Hello everyone,

My computer had been freezing for some time (partly) because of corrupted musics/photos it contained. I had to reinstall windows nonetheless, and I tried to delete as many files I could find. This was 2 months ago.

Now after trying to get my musics in my windows media player library, I've had the following problem:
My computer freezes right when I connect to my session. The hdd indicator stays on, and the computer is too slow to allow for anything. Windows explorer is running.

This is what I've tried so far:
- Back-up does not work because I/Windows forgot to make a back-up at some point.
- Hijackthis does not seem to return anything odd (when run on Windows safe mode), the logfile is too long to be posted here. I cannot launch it on the regular version.
- I ran Avira Antivir and Spybot, they barely find anything in safe mode. They both have a mode "scan before starting your windows" but Antivir crashes.
- I used CCleaner, cleaned everything I could, deactivated every single process running at start.

I am running out of ideas/tests, and I don't want to lose my files in the process.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks

A freezing issue can be difficult to diagnose because it can be caused by software or by hardware.
You said that you re-installed Windows. Did you format the hard drive and then re-install Windows? I am not sure what features your PC allows, but if there is a startup repair, and if you can run a check disk (chkdsk) with the repair parameters it would be a good idea. You may have some bad sectors on your hard drive and check disk can help with that. Formatting the hard drive and then doing a complete re-install will take care of (usually) any corrupt Windows files. Of course, after that, you have to re-install your other programs and software.
You might try re-booting into Safe Mode and see how the ol' PC runs. If it runs fine in Safe Mode then you've got to hunt down the pesky program causing the trouble.
Also, try going into the msconfig command. (On your keyboard press and hold the key that has a pic of a window on it...usually between the left Ctrl and Alt keys...while holding it press the "r" key...enter msconfig in the window that opens.) Here you will go to the startup tab (only) and uncheck the startup programs listed. (If one is checked that means that program startsup automatically as Windows starts.) Re-boot. If the PC doesn't freeze, you have to go back into msconfig and re-enable (check) one program at a time...reboot...until you find the one causing the problem.
Also, freezing can be caused by a hard drive that might be in the process of failing.

favourite for me would be hdd getting corrupted, if its a fresh reinstall its unlikely to be malware or i would try rkill and combofix, start with chkdsk

I would test the Hd like everyone else has mention. Not sure if you mention if its a desktop or not but newegg has

Seagate Barracuda Green ST1000DL002 1TB 5900 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Bare Drive -Bare Drive for 69.99

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive for 99.99 with code at checkout EMCNBNG22 [Exp. 8/9/2012]

Not sure how long these will last but i thought i would help out. I might come across them cheaper some times. And i believe they are new with good reviews.

Originally Posted by ernie

I would test the Hd like everyone else has mention. Not sure if you mention if its a desktop or not but newegg has

Seagate Barracuda Green ST1000DL002 1TB 5900 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Bare Drive -Bare Drive for 69.99

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive for 99.99 with code at checkout EMCNBNG22 [Exp. 8/9/2012]

Not sure how long these will last but i thought i would help out. I might come across them cheaper some times. And i believe they are new with good reviews.

price of hard drives should continue to drop, the prices doubled a year or two ago when there was a typhoon or something in far east that flooded all the factories that made them, theres a good chance they will continue to come down in price

Originally Posted by popeye67

favourite for me would be hdd getting corrupted, if its a fresh reinstall its unlikely to be malware or i would try rkill and combofix, start with chkdsk

Agreed, it seems to be a bad HDD. If it does fail you can restore the HDD to back up any lost data by putting the HDD in your freezer bag and place it in your freezer for about 20 minutes then place it back into your computer cold.

Originally Posted by aditch1985

Agreed, it seems to be a bad HDD. If it does fail you can restore the HDD to back up any lost data by putting the HDD in your freezer bag and place it in your freezer for about 20 minutes then place it back into your computer cold.

Could you please explain how putting the hard drive into a freezer for 20 minutes will help me recover data?

Even for this short period of time, I would expect a film of condensation once it's back in room temperature - and lets face it, hard drives are not exactly hermetically sealed....

Idea is to wrap it up in several bags and freeze it for lot more than 20 minutes, and if you can get it connected up and running you might just be able to recover something, but its a last option and a pretty desperate one, life does tend to go on even after a hdd fails, and its not certain the problem is the hdd could be a number of things without feedback from the poster we will never know, testing the hard drive would just narrow things down

Originally Posted by popeye67

Idea is to wrap it up in several bags and freeze it for lot more than 20 minutes, and if you can get it connected up and running you might just be able to recover something, but its a last option and a pretty desperate one, life does tend to go on even after a hdd fails, and its not certain the problem is the hdd could be a number of things without feedback from the poster we will never know, testing the hard drive would just narrow things down

Okay. What exactly is the theory behind this chilling method? How would cooling the hard drive down help to extrapolate data?

I'm sorry, but I cannot fathom this out logically.

If a hard drive is a bit rattly as it heats up the tolerances between components get bigger and they rattle even more the hotter they get, cooling the drive may allow a drive thats on the verge of failing to operate long enough to allow you to recover stuff, its not going to fix the problem just give you a slim chance of recoving something