"Harddrive Master Failure" followed by slow PC...

[Akumajin]

Ok, so I come from work one day and my BIOS has this message (or something very similar):

"Harddrive master failure."

If important, here is my computer:

Windows XP Prof.
AMD Athlon 3000+ processor
1gb PC3200 RAM
Hard drive: Maxtor 160GB 7200 RPM
nVidia 6600GT graphics card

So I reboot and it goes into checkdisk and it repairs a few files and then it reboots again and goes into Windows. All is fine so it seems, but then a few hiccups happen. For example, some programs take longer to load, I get more slowdown when multi-tasking, and games lost some frame rate.

Will this problem (likely) be fixed by replacing my hard drive and re-installing XP? Will reformatting likely do it? I use an external for 90% of my data so it would just be a day of work to take care of it, but a pain, and I'm planning on getting a new system during the Christmas sales this winter, but it is a bit early.

Thanks for any help, in advance.

 

[SYL\X/3K]

How old is this Hard drive? sounds like it might have bad sectors on it or just a virus, i would run a Maxtor Diagnostic tool called: PwrMxEn Maxtor
which runs on system boot from a floppy or CD and checks for any bad or corrupt sectors of the HD

 

[Akumajin]

How old is this Hard drive? sounds like it might have bad sectors on it or just a virus, i would run a Maxtor Diagnostic tool called: PwrMxEn Maxtor
which runs on system boot from a floppy or CD and checks for any bad or corrupt sectors of the HD

Thanks, I'll try that. It's about 3 years old, by the way. So I just burn the program to a CD and boot from CD?

 

[Akumajin]

All the links for such the program are 404'd.

 

[SYL\X/3K]

heres a download link: http://www.download3k.com/DownloadLink1-Maxtor-Powermax.html

i tested it and it works
And Yes, the program will guide you how to burn on a floppy or CD, then boot from the cd/floppy

 

[veedubfreak]

If the computer had to run a chckdsk on the drive, and knowing the history of maxtor, i would venture to say that your drive is on its way out. Is it one of those really thin drives by chance? I know we had about a 75% failure rate on maxtor drives of that age back at the last company i worked for.

 

[Akumajin]

I don't know if its very thin, not really. Like a laptop drive thin?

Anyway I ran the test and it passed with no problems. Any ideas?

 

[veedubfreak]

If it passed the tests, it could have just gotten a bad sector and been fixed with the checkdisk. Personally i stay a minimum of 10 feet away from all maxtors for fear of it blowing up.

 

[Akumajin]

u.u

You think formatting would help? I'm running a MemTest as we speak, to see if that could be the problem. I doubt it though.

 

[veedubfreak]

You could try formatting/reinstalling but be warned if the drive is going out windows might get angry and not let you install because it doesnt like the drive.