Bad Clusters

[rmhand]

I am still having problems with a Gateway 2000, P5-90, with ATI Graphics Pro Turbo PCI (Mach64 GX) video card, 3Com Etherlink III ISA 3C509/3c509b in ISA mode network card, 16 MB RAM.
It booted in Safe Mode, but when I tried restarting the PC it ran through Scandisk and reported 6 bad clusters, and something to the effect the hard drive has been physically damaged. When I was finally able to log on, I ran Scandisk within Windows and it reported it found errors but fixed them all, except it did say there was a cluster #21701 which was damaged - related to RPC4W32.dll file in the Windows\System directory. I checked the machine for viruses but found none. It worked fine for awhile then went to several illegal operation errors, one was related to AVCONSOL, then back to those blue death screens. I'm guessing the hard drive needs replacing since it told me twice there was physical damage done to it. Anyone have any othersuggestions before I do this?

[kwai]

check if that computer is still under warranty if you have no other option. sounds exactly like a hard drive failing, though. even if it isn't under warranty from gateway, check the manufacture date and hope its under three years. you could try and talk to the manufacturer directly or have a local shop do the return for you.

[rmhand]

Thanks, we checked that option before getting a new drive. It's four years old.

[kwai]

is that low level format program the same one that writes zeros everywhere?

[ENVY]

Sounds like new drive time.What type of drive is it?You might try checking the manufacturers website to see if they have a utility to help remedy this problem.Western digital has a good proggie and so does maxtor.These proggies can SOMETIMES fix bad cluster problems when scan disk can't.Might even try a low level format and see if ya can recover these sectors.

[rmhand]

Envy: The drive was a Western Digital but only 540 MB; time for a new one anyway with the size of programs these days.

Kwai: I think that's what the low level format does. I use Gateways neat program which is on their Universal Boot Disk called GWSCAN; it writes zeroes to the disk and formats the drive.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.