Laptop HDD Issue?

[GMFan]

All,

I have a Lenovo G460 laptop that I have had for 3 years and 1 month. The computer runs Windows 7 and is clear of viruses.

My issue is that sometimes the system boots up from a complete restart and the HDD activity light stays on indefinitely and the system runs terribly slow. Even if I play music it will distort through the speakers and the system will hang for half a second every 15 seconds or so. Lately the system has been hanging for about 20-30 seconds where my music stops playing, the mouse in unresponsive and then the computer lets out a loud beep and then it comes back to life except it is still slow.

Now here is where it gets weird. My lenovo has a Western Digital drive in it so I downloaded WD LifeGuard software to test my drive. If I run the software to do a quicktest on the drive it doesn't complete. It just hangs and even though the test should take only 2 minutes it won't complete for an hour...it will still be running. However it did once complete, and it said Fail but I closed the window before I realized it was telling me something important. I can't get it to complete again.

No here is where it gets even weirder. If I restart (i.e. not a cold reboot) the problem will completely go away and the computer performance will be normal and the hard drive will pass the diagnostic test.

Does this sound like a HD issue or can the motherboard be failing? Should I try a reformat or is it more likely it is some sort of hardware issue? This is my 4th laptop and I usually run them for 4-5 years without issues. Is this laptop simply showing its signs of age? When I purchased the system I configured it with decent specifications so it would last me. It has an Intel i5, 4GB of ram, 500GB drive etc so it shouldn't be junk yet.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GMFan]

Ok, I google imaged some of the LifeGuard error screens and I'm 90% sure my error read similiar to this before I stupidly closed it out:

QuickTest on drive 2 did not complete!
Status code = 07 (Failed read test element), Failure Checkpoint = 109 (Unknown Test)
SMART self-test did not complete on drive 2!

 

[94astro]

Time for a new HDD before that quits & your data goes with it.

 

[wallyuwl]

Seems like a bad drive. Get a SSD, not much more money and you'll love it. Unless you don't like 20 second boot times.

 

[Rand]

get a SSD a 240/256 is around 150$ on deal.

amazing performance upgrade.

 

[mattwithcats]

Sounds like something is accessing the hard drive.

Unplug/disconnect from the internet, then look in installed programs for programs you did not install or do not need anymore...
"Toolbars" are a major power hog...
Google toolbar, etc...

 

[razel]

Like others have mentioned, your drive is dying. Immediately copy your most beloved data onto a USB stick or drive before we get another thread about regretting not having backup copies.

At 3 years I doubt you'll have any warranty left, so just buy an SSD. Remember an SSD is an investment, so don't fret about the prices. In fact the Crucial 960GB was $440 yesterday. 240GB versions are often for sale in the $110-130 range. Regardless you'll continue to use the SSD far into your next 2-3 laptop upgrades until PCI-e/M2 SSDs become popular.

 

[wallyuwl]

One thing to consider if you get a SSD... know what type of interface your computer has. For example, my laptop is three years old and has SATA interface. That means the max speeds are 150 mbps. SATA II are 300, and SATA III are 600. If your interface is SATA or SATA II (which is likely), don't worry about getting the fastest spec'd drive. Your computer can't transfer things that fast anyway.

I was on the fence about the Crucial because of the slower (250) write speeds. But my laptop is just standard SATA, so it didn't matter. So I bought it because it was the cheapest.

But even with just standard SATA, adding a SSD was a great upgrade.