Justin, Thanks for your concern and you have mine also. Well, on about the third attempt I got it to perform a Scandisk but I still couldn't find any report. (Perhaps I haven't got that facility turned on or something in XP!) Anyway, I then did a Defrag and it worked and didn't swipe my JAWS key, which I'd forgotten to take off. So far so good! I then started work with it and kept getting Norton wanting to send me to their site but, on pressing the appropriate button, I never ended up anywhere but the myre! I have now turned off Outgoing Message Scan again, as I used to have to do. I still have AVG doing this and both systems scan incoming, so that doesn't worry me too much. I just hope this is sufficient but am listening hard to that HD which certainly hasn't been very happy for some few days now. Certainly things are working faster but I'm not yet convinced. Justin, hard drives can go after a very short while, and sometimes do, and other times they'll last a year or two, then still others go on for longer! I have sometimes had trouble after a year or two myself. Listen out for the heads which sometimes sound as though they're moving across the disk but can't stop or find what they want . . .. (That's what I felt I could hear.) Anyway, all the best and I hope things get better for you soon! -- Carol carol.pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxx -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Justin R Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 6:01 PM To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: POSSIBLE DRIVE FAILURE - ADVICE PLEASE Hi Carol, funny you should post this, lol. I'm experiencing similar problems to you. Only last Thursday my hard drive made the similar noise to yours and my PC slowed up. Every task it did seemed to be a mammoth one for it. Well, since then my PC has been a lot slower to start up than normal. I did one scandisk, it did work although I was told that files 3351, 3352, 3353, 3354 were unreadable. Then more messages about deleting certain signiture files and recovering other files that were lost. I thought about posting a message here but, I don't know, didn't think it was that important. Especially as I need a new hard drive anyway. This one is old (5 years old now) and it's time for a new one. The second scandisk started of its own accord after a crash and a few messages were had there. I don't know what to say. I'd have the phone number ready on standby to contact whoever will deal with the poorly hard drive. Yeah, a defrag. I'd try that anyway although am I right in thinking that a scandisk job is usually the first task to do before defragging? well, good luck with your hard drive. How old is it btw? and, can any tell me what the average life expectancy is of a typical hard drive? thanks, Justin R ----- Original Message ----- From: "Carol Pearson" <carol.pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:52 PM Subject: [access-uk] POSSIBLE DRIVE FAILURE - ADVICE PLEASE > Hi all, > > (Not my day today . . ..) <SMILE> > > I'm trying to diagnose a problem which may be a drive failure. > > JAWS became sluggish recently and I can't pin it down to any > installation so I decided it was time anyway to do a SCANDISK. This > *DIDN'T* work. Of course, it couldn't be done whilst in Windows but I > receive an error report that the SCANDISK couldn't be performed . . .. > > I have recently noticed the hard disk showing signs of something wrong > also - sounding a bit like a record stuck in the groove - and this may > account for some or all of the problem. > > Should I try to defrag anyway, or are there any other tests I should > carry out before calling out an engineer? > > > > > -- > Carol > carol.pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxx > http://www.echurch-uk.org/testimonies/carolp.php > > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.7.2 - Release Date: 21/01/2005 > > > > ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- > ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] > ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: > ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > ** and in the Subject line type > ** unsubscribe > ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the > ** immediately-following link:- > ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] > ** or send a message, to > ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq > ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.7.2 - Release Date: 21/01/2005 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.7.2 - Release Date: 21/01/2005 ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq