the problem is with your hard drive - chkdsk will tall you if that is the case:

 

1. Quick chkdsk :

 

chkdsk /f c:

 

(assumes you only have a single hard drive partition - if not, run it on d: etc after you finish checking the first partition)

 

This will usually take less than 30 minutes - you need to be comfortable at the DOS prompt to run it, but you will soon see if it finds errors.

 

2. If the quick chkdsk found errors, I suggest you run the 'long' version to attempt to fix bad sectors on the hard drive:

 

chkdsk /r c:

 

For the virus check, google Malwarebytes - its free - the current version of Norton also seems very good at finding various nasties. Generally speaking, google is your friend - there ARE some very knowledgeable folk on this forum, but most of them have their hands full fighting fires in their day jobs. Good luck.

 

Reply to gobbledonk.

 

Haven't done chkdsk but will do now. Only one internal drive to check 1Tb size.

 

I appreciate very much the help given here. I'm sure the people here have better things to do but I usually find when asking questions in this way, that others had same or similar problems and have come up with a solution.

 

Ok I'm off now to do all my checks.

 

Will let all know what the results are.

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Download MalwareBytes, install it, let it update itself, and then reboot into Safe Mode, and run the full scan from Safe Mode.

 

All of your virus and malware scans should be done from Safe Mode.

 

Update:

 

Ran Check Disk - everything appears ok.

Ran Mem Test same result.

Ran CCLeaner for both files and Registry and everything ok there too.

 

Will now do the Malwarebytes and get back on results of that.

 

Thanks again for the help.

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Download MalwareBytes, install it, let it update itself, and then reboot into Safe Mode, and run the full scan from Safe Mode.

 

All of your virus and malware scans should be done from Safe Mode.

 

Ran MalwareBytes in Safe Mode and it found nothing.

 

I'm going to wait now and see if the Not Responding message appears again. It doesn't do it all the time.

 

Someone suggested that I uninstall the programs that is affected - this unfortunately could mean uninstalling MS Office, Opera and many other programs because it will appear for them all at one time or another.

 

Can anyone say if I do an Image of my HD followed by a total clean up of the HD and then do a restore - will that just bring the problem back again i.e. will the Image just copy the problem and I end up restoring it back onto the HD ??

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