When starting up my personal computer recently I found that Scandisk was under the mistaken impression that I had not turned off my computer properly and insisted on checking out my directory structure as well as my hard drive for drive problems. That has happened before when there was a power outage or for some other reason the computer was powered down and not correctly turned off, but in those cases Scandisk only checked out the directory structure so this was a bit different. Now it wanted to check out the entire drive. Nevertheless I didn’t expect anything serious. I was certain I had powered down correctly but it seemed a bit mysterious that Scandisk wanted to check out the entire drive. Scandisk has never found anything serious before so why expect problems now, I told myself. Well, I do want everything to work right so go ahead and see what you can do Mr. Scandisk, I thought. As it turns out it did find and marked one sector as bad. So now I was impressed and felt the worst was behind me. But that was not to be the case.

When I began to use my browser, Netscape Communicator 4.5, it failed to work because it was unable to find the key file Netscape.exe. Based on this I uninstalled Netscape and reinstalled it again. Now, my browser ran all right but it loaded up perhaps a bit slower than it had in the past. I checked some other programs and they also worked OK so now once again I felt the problems were all behind me. Well I was wrong again.

The next time I powered up the computer Scandisk gives me the same message as last time and wants to start all over, not only checking out the directory structure but also scanning the entire hard drive again. Well, since I had already been there and done that, I exited out of Scandisk and proceeded to use my computer as usual. When I attempted (while using my browser) to pull up for downloading a program using Adobe Acrobat Reader it mysteriously ceased to bring up the selected Adobe file. I asked for it again and after three tries it did bring it up and I was able to print out all but the first page. For some reason the first page printed blank even though it appeared there on the screen in front of me. So, I then decided to uninstall and reinstall Adobe Acrobat, after which it worked flawlessly.

The next day I booted up the computer again, and my old buddy Scandisk appears like the ghost of Christmas past with more dire suggestions of impending disaster. Then I put a message on the User Group Web Site and William LaMartin was kind enough to respond in the discussion area of the Web Site, but he phoned me as well. In our phone conversation he suggested that I might want to consider buying and using a copy of SpinRite about which he had written recently, so I took his advice and did so. I was able to download a copy direct from their web site and was using it before the day was over.

The program was simple to use and in the areas of the disk where my hard drive was apparently in good shape it ran very fast. Where there apparently were problems it spent a good bit of time working with one cluster after another.

When I began SpinRite I had been told by Scandisk that I had only one bad cluster. SpinRite found another 40 bad clusters, plus it recovered data from about 18 other places. Most of the bad sectors were in areas where no data was stored so I guess I was lucky there. I set it on level 5 which is the highest and most thorough setting and which not only attempts to recover data but also to make previously unreadable sectors readable. When I started, SpinRite estimated all this would take about 10 hours on my computer. It actually took about 17 hours, so obviously it had a lot of work to do. My spirits were bolstered by all the good things it said it was doing. The messages on the log were so well written and to the point it would not have been difficult to think I was directly connected to some human typist inside there somewhere who was talking to me personally.

I now started up the computer once again, this time thinking that now I have all the gremlins removed. Not the case. Once again Scandisk starts to roll forward like a bad nightmare. This time the problem is one of my Netscape plug-ins. It seems some images produced by the plug-in and stored on the hard drive are corrupted but this program has an uninstall program so I use it thinking this will get rid of this problem. Well, the uninstall program tried but it could not read all the information it needed to uninstall the plug-in. Once again I was stumped. I couldn’t remove this corrupted program from the computer because some part of the uninstall program is apparently corrupted. At this point I contacted Dell computer on their 24 hour toll free technical line and was instructed to run Scandisk from Windows using "Programs/accessories/system tools/scandisk." Previously, I had run Scandisk only when the computer first started. Apparently this runs the program from DOS. Well I was impressed; running Scandisk from Windows seemed to do the job although it took the program about four (4) hours to run on my computer, a Dell Dimension XPS P166s, using Windows 95. I am certain much of this time was caused by Scandisk having great difficulty reading the drive.

Just to see what would happen on startup I went to the shutdown window and selected RESTART THE COMPUTER, and it restarted without pulling up Scandisk again. Then I got really confident and selected SHUT DOWN THE COMPUTER and after a short while started it up again. This time Scandisk was back again suggesting I might have problems with one or more disk drives so I let it run again to see if it would do any better now that Scandisk run from Windows had been so successful. It began to do a full hard drive scan. Finally I got a message that "Windows has detected a registry configuration error click here to restore this from a known back up copy." I selected this option, really I didn’t feel I had any choice, and the program ran until completion. I then got a message that "At least one area of drive C has sustained physical damage –although such damage might be caused by an isolated incident such as a power failure, it is often a sign of impending hard drive failure." The message further suggested that I run Scandisk daily for awhile and if more errors develop the hard drive should be checked by a qualified technician.

At this point I shut down the computer and rebooted from a cold start and miraculously everything ran perfectly. I shut down the computer several times and it restarted and ran without any incident the rest of that day. The next day the old problem was back again.

I found that my 3-year parts warranty with Dell Computer would expire January 22, 2000 so perhaps I was in luck. All this happened in mid December. I phoned the Dell 24-hour line again and got another technician. I learned that they maintain a call log and the new guy was fully up on my earlier problems. He agreed it sounded like a hard drive problem but asked if I still had the Diagnostics disk that came with my computer when it was new three years ago. I did. He asked that I run that program and then call back on the technical line. He also guided me through the start up part of the diagnosis. The Dell technician suggested that this test might take an hour or more. Well it only took about 20 minutes before the program stopped and announced an unreadable area on the disk and announced it as a hard drive failure.

I called Dell back again and they said they would send me a new hard drive under my warranty. Now I only have to learn how to install a new hard drive, which I have never done before but Dell tells me it will come with instructions and if I have problems I can call back and they will walk me through the process. The number is toll free which is a big help although on average it takes about 20 minutes before the technician comes on the line so I spend that playing a computer game while holding the phone to my ear.

The replacement drive is covered by my warranty as long as I return the defective drive to Dell. That makes sense, otherwise there may be too much of an incentive for an unethical individual to talk Dell into a replacement drive when the existing drive is still in good working condition.

When I bought this computer several years ago Dell had set it up so I could make copies of all the supplementary files Dell had installed in addition to Windows, including special video drivers, Windows 95 drivers, etc., which were not on the Windows 95 disk. Now that I have had a hard drive failure, I am so glad I produced these discs at a time when the computer was new and all was working flawlessly.

The replacement drive arrived by Airborne Express Monday morning. The Dell technician had authorized it the previous Friday evening. Now, on Monday morning I got out my original Windows 95 disc, the special Dell driver discs, my various program discs and called Dell for assistance. Since this was my first time doing this sort of thing I wanted all the hand holding I could get.

I thought I would have to run Fdisk and Format the new drive but Dell said that was not to be necessary since the drive was already set up and ready for loading Windows 95. I booted up using the Dell systems disk but when the Windows 95 disc was put in the CD-ROM drive nothing happened. The CD ROM drive would not operate. The Dell technician had me look for the mscdex.exe file, but for some reason it could not be found. It was also not to be found on any of the special discs I had prepared when the computer was new. The Dell technician then wanted to know if I understood DOS because he needed my help using DOS to get my machine functioning. I indicated I felt I knew enough to be of assistance.

I was then instructed to disconnect the CD ROM drive and attach those connections to my old hard drive which enabled us to copy the mscdex.exe file from there along with a number of other files the Dell technician indicated were necessary. We ended up with a modified Systems disc, which also contained the additional files Dell required. I had to exercise a lot of care to make certain that the old hard drive did not come in contact against any other metal parts of the computer possibly causing a short of some sort. I was able to rig a book so that it provided the necessary insulation. And, of course, the computer was turned off whenever any of these connections were changed. I must tell you that it had me holding my breath at times.

Finally, at the Dell technician’s direction, the config.sys file was edited and in a short time the CD-ROM drive was functioning properly. After that Windows 95 was installed along with my old programs and files. I did find that some of my accessory items, such as the all important solitaire and hearts games were not installed but I learned that I could go to the Control Panel and select "Add/Remove" programs, then double click on "Accessories", select the missing games and insert the Windows 95 disk and now include them on my hard drive. This was all very new to me since I am much more a computer user than I am a computer technician.

Then I thought disaster had struck again because now my computer had no sound. However, I found that one of the speaker wires had become partly disconnected and all the sounds returned.

Once I had everything running again, I mailed the old hard drive back to Dell as part of their exchange arrangement. The old drive was put in the box in which the new drive was shipped and protected with the same materials used for the original shipment. Dell had a return prepaid Airbill for Airborne so all I had to do was call Airborne who came by the house several hours later and picked up the old drive and got it on its way to Dell.

The drive I returned was manufactured by Western Digital, and the new one was a "refurbished" drive made by "Quantum Fireball." The name infers that it is fast and frankly it seems to be faster than the old drive. Of course it is hard to tell since the old drive was in poor shape and perhaps had been gradually slowing down over the last couple of years, making comparisons difficult.

I am happy with the result. Since I had no prior experience with this sort of thing, it did take a lot of my time. But then, the price was right. The phone calls to Dell did not cost me anything, and their personnel were skilled, helpful, courteous, and took the time needed to get the job done. u