Bad hard drive, or something else?

[capman21]

Trying to fix a friends old pc, and when you turn it on it automatically goes to scan disk. When you cancel scan disk it than regurarly boots up, but when it gets to the desk top a few seconds later the pc freezes up. I restarted the pc in safe mode, and it still goes to scan disk, but when I cancel and go to the desk top it does not freeze up. So what do you think? If it froze up during safe mode than I would almost be positive to say HD, but since it does not I am not sure. BTW, it is ME, and old basic pc.

[RabidDog]

SOmebody scheduled a disk scan on last good closedown. When it is able to finish this (Good idea to check the hard disk)the flag gets erased and it will not run next boot up. Disk scan will attenpt to fix and or relocate bad sectors.
Definitely let the disk scan finish. Boot from UBCD or linux and think about reformat and re-install..( after rescuing needed files? )

[capman21]

Have not completely tried, but I do not think it will finish. That is why I think it is a bad hd.

[Ai Haibara]

Actually, Win98/ME normally also calls Scandisk on (the next) boot if Windows doesn't 'properly' shut down, I believe. (for example, if you power off the system without using Shut Down)

If you suspect the hard drive, I think the UBCD may come with an HD-verifying diagnostic program, but I'm not sure. You could always also place a diagnostic program on a boot disc (floppy or CD, if the system allows it), and diagnose the system without loading Windows (or otherwise using that hard drive).

[budz]

open up the pc and find out the manufacturer of that HD. then go to that manufacturers site and download their diagnostic tool to determine if the HD has bad sectors/dying.