301 xci-g tablet problems

[justjeff]

I am starting to think my hard drive is going to hell. I thought I just downloaded too many programs to the laptop for school. But I did a total reboot of the C drive, and this computer is so slow, and it seems to freeze up for long periods of time. Is there any way to tell for sure if the hard drive was going bad? Also where would you all suggest getting another drive from? And what can I upgrade the ram to in this old thing? And last but not least, where should I get the ram chip(s)?
Thanks,
Jeff

[sbtablet]

Hi Jeff!

Have you run checkdisk? If you're lucky, maybe you just have some bad sectors.

Sharon

[justjeff]

Sharon,
Are you talking about the windows utility? I googled checkdisk and a few things came up, so I wanted to clarify. Also, what command should I do? If the drive is shot, and I try to have checkdisk fix the problems, is it possible the drive will completely fail? The reason i ask is I am going into finals for college and REALLY need the laptop. It is the only computer I have. And I have no money at this time to replace the hard drive.... Thanks in advance for the help.
Jeff

[sbtablet]

Yes, Jeff, I was talking about the Windows utility. It can't do anything if the moving parts of the disk are wearing out, or something's shorting, etc., but it will mark bad sectors and try to recover data. I don't believe running it would do any harm or make any problems worse. But that being said, I can't make any guarantees. I'm not that much of an expert.

Sharon

[justjeff]

Sharon,
CRAP! I ran the utility, and there are over 170 block errors (whatever that means) and a warning that the utility predicts my hard drive will fail, to backup all data and pray to GOD...which is what I am doing because I am screwed without this computer if it crashes before my finals are done...

Anyone have a HD for this relic? And while I am at it, bigger RAM sticks than the original (2) 256?

Thanks for the help Sharon. And hopefully someone hits me up with some spare parts!
Thanks,
Jeff

[sbtablet]

Jeff,

First off, don't panic. You have done all the back ups, right? If possible, put all your personal data (at least what you need for class) on a flash drive. If you are using Office 2007, with the new file extensions, save back to the older form. That way, if worse comes to worst, you can take it to the grungy old, awful university computer lab and do what you have to do there. Or beg or borrow from somebody. Whatever.

Second, tell us what make and model computer you have. Do you have any older computers around? It's not usually too difficult to find a way to switch out a hard drive without too much expense.

Hang in there.

Sharon

[sbtablet]

Duh, just realized your make and model are in the post header. But do you know what you currently have for a hard drive?

S.

[justjeff]

The drive in there now is a Toshiba MK4025GAS. It was supposed to be a 40GB and I think it was an ATA drive. I am sure I could do the swap if I had a drive. But dont have the cash right now to buy a new one. So hopefully someone dropped their old Acer or something with a drive that would work in this antique that wants to sell the drive for cheap...
Thanks again Sharon!
Jeff

[sbtablet]

Hi Jeff!

Check with your local friends for a hard drive. Probably none of us can ship you one for tiny $$$. Anything ATA and the right physical size should work. Also check out Newegg, Geeks.com, etc. I saw one as cheap at $35 that should work for you.

S.

[justjeff]

You are simply the BEST! Thanks for the leads.
Jeff