need recommendation on hard disk repair utility

[jimdagys]

Before I replace the hard drive, I would like to experiment using a hard disk repair utility. What utility is recommended? I already tried the utility that comes with Windows.

[MJA]

[deckard8]

In my experience hard drive repair tools should only be used in order
to recover/save your data before transfering it to a new drive.
Once a hard drive starts making unusual noises or read errors start
occurring you should replace it a.s.a.p. No software tool is going
to permanently repair physical errors.
The best tools for the job I've used are Zero Assumption Recovery (ZAR),
Active Partition Recovery & HDD Regenerator.

[jimdagys]

Thanks for the info. Though I am not sure it is the hard drive that is going, I thought I would list some strange symptoms:
1) Several times in the past week, Windows would not boot up. Got a inability to access Registry hive message.
2) Several time in the past week, Windows took triple the usual amount of time to boot up.
3) Tried to Ghost restore C drive from DOS but Ghost would not allow me to select the C drive as the target.
4) Did the Windows C disk check/repair and it said that there was a bad cluster. Bootup was much better after doing this. However, the following problems still occur.
5) Sometimes when trying to open a winrar file, the time to opening was abnormally long
6) Sometimes when trying to install a known program, install time was abnormally long
7) Sometimes there is a strange sound coming from the hard drive. It sounds like a repeated gentle rubbing of sandpaper. When hearing this sound, the computer comes to a standstill
8) I have an AVI on the hard drive that plays fine. However, if I try to convert using DVD flick or AVI Demux, only part of the movie converts. If I try to Nero burn this part of the movie I get a burn error message after awhile. If I try to make a Nero image, I also get an error message at some point. Right before the error message occurs in both cases, the hard disk makes the repeated sandpaper noise. However, (even though the AVI plays fine) it is possible that the AVI has a problem and for some reason cannot be converted
9) Used KM Player to capture copy the whole avi in real time. No problem doing this, but could not convert the entire avi to mpeg using above tools plus Total Video Converter

[dadrab]

Thanks for the info. Though I am not sure it is the hard drive that is going, I thought I would list some strange symptoms:
1) Several times in the past week, Windows would not boot up. Got a inability to access Registry hive message.
2) Several time in the past week, Windows took triple the usual amount of time to boot up.
3) Tried to Ghost restore C drive from DOS but Ghost would not allow me to select the C drive as the target.
4) Did the Windows C disk check/repair and it said that there was a bad cluster. Bootup was much better after doing this. However, the following problems still occur.
5) Sometimes when trying to open a winrar file, the time to opening was abnormally long
6) Sometimes when trying to install a known program, install time was abnormally long
7) Sometimes there is a strange sound coming from the hard drive. It sounds like a repeated gentle rubbing of sandpaper. When hearing this sound, the computer comes to a standstill
8) I have an AVI on the hard drive that plays fine. However, if I try to convert using DVD flick or AVI Demux, only part of the movie converts. If I try to Nero burn this part of the movie I get a burn error message after awhile. If I try to make a Nero image, I also get an error message at some point. Right before the error message occurs in both cases, the hard disk makes the repeated sandpaper noise. However, (even though the AVI plays fine) it is possible that the AVI has a problem and for some reason cannot be converted
9) Used KM Player to capture copy the whole avi in real time. No problem doing this, but could not convert the entire avi to mpeg using above tools plus Total Video Converter

Given the above symptoms, I'd suspect the drive dying or a power supply problem.

Probably the former.

As cheap as hard drives are these days, I'd probably buy two - one to put the OS and applications on and the other for data.

The recommendations given in the prior post are well put. No software will cure an ailing drive. Given that your drive is making a funny "sandpaper"ish noise, bag it before you have to spend large dollars to recover your data.

[jimdagys]

There is no problem about recovering data. I have a Ghost backup DVD for the C drive and I have another cd that has everything else. In fact, I don't want to copy from this hard drive to another drive. There could be viruses on this drive and I don't want them copied over. Also, I'm still not sure the hard drive is the problem. Could be a virus.

[dadrab]

Sometimes there is a strange sound coming from the hard drive. It sounds like a repeated gentle rubbing of sandpaper.

That ain't a virus.