Windows Pop-Up Says I Have A Hard Disk Problem

[artmanphoto]

I am using Windows 7 Professional 32 bit. Three times today I have had the Windows pop up message display on my screen that I have attached. I have re-booted the machine and when the screen is black before Windows starts at the top of the screen it says:

"A problem with the hard drive has been detected. Consult the Troubleshooting section of your user's manual. Press the Enter key to continue." When I press the Enter key Windows finishes booting to the Desktop.

I ran chkdsk. When the machine rebooted after chkdsk completed the same message appeared. I press Enter and the machine finishes booting and when the Desktop appears the Windows pop up message displays again.

I have three Windows 7 Professional machines and I have never seen this pop up message appear before. The message looks very "Windows authentic". It is interesting that a very foreign speaking person called yesterday (woman) and again today (man) saying they were calling from Microsoft technical support to tell me I had downloaded an infection into my computer. I told them it was a scam call and I hung up. I don't know how they knew my landline number.

My next step is to run a spyware, malware and anti-virus scan although I did this last week and the machine was clean. I am using SpeedFan 4.5 to monitor my C drive and SpeedFan says the health Fitness and Peformance is good.

Has anyone seen this Windows pop up warning message before? I would appreciate your thoughts and comments.

Thanks, Bill

 

[Brink]

Hello Bill,

That would be a SMART alert letting you know that your C: is about ready to fail on you.

I would recommend to immediately back up anything that you do not want to lose on that hard drive to another hard drive to be safe before/if it does fail.

Afterwards, you could run SeaTools to scan the C: drive to see what it reports back with. If it doesn't pass SeaTools, then you will need to replace the hard drive.

 

[artmanphoto]

Brink, thanks very much for your help. I really appreciate it. I installed the SeaTools and am running all of the tests now. I will report back the test results tomorrow. The C drive is fully backed up. Thanks again. Bill

 

[Brink]

You're welcome. Fingers crossed that it'll pass, but it doesn't look good for it so far.

 

[RogerR]

And if C: is your OS drive, be sure and include an image with your backup (to a different disk). Might save you a lot of time with your next install.

 

[artmanphoto]

And if C: is your OS drive, be sure and include an image with your backup (to a different disk). Might save you a lot of time with your next install.

I don't really understand what an Image is. If I have a total system backup of the machine please explain what an Image is, how I make an Image and why I need that in addition to the total system backup.

Thanks for your help!

Bill

 

[artmanphoto]

I completed running the SeaTools on the drive and it passed all the tests except the S.M.A.R.T. test. To be safe, I will purchase a new drive to replace the old drive which is only 6 months old.

 

[Brink]

Be sure to run the full test with SeaTools, and not just a quick one for better results.

Either way, I'd replace it since it didn't pass SMART.

Since the drive is only 6 months old, you should be able to get a RMA number from the manufacturer to get a free replacement drive under warranty.

 

[artmanphoto]

Thank you Brink -

Yes I did run all of the tests.

S.M.A.R.T. - Fail - ran twice
Short DST - Pass - ran twice
Short Generic - Pass - ran twice
Long Generic - Pass - ran once as it took several hours

 

[Indianatone]

Download the free trial of this program and post back the screenshot. HD Sentinel will tell it like it is.

Download Hard Disk Sentinel

 

[RogerR]

And if C: is your OS drive, be sure and include an image with your backup (to a different disk). Might save you a lot of time with your next install.

I don't really understand what an Image is. If I have a total system backup of the machine please explain what an Image is, how I make an Image and why I need that in addition to the total system backup.

Thanks for your help!

Bill

I recall the default backup option includes a system image, but sometimes (to save disk space) users elect only to backup data files. A system image is a 'replica' of all your installed programs, configuration, preferences and data. That image can be transferred to your new hard drive and you will forgo the pleasure of re-installing windows and all your programs from their installation disks.
If your new drive arrives before the current one fails, you can simply mirror to the new drive then remove the old one without any software re-install at all.

 

[Golden]

I don't really understand what an Image is. If I have a total system backup of the machine please explain what an Image is, how I make an Image and why I need that in addition to the total system backup

Bill, please refer to this tutorial:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

A system image is a snapshot of the entire disk as it is, including all data and installed programs. The idea behind an image, is that you can restore it to a new hard disk, without all the hassle of going through reinstalling all your programs.

You will find using Macrium Reflect far easier than the native Windows imaging program.