Grandparents Computer

[bwisdom]

ok on my grandparents computer the hard drive(i think) started making this loud grinding noise. so i turned the comp off turned it on the next day and then the comp says the registry is messed up then i reboot because windows said it fixed it. then when i booted it back up. it said that there was something wrong with a .dll. i will click ok and then the comp will flash the icons then they go blank then it go's back to loading the icons then the same error. i ran disk check but it gets stuck. Its a Dell about 4 years old. The Specs are below

Pentium 3 933mhz
37 gigabyte western digital hdd
Nvidia TNT2 32mb video card
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card
Windows ME
384 mb of ram pc133

Could the hard drive be failing, is Windows Corrputed, Shoudl i reformat and do a install of windows xp home editon from my old computer.my computers are built so they have windows discs(i built one and i had some do the other). could this comp even handle it. Or is it just time for a new computer.

BTW i cant even boot up into safe mode w/out it freezing up.

 

[timmer]

well i dont know what all that means but it probably has to do with ME not a very good OS so either get a new OS like xp and then reformat and reinstall
it could be the hard drive failing but u wont find out till u refirmet anyway

 

[bwisdom]

Which is better to do. the quick reformat or the slow long one.

 

[bwisdom]

i know that slow long one wipes it out better but i really dont have a day to reformat. but anyways which one is better.

 

[uzi9mm]

ok on my grandparents computer the hard drive(i think) started making this loud grinding noise

Well, i got an idea.

Open up the computer, and disconnect the HSF fan. Boot it up and see if the grinding noise halts. But dont leave the computer on for too long.

IF the grinding noise continues, disconnect the HD and boot it up. By doing that, you can pinpoint the problem device.

 

[vaderpro]

i know that slow long one wipes it out better but i really dont have a day to reformat. but anyways which one is better.

I would do the long one.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

If the harddrive is grinding, it's shot, period.

 

[Xiahou]

nahh, upstairs pc's hdd, and my last, used to grind for the fun of it.

Just when you try do too much to it.

 

[ShadowFalls]

are you sure its a grinding and not perhaps a clicking? WD drives are infamous for their "click of death"

 

[Trotter]

If you can het the comp up and running, do a ScanDisk on it, to check for bad sectors, then Defrag it. It could be badly fragmented (4 years worth) and be hunting/searching for the files it needs.

Go here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/TweakNow_RegCleaner_d4134.html
And download TweekNow registry cleaner. See if it can help you.