chkdisk

Hi
I'm running Win 7 64 bit on my laptop, and I've noticed some disturbing clicking in the harddisk. I ran chkdsk and it found some errors but Windows is now running with much instability, freezing up at seemingly random moments and hanging for minutes at a time.

So I did some reading and it suggested to run chkdsk again and get it to do a full check. I did this and it goes to stage 5 and finds bad clusters and repairs them, but at one file it just hangs and won't continue.

My understanding is that
1) the hard disk is likely failing and
2) corrupted windows files because of the bad clusters might be responsible for the instability.

But my question - is it possible with a switch from the command line to force the chkdsk to the end and not hang on that corrupted file, or should I not bother...

If it makes sense to not bother, should I replace the harddisk before re-installing, or just reformat and reinstall.

If I should replace the hard disk, is an SSD the way to go with a laptop?

Thanks'

Geoff

Thanks for the advice.
Golden, here is the info from Crystal DiskInfo.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskInfo 3.10.0 (C) 2008-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)
Date : 2011/01/02 7:32:23

-- Controller Map ----------------------------------------------------------
- Ricoh xD-Picture Card Controller [ATA]
+ Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller [ATA]
+ ATA Channel 0 (0)
- ST9320320AS ATA Device
+ ATA Channel 1 (1)
- HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-T50N ATA Device
- ATA Channel 5 (5)

-- Disk List ---------------------------------------------------------------
(1) ST9320320AS : 320.0 GB [0-0-0, pd1]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) ST9320320AS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Model : ST9320320AS
Firmware : 0303
Serial Number : 5SX0P3M7
Disk Size : 320.0 GB (8.4/137.4/320.0)
Buffer Size : 8192 KB
Queue Depth : 32
# of Sectors : 625142448
Rotation Rate : Unknown
Interface : Serial ATA
Major Version : ATA8-ACS
Minor Version : ATA8-ACS version 4
Transfer Mode : SATA/300
Power On Hours : 3051 hours
Power On Count : 1777 count
Temparature : 32 C (89 F)
Health Status : Caution
Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, 48bit LBA, NCQ
APM Level : 0000h [OFF]
AAM Level : ----

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 _76 _75 __6 0000026262A0 Read Error Rate
03 _97 _97 __0 000000000000 Spin-Up Time
04 _99 _99 _20 0000000006F7 Start/Stop Count
05 _77 _77 _36 0000000001E7 Reallocated Sectors Count
07 _79 _60 _30 0000059B8BDF Seek Error Rate
09 _97 _97 __0 000000000BEB Power-On Hours
0A 100 100 _97 000000000001 Spin Retry Count
0C _99 _99 _20 0000000006F1 Power Cycle Count
B8 100 100 _99 000000000000 End-to-End Error
BB __1 __1 __0 00000000691E Reported Uncorrectable Errors
BC 100 _99 __0 000000000007 Command Timeout
BD 100 100 __0 000000000000 High Fly Writes
BE _68 _46 _45 0000201B0020 Airflow Temperature
BF 100 100 __0 000000000000 G-Sense Error Rate
C0 100 100 __0 000000000000 Power-off Retract Count
C1 _97 _97 __0 00000000183F Load/Unload Cycle Count
C2 _32 _54 __0 000B00000020 Temperature
C3 _48 _33 __0 0000026262A0 Hardware ECC recovered
C5 100 100 __0 00000000050E Current Pending Sector Count
C6 100 100 __0 00000000050E Uncorrectable Sector Count
C7 200 200 __0 000000000000 UltraDMA CRC Error Count

-- IDENTIFY_DEVICE ---------------------------------------------------------
+0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 0C 5A 3F FF C8 37 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 3F 00 00
010: 00 00 00 00 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
020: 35 53 58 30 50 33 4D 37 00 00 40 00 00 04 30 33
030: 30 33 20 20 20 20 53 54 39 33 32 30 33 32 30 41
040: 53 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
050: 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 80 10
060: 00 00 2F 00 40 00 02 00 02 00 00 07 3F FF 00 10
070: 00 3F FC 10 00 FB 01 10 FF FF 0F FF 00 00 04 07
080: 00 03 00 78 00 78 00 78 00 78 00 00 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1F 05 06 00 00 00 4C 00 40
0A0: 01 F0 00 29 34 6B 7D 09 61 E3 34 69 BC 01 61 E3
0B0: 40 7F 00 33 00 33 00 00 FF FE 00 00 FE 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 EA B0 25 42 00 00 00 00
0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 50 00 C5 00 0E 54 17 69
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 0E
0F0: 40 0E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
100: 00 29 EA B0 25 42 EA B0 25 42 00 00 00 02 01 40
110: 01 00 50 00 3C 06 3C 0A 00 00 00 3C 00 00 00 08
120: 00 00 00 00 00 0F 02 80 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 34 00 80 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 3F 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 10 10 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 8D A5

SSD's are nice, but still pricey for a decent size....

I think a screen grab might be easier to interpret...

I would replace the drive before you lose everything......

I'm not concerned with losing anything, I have a thorough backup regime in place.
I'm more curious as to whether the hard disk can be repaired at this point, and how to do that.

Just get the manufacturers diagnostic software and run it on the drive and get the error information and your serial number and the manufacturer of the drive should slide you a new one if it not that old....

It's an Asus laptop that has just passed the 2 year warranty period, so I have to fix it myself.