Latest updates are causing me disk problems

When I shut down the other day (Win 7 ultimate 64bit), there were 30 updates to be applied. when I restarted my system yesterday morning, there was an error message about my hard disk eventually failing. Is there a possible relationship here? I have been trying to clone this hard disk (tried the backup\restore image copy and Seagate diskwizard), they have both failed. I have rebooted multiple times with no problems. Did computer\disks\properties\tools\fix clusters etc (does a report go somewhere), the system rebooted automatically after. Not sure if I am having a registry or hardware problem. I am wonderig if I should go back to a restore point.

Try restoring from a restore point and immediately run a hard drive scan using one of these tools: Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.

See here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

If you are still having problems, yes, I would do a system restore...

Is a system restore really going to fix my system?

If I do a system restore, and then do the system updates again, will I not have the same error message? The disk utilities previously mentioned are older. I downloaded seagate diskwizard, it has no check and\or repair disk tools on it. I did a backup and restore\create system image in case the hard drive does quit (my hard disk is 121 gb, the system image file is 60gb, does that sound correct?). I tried to restore it to another disk (create a clone), but I must not be doing it correctly. I booted from the system repair DVD with the possibly bad hard disk disconnected. I had another blank formatted disk in a removable disk caddy that I wanted to restore the system image to. I had the system image on another hard drive in a usb caddy. The drive in the usb caddy could not be found. Could this be caused by not having had the usb caddy connected when I made the repair disk, and thus the repair disk does not have the drivers for it (re-create the repair disk with the usb drive attached)?

louwho said:

when I restarted my system yesterday morning, there was an error message about my hard disk eventually failing. Is there a possible relationship here?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't have thought so, but would run the tools Mr King has linked to, because it just might be that your HD is actually on it's way out.

Was the error message a one time thing?

I have been trying all kinds of cloning, imaging, etc, and have booted my system at least 10 times since I got that error message (when booting up after the 30 updates to my system), and have not gotten another error message. If there is a hard disk problem, should I not be getting that error every time I boot up? Am I doit the image recovery correct?

I solved it.

For the amount of time that I spent on this, it would have been quicker to have installed everything again on a new hard disk. Anyway…this is how I resolved things. I used my Windows 7 upgrade CD to do a new installation on a blank disk (the 30 day, no key required installation), no updates, etc…just the basic installation. I then tried to do a restore from the system image that I had made of the old hard drive; again, it could not find the drive and system file. I then created a system image of the 30 day installation that I just did, and tested to see if a restore would find it…it did (I had used the same hard drive for this 30 day image that I had used for the old system…it overwrote the first one (you learn the hard way)). I want back to the old system, and did a system image of it to the same disk (again it overwrote the 30 day one that I had just did). I then booted up the 30 day installation, tried to do a system image restore using the image from the old system, and, finally, it did find the old system disk and image!!! I did the restore of the old system to the new drive, overwriting the 30 day installation. I am up and running again! Something to note here; the Seagate DiskWizard clone software (a subset of the Acronis software), could not get past the error on the hard disk (it kept failing at 75% completed), the Microsoft Backup and Restore\Create a system image, was obviously able to get by the error (different ways of looking at the drive and data?). The point here is that it appears possible to clone a hard drive that has problems (to a new drive).