Now that we have a mechanism in place to return to “normal” if we break something, we should make sure that the hard drive is in good shape.
Here is what we do.
Go to “Start -> My Computer”
Right click on Disk (C:)
Select “Properties”
Select the “Tools” tab
In the “Error-checking” box select the “Check Now” button
Check the “Automatically fix file system errors” box and the “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors” box
Click “Start”
You will get a message saying that the disk check can only be performed by restarting Windows and ask if you want to schedule the disk check for the next reboot. Choose “Yes” and restart your computer.
When your computer comes back after the check, if you have other hard drives or partitions, repeat the disk check on those as well. You will probably not get the warning message requiring a reboot for these disks or partitions, instead the check will just run.
If you have Internet access and your computer is still able to download files then you may want to get the free utility called HD Tune.
With HD Tune you can perform benchmark tests on your hard disk, examine any partitions there, check on the health of your disk as reported by the hard disk’s internal S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) software and perform an error scan on the drive. The HD Tune utility also displays the current temperature of the drive so that you can see if there may be any troubles coming up in the future.
If you do discover that there are problems then I am afraid it is possibly time to open up the wallet. If you do a search for “hard drive repair software” that should get you some good results.
If that method doesn’t fix it, then you have two options left, either send the drive out to a recovery company who may charge you hundreds of dollars and they will get what they can off the drive, or bin it and buy a new one.
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