Is my hard drive failing?

[hehcomputerrock]

my video card failed a little while back so i replaced it and shortly after i started having start up issues. some people said it might be my new driver software and suggested reformatting...i hadnt since i got the comp (2 years) so i figured it was about time anyways. so i backed it all up and reformatted...and still the same problem anyways here it is

Problem: boot time my computer has gray lines in like a grid form on the windows start up section (windows 7 btw) then the screen would go black and nothing after...but when i restart my comp it starts up no problem (hard restart from case button)...then gives me the start up problem *** do u wanna repair... which doesnt work so i just start normally every time.
Anyways i heard that it could be the hard drive failing...it doesnt make any clicking noises or any other symptoms of failure except start up. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

John

 

[hehcomputerrock]

btw i ran the windows error checking tool for the hard drive...while it was running i left and it finished and i dont no the results cause it restarted but im assuming there were none or it would notify me

 

[hehcomputerrock]

and ive defragged

 

[FreeDataRecovery]

Run the drive manufacturer's software diagnostic utility against the drive. Does it find a problem?

 

[dmcomputerguy]

my video card failed a little while back so i replaced it and shortly after i started having start up issues. some people said it might be my new driver software and suggested reformatting...i hadnt since i got the comp (2 years) so i figured it was about time anyways. so i backed it all up and reformatted...and still the same problem anyways here it is

Problem: boot time my computer has gray lines in like a grid form on the windows start up section (windows 7 btw) then the screen would go black and nothing after...but when i restart my comp it starts up no problem (hard restart from case button)...then gives me the start up problem *** do u wanna repair... which doesnt work so i just start normally every time.
Anyways i heard that it could be the hard drive failing...it doesnt make any clicking noises or any other symptoms of failure except start up. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

John

Don't know where you "heard" that info, but there are too many urban legends already. The symptoms you describe are not typical hard drive failure issues. They are typically software issues.

What I would do is clone the drive onto another drive and boot from that new drive. If you get the same symptoms, there is a good chance it is not the old drive. Yes, hardware problems on the old drive might be copied onto the new drive, but that is relatively unlikely. Even if that does happen, it will NOT damage the new drive.

Download and run memtest 86+ for 24 hours. It bypasses the hard drive and the OS. If there is a video hardware problem, it might show up there, but unlikely. It is worth a try, it's free.

There is usually no need to reformat and/or reload if it is just a driver issue. Perhaps yours was an unusual case or more likely, another urban legend.