CHKDSK don't fail me now

[Kraken]

My laptop has been running worse and worse for the past few days. It works normally until it doesn't. Then it basically freezes. It will take a few commands and execute them ever so slowly before it just stops responding entirely, and powering it down is the only way out.

Malwarebytes says everything's dandy. CCleaner got rid of 2.2 gig of cruft, most of it probably left by all those hard restarts. Win 10's disk scanner says everything's fine, but I was skeptical so I ran CHKDSK C: /f /r /x and restarted.

It has been stuck on 11% for at least half an hour now. The hard drive access light is on, but not flickering. Looks for all the world like it's locked up again.

Is it possible for chkdsk to bog down that long? Any chance it's fixing stuff and going to move on?

Will I do any damage if I power off to shut it down?

If I can't complete a chkdsk scan, what's the next possible remedy?

This is my work machine and I really really need it, but it crossed the line into nearly-useless yesterday.

Guess I'll break for lunch and see if it progresses in the meantime, but I"m not optimistic.

[Isgrimnur]

Having a defrag hang was my indicator that a drive went bad.

[gilraen]

It can take hours, depending on the size of the drive and how much stuff it actually has to fix.

[Kraken]

Lo and behold, when I came back from lunch it was on the windows login screen, so it completed. I didn't see its report -- does that get saved as a text file anywhere?

Now to see if the machine's performance has improved. Defraggler says disk health is good and only 6% fragmented, so no need to run that.

Windows has been nagging me for a week about installing its big update (the same one that nuked Outlook on my desktop machine; yesterday I set up Thunderbird just in case), and I keep putting it off because I don't trust the machine to keep running all the way through it. Maybe that's what it wants, though. Maybe I'll try that next.

[Punisher]

Lo and behold, when I came back from lunch it was on the windows login screen, so it completed. I didn't see its report -- does that get saved as a text file anywhere?

Now to see if the machine's performance has improved. Defraggler says disk health is good and only 6% fragmented, so no need to run that.

Windows has been nagging me for a week about installing its big update (the same one that nuked Outlook on my desktop machine; yesterday I set up Thunderbird just in case), and I keep putting it off because I don't trust the machine to keep running all the way through it. Maybe that's what it wants, though. Maybe I'll try that next.

It should be in event viewer.

[Kraken]

Wow, Event Viewer has a lot of events to view. IDK how to read them.

Machine has been running fine all afternoon, though, so I think CHKDSK did its job.

[Punisher]

http://woshub.com/view-check-disk-chkds ... indows-10/

Other Windows OS's should be similar

[Zitterbacke]

Time for a backup! Especially if everything runs nice now.

[Kraken]

Welp, the ol' laptop was acting up bigly this morning so I ran CHKDSK again. This time, it failed me. Couldn't repair the damage, and I can't get Windows to load.

All of my data files except one were backed up to Jungle Disk, and I'm downloading them to my desktop machine now, so total disaster is mitigated. However, I really REALLY need my QuickBooks company file, and I was apparently backing it up somewhere else (OneDrive, maybe? I don't think my desktop is seeing my laptop's OneDrive folder. Gotta poke around with this, see if I can find a different login for it.)

How can I get back into my dead laptop to recover that one missing file? It's a Dell laptop running Win10.

F2 boot options don't include booting to safe mode.
F12 options, nothing there looked helpful.
F4 does nothing.

When I let Windows grind its way through its repair process and fail, I eventually get these options:

Reset this PC: Lets you choose to keep or remove your personal files, and then reinstalls Windows. This failed without an explanation. I don't have a Win10 disk, but there is supposed to be an image on the (failed) hard drive.

Dell Backup and Recovery: Restore your computer, including the factory state. This looks like the nuclear option; I haven't tried it yet.

Advanced Options --

System Restore -- it couldn't find a restore point, so that's out.

System Image Recovery -- I don't have a "specific system image file."

Startup Repair -- This is what fails on every reboot.

Command Prompt -- Hey, great! Haven't tried it yet because I don't know what to type in there. Can I start Windows in safe mode from a prompt? Somehow find and rescue the quickbooks company file? (It's a huge file buried in the bowels of the quickbooks program folder, and probably in my OneDrive folder too).

Go back to the previous version -- Huh? Haven't tried this yet. Version of what?

As a last resort, I have an old Win 7 .ISO disk. I thought I might try to revert to that and see if I can get at my files. But I can't boot from that disk without actually installing Win 7. Can I make a bootable Win10 CD somewhere?

[Daehawk]

I would have run defrag anyways. Now Id replace the drive with a ssd.

[Kraken]

I will most likely buy a new computer, since I"m going to need to reinstall all of my programs and set up from scratch anyway. This laptop is 4 years old and was never a spark plug to begin with.

If I can get windows to load again just to bridge me over, that would be wonderful. But really the only critical thing is that quickbooks company file. I can rebuild everything else on a new machine.

Worst case scenario, I uploaded it to my CPA's website a few weeks ago, so I can revert to that. I wouldn't lose a tremendous amount of data.

EDIT: Actually, I DO see a copy from a few days ago in my OneDrive folder! Yay me! Business has been nonexistent so it's probably right up to date.

Never mind.

[Daehawk]

I got files off a dead hd by putting it in the freezer for a couple hours. It only worked 10 min before final death but it helped.

[Anonymous Bosch]

if you don't already have one, I'd suggest using your desktop to create a bootable system rescue disc (or flash drive). That'll allow you to boot into a version of Windows or Linux running from the disc/flash drive itself, and may allow you access to the dodgy hard drive depending on its severity of damage. System rescue discs typically also contain recovery software that may help recover the file you're after.

Failing that, SpinRite may do the trick.

[Kraken]

Turns out I actually rescued all of the data files that I need. So now the problem becomes getting a new laptop quickly. I was kicking around the idea of Kraken Enterprises buying me one anyway, so now my hand is forced.

What brands do you guys like? What sellers? Quick is good, so bricks-and-mortar stores have an advantage...but I could order one online if necessary. I can persuade my desktop machine to stand in for a few days...it's just redundant work to set it up that way.

[LawBeefaroni]

Looks like you got the file but if you're done with the old laptop, you could always pop out the HDD and just connect it to your desk top and get what you need. As long as it lasts anyway.

[Kraken]

if you don't already have one, I'd suggest using your desktop to create a bootable system rescue disc (or flash drive). That'll allow you to boot into a version of Windows or Linux running from the disc/flash drive itself, and may allow you access to the dodgy hard drive depending on its severity of damage. System rescue discs typically also contain recovery software that may help recover the file you're after.

Failing that, SpinRite may do the trick.

Thanks, I'll try making a rescue CD before I try using Dell's factory restore option. That would revert me back to Win 7, if it even works.

In the best of all worlds I'd be able to use the laptop in a limited way until I can bring its successor fully online. I would love to be able to run Outlook, for instance.

[Kraken]

Looks like you got the file but if you're done with the old laptop, you could always pop out the HDD and just connect it to your desk top and get what you need. As long as it lasts anyway.

I have no idea how to do that.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Turns out I actually rescued all of the data files that I need. So now the problem becomes getting a new laptop quickly. I was kicking around the idea of Kraken Enterprises buying me one anyway, so now my hand is forced.

What brands do you guys like? What sellers? Quick is good, so bricks-and-mortar stores have an advantage...but I could order one online if necessary. I can persuade my desktop machine to stand in for a few days...it's just redundant work to set it up that way.

Check out The Wirecutter recommendations for reliable guidance on specific brands/models worth buying.

[Kraken]

if you don't already have one, I'd suggest using your desktop to create a bootable system rescue disc (or flash drive). That'll allow you to boot into a version of Windows or Linux running from the disc/flash drive itself, and may allow you access to the dodgy hard drive depending on its severity of damage. System rescue discs typically also contain recovery software that may help recover the file you're after.

Failing that, SpinRite may do the trick.

Thanks, I'll try making a rescue CD before I try using Dell's factory restore option. That would revert me back to Win 7, if it even works.

In the best of all worlds I'd be able to use the laptop in a limited way until I can bring its successor fully online. I would love to be able to run Outlook, for instance.

I made a Hirens Boot CD and booted from it. Now I have no idea what I'm looking at. Whatever happened to Windows safe mode? I would just like a stripped-down version of win 10.

At this point I think my time is better spent tricking my desktop machine into covering for my laptop. I just found a free tool that lets me view my outlook.pst file, and I already have all of my most important data files, so that's a good start. I can get by without quickbooks for a few days...I already have Excel and Word...

OK, here's a practical question: Can I import my laptop's firefox Favorites folder? Ideally as a separate profile, but it can mingle with my desktop's bookmarks if it promises not to overwrite anything.

[Daehawk]

Depends on use I guess. For a gaming laptop Id want nothing but ASUS but they are high. For normal daily Id say Lenovo. But iBuypower and Cyberpower are sure to have prebuilts too. I think gateway is still out there and of course Dell. Check Dells outlet.

[hitbyambulance]

OK, here's a practical question: Can I import my laptop's firefox Favorites folder? Ideally as a separate profile, but it can mingle with my desktop's bookmarks if it promises not to overwrite anything.

yes

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

Turns out I actually rescued all of the data files that I need. So now the problem becomes getting a new laptop quickly. I was kicking around the idea of Kraken Enterprises buying me one anyway, so now my hand is forced.

What brands do you guys like? What sellers? Quick is good, so bricks-and-mortar stores have an advantage...but I could order one online if necessary. I can persuade my desktop machine to stand in for a few days...it's just redundant work to set it up that way.

don't think it matters, especially for home office use. laptops are basically commodities now (probably all manufactured in the same three factories in Shenzhen). might i suggest going refurbished:

http://octopusoverlords.com/forum/viewt ... 8#p2494868

[Anonymous Bosch]

I made a Hirens Boot CD and booted from it. Now I have no idea what I'm looking at. Whatever happened to Windows safe mode? I would just like a stripped-down version of win 10.

Here's a basic rundown of how to use Hiren's Boot CD. And here are some step-by-step directions for using HBCD to recover files.

Given the age of HBCD, it can seem awfully strange to see a modern system booting into a version of Windows XP. But once you get used to it, you'll discover it contains numerous useful tools and utilities that can help salvage problematic PCs.

[Kraken]

I made a Hirens Boot CD and booted from it. Now I have no idea what I'm looking at. Whatever happened to Windows safe mode? I would just like a stripped-down version of win 10.

Here's a basic rundown of how to use Hiren's Boot CD. And here are some step-by-step directions for using HBCD to recover files.

Given the age of HBCD, it can seem awfully strange to see a modern system booting into a version of Windows XP. But once you get used to it, you'll discover it contains numerous useful tools and utilities that can help salvage problematic PCs.

"Mini Windows XP" told me files weren't found and wouldn't boot.

At this point I'm considering my old Dell to be a doorstop and moving forward. I would like to get some more files off it, but I have the minimum that I need. Maybe I'll revisit when the crisis is past.

[Kraken]

Depends on use I guess. For a gaming laptop Id want nothing but ASUS but they are high. For normal daily Id say Lenovo. But iBuypower and Cyberpower are sure to have prebuilts too. I think gateway is still out there and of course Dell. Check Dells outlet.

I should just go for another cheap business computer since I still intend to replace my gaming desktop later this year. However, the gamer in me would like the new laptop to at least rise to the challenge of casual gaming, so I'm going to be looking for 8GB+ of RAM and a SSD drive, and possibly a dedicated video card. I can spend up to $1000.

My last three laptops have been cheap Dells and I never especially liked any of them.

Wife's Toshiba has been a good machine, so I'm going to look at those. Are HP still considered crap? There are a ton of HPs on the market.

[Daehawk]

Got the wife a HP about 4 years ago. i consider it crap and would never buy another HP. I will say it works a lot faster once I formatted it and reinstalled Win 10 without all their bloatware shit that drug it down to 2 min + to load a webpage.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I should just go for another cheap business computer since I still intend to replace my gaming desktop later this year. However, the gamer in me would like the new laptop to at least rise to the challenge of casual gaming, so I'm going to be looking for 8GB+ of RAM and a SSD drive, and possibly a dedicated video card. I can spend up to $1000.

My last three laptops have been cheap Dells and I never especially liked any of them.

Wife's Toshiba has been a good machine, so I'm going to look at those. Are HP still considered crap? There are a ton of HPs on the market.

Here's The Wirecutter recommendation for a budget casual gaming laptop:

For casual gamers: Budget gaming laptop

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming
Gaming on a budget

The best price-to-performance ratio, with no dealbreaking flaws.

$900 from Dell

Strengths: Cheaper and more portable than our main gaming pick, these are for gaming with midrange graphics and 15-inch screens instead of 17-inchers.

Good for: Gamers again, though with tighter budgets or smaller backpacks, especially students

Expect to pay: $800 to $1,300

Not everyone has $2,000 to spend on a gaming laptop that will play modern games on ultra settings. Fortunately, for under $1,000 you can get a laptop with a smaller (15-inch) screen and a thinner and lighter body that still plays games pretty well. It will play last year’s games on high settings, with a few exceptions for particularly demanding games that need a bump down to medium to run well. This kind of laptop will serve you well for classic games, and you can expect it to play most games on at least medium settings for the next couple of years.

Unfortunately, every affordable gaming laptop we’ve tested has had at least one serious flaw. After spending more than 35 hours testing 11 cheap gaming laptops, we found that the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 is the best one in this price range. It has far better graphics performance than anything else at this price, and it keeps its components and most-touched surfaces cool enough for long gaming sessions. It also has a decent keyboard and trackpad and a great screen, and it’s the easiest to upgrade. But it has mediocre battery life—like most gaming laptops—and its fans get distractingly loud when gaming.

The configuration we recommend includes an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q graphics card with 6 GB of dedicated memory, an Intel Core i5-7300HQ processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB solid-state drive. This configuration usually costs around $900. Prices fluctuate, but so far other laptops with similar specs cost $1,200 to $1,400. With those savings, you could add a spacious hard drive and more memory to the Dell and still have money left over to spend on games.

[Kraken]

The Dell in the Wirecutter review is $700 at Amazon. This one has better specs for $799, but it lacks a wireless card. Why on earth would someone build a computer without wireless capability? What do you do, buy a USB wireless card?

Neither one has an optical drive, either, which would prevent me from installing some of my existing software (especially MS Office 2007 and QuickBooks 2016)...so I'd have to spend hundreds of bucks for new versions of those. Granted, installing my old version of Office is iffy anyway...but geez, I just replaced QB last year. Pretty sure Intuit won't let me download a new install, they're notorious that way and I paid extra for a CD to get around that. Not at all thrilled with the idea of paying another $200 for that, plus probably needing a subscription to Office 365 for another $99 every goddam year.

Still got more shopping to do. Planning to commit to something by the end of tomorrow. Keep reminding myself that this is a business machine that will only see limited gaming use...at least, that's the plan. Whatever I buy is likely to be so far ahead of my desktop machine that it might edge it out by default.

Anyway, I want to see what Lenovo, Asus, and Toshiba have in the same market segment. If I can find comparable specs on something that includes a CD/DVD drive and wireless, and that gets good reviews, that will be the winner.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Neither one has an optical drive, either, which would prevent me from installing some of my existing software (especially MS Office 2007 and QuickBooks 2016)...so I'd have to spend hundreds of bucks for new versions of those. Granted, installing my old version of Office is iffy anyway...but geez, I just replaced QB last year. Pretty sure Intuit won't let me download a new install, they're notorious that way and I paid extra for a CD to get around that. Not at all thrilled with the idea of paying another $200 for that, plus probably needing a subscription to Office 365 for another $99 every goddam year.

Indeed, optical drives are increasingly being phased out from laptops nowadays.

But rest assured, that needn't prevent you from being able to install your needed software. Because you can easily work around that limitation without spending a penny. You can simply use CD-DVD emulation software instead (e.g. Gizmo Drive is a great freeware tool for the job). You can use it to create disk image files of MS Office 2007 and QuickBooks 2016 with your desktop (assuming it has an optical drive), and then copy the disk image files to the new laptop, and mount them with Gizmo Drive installed on the laptop. Once mounted, the disk image will appear as an actual CD/DVD-ROM drive, so you can then install your software from the virtual drive and you're good to go.

[JCC]

The Dell in the Wirecutter review is $700 at Amazon. This one has better specs for $799, but it lacks a wireless card. Why on earth would someone build a computer without wireless capability? What do you do, buy a USB wireless card?

I am pretty sure it has wireless. I think that's just an error on the Amazon page. Dell's page shows wireless support without it being a configurable option.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Yeah, there's no way they'd be selling a modern laptop nowadays without built-in WiFi, so that's almost certainly an error in the listing.

BTW, the $799 laptop you linked to on Amazon does not have better specs than the recommended configuration from The Wirecutter, at least in terms of gaming. While it does include some additional RAM and a 1TB spinner hard drive, the SSD is only 128GB and -- more importantly for gaming -- it comes with the notably lower spec GTX 1050 video card. The GTX 1060 is a significan upgrade over the 1050. A GTX 1060 is VR-ready, meaning it works with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets, but the 1050 is not (which speaks to its performance capabilities, even if you have no interest in VR). The 1060 also includes a max of 6GB VRAM, crucial for giving the GPU the legroom it needs to use its processing power, and doubles the number of CUDA cores of the GTX 1050. Suffice to say, that means the 1060 has a much higher workload capacity than the 1050, making for a more future-proof system.

[Carpet_pissr]

Neither one has an optical drive, either, which would prevent me from installing some of my existing software (especially MS Office 2007 and QuickBooks 2016)...so I'd have to spend hundreds of bucks for new versions of those.

Or $25 for one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/External-Valoin- ... e+external

[Carpet_pissr]

Are you a Costco member by chance? They have some great deals on gaming laptops pretty regularly. They are often the top deals on some of the deal sites.

[hitbyambulance]

Neither one has an optical drive, either, which would prevent me from installing some of my existing software (especially MS Office 2007 and QuickBooks 2016)...so I'd have to spend hundreds of bucks for new versions of those.

Or $25 for one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/External-Valoin- ... e+external

they're often on sale for as little as $10

[Anonymous Bosch]

Purchasing an external optical drive is certainly another viable option. But unless you plan on installing and using an awful lot of CD/DVD software, CD/DVD emulation software would be faster, cheaper, and easier.

[RunningMn9]

If looking for a gaming laptop, I’d look to see if you can find a deal on an MSI laptop. Had one for the past three years and it was great. My son has it now, should last him another couple of years.

My new laptop also lacks an optical drive so I grabbed a usb blu-ray drive.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Are you a Costco member by chance? They have some great deals on gaming laptops pretty regularly. They are often the top deals on some of the deal sites.

Good point.

Costco sells The Wirecutter-recommended Inspiron 15 7000 configuration for $799 + $14.95 S&H. That's a great price for a gaming laptop with a 6GB GTX 1060.

[Daehawk]

Ive wished CostCo was near me for 20 years. Closest is next state over...not hugely far but enough to where I wont drive to it.

[Kraken]

Thanks for the feedback, I didn't know about those optical drive workarounds, or about the difference in video cards between the two Dells. I don't know anything at all about video cards, to be honest.

Still going to do my heavy shopping tomorrow. If I'm conflicted I'll post two or three contenders here for opinions. This laptop's day job is really just running MS Office, QuickBooks, and a browser, which any cheapie could do. I just can't help wanting a machine that can let its hair down at night once in a while, and I need to avoid falling for a party girl. That's hard to bear in mind when I'm actually shopping, because I want far more than I actually need.

[Kraken]

It's looking like anything with that 1060 video card is out of my price range. What do you think of the 1050 vs. the GTX 960M? I'm finding a fair number of machines with either of those cards in the $800-900 range. Looks like they are both 4GB cards. Is one better than the other?

[TheMix]

Looks like the 1050 is significantly better.

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nv ... 7242vs3650