[ SECRET POST #2078 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2078 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 73 secrets from Secret Submission Post #297.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 2 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Find out which programs you can live without (HP probably starts up with bloatware like HP Customer Center and stuff like that) and boot up with the bare minimum of programs you need for the computer to run. Remove the unnecessary programs from the start-up sequence so they won't load. Also change the start-up sequence of programs you need that automatically load when the machine powers on (like msn messenger - run the program only when you need to use it). I think, at this point, it is best to not uninstall any programs if possible. Hopefully this will make your machine run more efficiently.

And back up your hard drive ASAP. If the problem is indeed a corrupted hard drive, the only solution is a replacement hard drive. Note that the more the drive is being accessed (being read and written on), the possibility of getting more bad sectors increases. Also, if a drive is known to have bad sectors, it has a higher chance of developing even more bad sectors or crashing completely (the drive cannot be read at all).

Look into getting a cheap second-hand old laptop/desktop or possibly getting one on loan from your school. Maybe your friends/family have an old machine you can borrow for a bit. Also, some organizations give out free, older computers in exchange for volunteer hours. See if that's a possibility for you.

[saku]

i've always had bloatware disabled on startup because it's annoying but it's been relatively ineffective in helping my system run better.

i think your second paragraph is pretty much what is happening with my system, and my stubborn ass didn't bother trying to repair damages until they got too out of control to be fixed.

if there's not way to repair or reverse corruption in the hard drive then i guess it's goodbye to this machine because it sure as hell ain't worth buying a new hard drive for. might as well just get a new machine, lmao.

i've considered getting a "cheap" replacement that will at least do bare minimum (internet browsing, paper writing, etc.) since that's all i really need right this very second. i guess i'll start browsing a little more seriously.

by chance do you know of any organisations by name that trade volunteer hours for computers? volunteering is something i like to do naturally so i'm interested in your suggestion.

[(Anonymous)]

Free Geek is one organization in my city that has "volunteer for computers" program - 24 hours for an Intel Pentium IV (CPU), 1GB RAM desktops pre-loaded with the newest version of Ubuntu. Or, build 5 Pentium IV computers and build the 6th Pentium IV for yourself. The computers are several generations out of date but they are good enough to surf the net, listen to music, watch DVDs and load OpenOffice (free, open source word processing program, though I prefer LibreOffice). Free Geek in different cities share a similar goal and method of operations but their exact operation details might be different. The Free Geek near you might offer computers of different specs or require different hours. They should also be a good source of technology-related resources in your area.

If you're looking at really old machines, make sure the CPU clocks at least 1GHz. Anything less will be very slow even with Windows XP installed.

Also, you mentioned upthread that the laptop overheats easily. Do you dust the laptop regularly with a gas duster/compressed air? The computer might stay on a bit longer if it can run a little cooler.

"IS there's a way to check for corruption besides the normal chkdsk way?"

Yes. Do you or your friends have a spare 2.5" hard drive enclosure or a hard drive port? You should* be able to take the hard drive out of the laptop, put it in the enclosure/port, and access it as a removable hard drive (like a portable or storage disk) with another computer and run chkdsk on it. Chkdsk might get stuck 3% in and the disk might start clicking but chkdsk itself shouldn't crash.

You can try running chkdsk under the Ubuntu live drive too, if the live drive can detect the laptop's hard drive.

*Laptops are even more notorious for their specially-designed/proprietary hardware and software than brand-specific desktops. If the hard drive does not have a standard SATA and power socket, it probably can't be read with the usual, store-bought enclosures/drive ports.

"Is there's a way to reverse any potential corruption or damage to my machine, at least enough so that i have a laptop that at least turns on normally?"

IIRC, there is no way to un-corrupt a hard drive but you might be able to recover enough data to make it run better. Based on what I remember, chkdsk scans the disk for errors and if it finds any, it marks the bad sectors as "areas to not use" and, if this option is selected, attempts to recover data from the bad sectors to sectors that aren't bad. The recovered data may be incomplete (a bad sector means difficulty in/inability to reading and writing the sector of disk) which is not good news, and there is no guarantee the sector the info is recovered to will not become bad later as well.