Solved Windows won't boot and either hangs or loops

[alien72]

I ran an Advanced Test and this is the message from the test results: "Problem detected on a non Hitachi disk drive. Please contact your HDD supplier for additional support. Disposition Code = 0x70"

 

[GokAy]

HDD 0x70... What does it mean??? - Tech Support Forum

0x70 is pointing to one or more bad sectors on your drive.

For reference.
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/suppor..._userguide.pdf

 

[alien72]

So I'm guessing this means that my hard drive is dead and I'm going to have to get a new one.

 

[gregrocker]

Yes, I would not trust a drive which failed the long test even if the maker's actual diagnostics scan said it was repaired.

Clean Reinstall Windows 7

 

[alien72]

Well, that sucks. This is the second hard drive that has died on this laptop. Along with the dead battery, my laptop sure loves to kill my hardware, haha. Anyway, thanks for the help you guys.

 

[alien72]

I got it working again. I used Partition Wizard to format my hard drive and I was able to reinstall Windows 7 and get access to my computer again. My hard drive could still be on it's way out, but I'm going to get as much use out of it as I can before I have to buy a new one.

 

[gregrocker]

I'd run the tests again to see if it still fails.

 

[alien72]

I used a program called Hard Disk Sentinel and it said my hard drive is at 52% health with 4232 weak sectors. I would have tried WinDFT again but I need to switch to ATA mode to do it and I'm not sure I want to mess with that now that it's working.

 

[gregrocker]

I don't trust that program after many similar diagnoses of drives that were tested sound by the maker's diagnostics. So once again I will repeat that the best tests to know with certainty your HD condition is the maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan followed by a full Disk Check. If your maker doesn't have one or it won't run then use Seagate Seatools

To do a quick SMART read of the drive's condition a better program is CrystalDiskInfo - Software. Guard carefully during install to not allow anything to accompany it.