Laptop Help - Stumped

[martint235]

Ok BiL gave me his laptop to look at. Toshiba Satellite C660 was completely refusing to boot. It was giving a disc read error. I tried all the usual stuff: Windows installation disc repair tool but it wasn't having it. It wouldn't run the repair tool, it wouldn't run the full installation. So the PartedMagic tool came out and I completely reformatted the hard drive. Got rid of all partitions, set it to NTFS and installed Windows 7.

But it is soooooooo slow..... 7 minutes with the white arrow on screen as it boots but it hasn't hung, mouse pad still functioning. Any ideas? Is it a dead laptop? Should I install Linux on it and try to convince him to use it? Or should I try all the steps above and do another install?

 

[Acyclo]

Check the S.M.A.R.T. data and try 3 cycles of Memtest86.

 

[pubrunner]

Go into Control Panel & then into Device Manager, to ensure that all the correct device drivers have been loaded. If drivers are missing, it can slow-down the system considerably as it starts up.

Windows 7 does not contain all the device drivers, for all laptops/pcs. It could be that a couple of 'minor' drivers are missing, such as for a webcam or even a modem.

 

[JoeyB]

Sounds to me like the hard drive has issues, it probably failed in the first place because boot information was written to disk sectors that are corrupt / bad.

I would have tried some MBR repairs before reformatting but hey ho...

I suggest running some hard drive specific diagnostic tools, sea gate do a freebie which should highlight any issues, otherwise just run a check disk with /f and /r commands. It'll run at next reboot and attempt to remove data from corrupt areas of the disk (and mark them so data cannot be written to them again)

 

[deanE]

Any ideas?

I should give him his laptop back and go out for a bike ride.

 

[martint235]

Sounds to me like the hard drive has issues, it probably failed in the first place because boot information was written to disk sectors that are corrupt / bad.

I would have tried some MBR repairs before reformatting but hey ho...

I suggest running some hard drive specific diagnostic tools, sea gate do a freebie which should highlight any issues, otherwise just run a check disk with /f and /r commands. It'll run at next reboot and attempt to remove data from corrupt areas of the disk (and mark them so data cannot be written to them again)

I was going to but couldn't get far enough to use the MBR stuff I had. I'm fairly sure that is what happened though as there was an area of disk it didn't want to give back until partedmagic did its stuff