Relevant Hardware/software info:
- Seagate Barracuda, 750GB. 6 years old, computer runs 8 hours a day, usually.
- This drive does not make any unusual noise, and does not get any hotter than it used to.
- Windows 7 (not sure what version, but up to date)
Symptoms:
- A month or two ago, windows would sometimes freeze a minute or two after waking from sleep mode and logging in. Usually (though not always) when opening or using Chrome.
- A reboot would always fix this, and no other strange errors occurred.
- Three days ago, things got worse. Now the system freezes every time after I boot, within a few minutes of logging into Windows.
- When this freeze occurs, I can use my mouse, but windows no longer responds to input (icons don't highlight when moving the mouse over them, programs cannot be started, start menu not accessible, etc) Pressing the power button on my case to make windows shut down also has no effect.
- I usually just do a hard reset (hold the power button to power down, then turn back on), but sometimes after this error, on a reboot the BIOS will fail to detect my HDD. Rebooting seems to 'fix' this.
- Once I just waited. Explorer would crash and eventually I got a bluescreen with code 0x000000F4 which indicates an issue with either the HDD or drivers.
Steps taken so far:
- I have changed the power cable and SATA cable (as well as use a different SATA slot on the motherboard) for my HDD. So far it has had no effect.
- I have run the checkdisk utility, which did not return any problems.
- I had my Avast (fully updated) start a virus scan on boot, no reports of malware or viruses.
- I downloaded Seatools. All tests return positive except Long Generic, which 'hangs' at about 50% (It was at 50% when I went to bed, and still at 50% when I woke up)
Possibly relevant:
- A month or two ago, my Avast encountered some issues where it reported its shields were down (and I couldn't make them go back up). According to a google search this was purely a display bug. However, I didn't trust it and reinstalled from the Avast website.
My only thoughts on this were, either it's a virus or my HDD is failing. On the one hand, pretty much every HDD test says things are fine (except that Long test that just freezes, weird!), but then a lot of things kind of point to the HDD (specifically the BIOS sometimes failing to recognize it), and though it could be a virus, virus scans show nothing, and I've never heard of viruses that could make your HDD undetectable by your BIOS.
I realize it might be a long shot, and I have ordered a new HDD, but I'd rather not throw out my old one unless I have to. Is there any realistic chance that this issue isn't HDD related? What kind of tools might I use to further diagnose this issue, if there are any?
(Most of all, I like to know what goes on in my PC, if only so it can help the next time I or someone I know has similar issues. And if it *was* a virus, I need to re-evaluate my way of interacting with the internet, and possibly change my antivirus software)
Thank you for your time.
- Seagate Barracuda, 750GB. 6 years old, computer runs 8 hours a day, usually.
- This drive does not make any unusual noise, and does not get any hotter than it used to.
- Windows 7 (not sure what version, but up to date)
Symptoms:
- A month or two ago, windows would sometimes freeze a minute or two after waking from sleep mode and logging in. Usually (though not always) when opening or using Chrome.
- A reboot would always fix this, and no other strange errors occurred.
- Three days ago, things got worse. Now the system freezes every time after I boot, within a few minutes of logging into Windows.
- When this freeze occurs, I can use my mouse, but windows no longer responds to input (icons don't highlight when moving the mouse over them, programs cannot be started, start menu not accessible, etc) Pressing the power button on my case to make windows shut down also has no effect.
- I usually just do a hard reset (hold the power button to power down, then turn back on), but sometimes after this error, on a reboot the BIOS will fail to detect my HDD. Rebooting seems to 'fix' this.
- Once I just waited. Explorer would crash and eventually I got a bluescreen with code 0x000000F4 which indicates an issue with either the HDD or drivers.
Steps taken so far:
- I have changed the power cable and SATA cable (as well as use a different SATA slot on the motherboard) for my HDD. So far it has had no effect.
- I have run the checkdisk utility, which did not return any problems.
- I had my Avast (fully updated) start a virus scan on boot, no reports of malware or viruses.
- I downloaded Seatools. All tests return positive except Long Generic, which 'hangs' at about 50% (It was at 50% when I went to bed, and still at 50% when I woke up)
Possibly relevant:
- A month or two ago, my Avast encountered some issues where it reported its shields were down (and I couldn't make them go back up). According to a google search this was purely a display bug. However, I didn't trust it and reinstalled from the Avast website.
My only thoughts on this were, either it's a virus or my HDD is failing. On the one hand, pretty much every HDD test says things are fine (except that Long test that just freezes, weird!), but then a lot of things kind of point to the HDD (specifically the BIOS sometimes failing to recognize it), and though it could be a virus, virus scans show nothing, and I've never heard of viruses that could make your HDD undetectable by your BIOS.
I realize it might be a long shot, and I have ordered a new HDD, but I'd rather not throw out my old one unless I have to. Is there any realistic chance that this issue isn't HDD related? What kind of tools might I use to further diagnose this issue, if there are any?
(Most of all, I like to know what goes on in my PC, if only so it can help the next time I or someone I know has similar issues. And if it *was* a virus, I need to re-evaluate my way of interacting with the internet, and possibly change my antivirus software)
Thank you for your time.
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