I have a Western Digital Caviar Blue / SE / SE16 (SATA II) hard drive. A few weeks ago I got bluescreened but didn't think anything of it since I rebooted and experienced no further problems.

Last week I came home to find my PC hanging on the HP Invent BIOS boot screen (it had been fully booted when I left). I hard-booted the machine, and it booted fine. The next time I booted, the PC ran CHKDSK automatically. CHKDSK ran to completion, but on automatic reboot the machine hung on the HP Invent boot screen again.

This has happened numerous times in the past week. CHKDSK runs to completion and doesn't find any bad sectors or other errors, but then the machine hangs on reboot.

I updated my backups of everything. I was able to run Windows Backup and Restore and create a new image file, but the log showed numerous errors indicating a bad disk.

I downloaded the manufacturer's diagnostic tool here:

http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...00aaks&x=0&y=0

The quick-check showed no errors. I am running a full drive scan but it hasn't yet turned up anything. The drive is not making any odd noises.

Is this a bad hard drive or is it something else? The bluescreen and the boot failures seem to indicate that the disk may have problems, but thus far I have not been able to find any errors via any diagnostic tools.

Did you try getting into your PC via safe mode? Given info your drive is the most likely problem but a corrupted OS or power/memory/port/other issues can do this. Probably 60% it's your hard drive.

Fortunately you have a backup, so that's good.

It could be that your windows has become corrupted, but you should check out your memory. Blue screens for me are usually a memory problem. Download memtest to a CD and boot from it.

I just had this exact thing going on with a friend's nephew's computer. Ultimately the drive was fine but Windows was so shot you couldn't boot it. And the owner was a kid who had lost his recovery discs.

If you've backed up and get frustrated enough, you could simply reload Windows from scratch and then merge your files back over.

Thanks. I'll do that.

Here's a noob question regarding restoring from image files: if I do a complete reinstallation of Windows, can I reload that image file and will that restore all of my programs and settings?

Yes if it's a full image, at least at the point where you did your last backup. However if there was some sort of corruption brewing at that point you could wind up back where you started. Usually worth a try if you have the time.

There's definitely some inconvenience with reloading everything, you have to get your software set up again and recovering email and all of that can be a PITA.

Another possibility is tossing in the Windows disc and trying a Windows Repair, but it may not work. You'd go into BIOS and set it to boot from disc first, then when and if you get it to do that select Windows Repair. Sometimes that will work, sometimes it won't. When it does work it's easy though.

Bleh. My Windows 7 installation is totally hosed. There are enough file system errors on this thing to choke a horse, and the system can't find any restore points earlier than 5/20, which is too recent since I started having these problems over a week ago. I have tried every system/hardware scan and Windows repair known to man, but all of them either find no problem or fail to run to completion.

How can I get hold of a fresh Windows 7 complete installation file? I have a hard copy of a Windows 7 upgrade (from Vista) and a valid product key, but it fails if I try to install it. I assume that this is because it is an upgrade and the existing OS is corrupt. Help?

Wipe your drive and then try to install the upgrade. Don't let it look for an older windows version. Is your hard drive even usable? Can you check the SMART data? You may just want to RMA it if it's still in warranty.

I have no idea if the drive is usable any more. I ran into so many problems trying to wipe it that I just chucked it and hooked up a spare that I had. I was able to get an evaluation copy of Windows 7, so now I will have to badger Microsoft about giving me a new product key.

Bah. What a pain.