A few things.

[puddingcat]

My computer thinks it's sick. *Every time* I boot it up, it runs a chkdisk. Today, I stuck it into safe mode, defragged it (and boy, does that take a long time these days) and chkdisked it again, closed it down properly & rebooted - and it's still happeneing.

I run Ad-Aware & AVG regularly, and neither have shown anything. Suggestions for what to try next would be lovely, but bear in mind they'll be met with a response of "Ok - how do I do that?" unless you explain v-e-r-y slowly in the first place.


Mum linked me here - looks interesting, especially for all these "Oh look, I've forgotten Project 365 again, so I'll take a picture of my toes" pictures.


I finished my socks. I have hand-knitted socks that fit and don't fall down or cut off my circulation. Im waiting for the Reality Police to come calling, cos this sort of thing doesn't happen to me.

More yarn - I have some Rowan Tapestry from the John Lewis sale, and want to make a Useful Bag from it. How much does it felt? I've worked out the area I can knit on the recommended needle size (or do I need bigger needles, if I'll be shrinking it all later?) but what will that end up as, after the washing machine?

Comments

[twisted-times.livejournal.com]

There's a bit in here (http://www.ntcompatible.com/CHKDISK_running_everytime_PC_starts_up_WinXP_Pro_t21451.html) about repeated chdisk runs.

There;s a bit on how to stop your PC from running it every reboot about halfway down the thread - you reallyonly need to run it one a month usually.

Before editing the registry fiel (as it suggests on the forum above) try doing a rollback to a previous system restore point. It won't affect ay data, just your configuration files for the OS itself. Have you installed anything new lately?

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Your hard drive is going. Back up anything you don't want to lose IMMEDIATELY.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Do you mean the actual hardware? The physical touchable *thing*?

Cos I have an external hard drive (a MyBook) and (apparently) some software to make a complete image of my *entire* system onto it. If it's my (physical, touchable) hard drive that's going, I'll do that pronto. If it's a flaw in the system (files, programmes, Bits I can't Understand Or Touch), that doesn't feel as if it'll work. Or am I wrong?

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

The actual, physical hard disc is wearing out. At least, that's been my experience when you get this issue. It MIGHT be something else, but I'd back everything up anyway.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

SB might well be right, the actual harddrive might be dodgy.
Backups never hurt so create the image now.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Right, thank you! I'll brave the MyBook in that case.

The Puter's about 2 1/4 years old - is that usual, for it to die so quickly? I'm sure my previous ones lasted londer.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Yessir!

I've been putting it off because it's New Computer Stuff and I have the FEAR.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

The bits I could understand didn't seem to apply - it does the chkdisk and never finds anything. I don't skip or interrupt the process.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

That's not usual, no. Mine normally last > 5 years, even with the battering they get from me.

Like I said, I could be wrong, but it's not worth the risk I'm right, I don't think.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Arsemonkeys.

Tell you what - when the weather's got good enough for you to come & visit - er - come & visit ;) I'll trade food & entertainment & Car (& possibly trip to see uglybuffy - iirc she lives just up the road - if she doesn't mind) for Pooter help?

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

After this sort of thing almost happened to me once (it just about recovered enough for me to do the backup before it died completely), I'm really paranoid about losing stuff (well, photos, mostly, anything else is replaceable).

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

sure thing!

[pink-weasel.livejournal.com]

Rowan tapestry is soy, isn't it? Not wool? I might be dreaming that but plant doesn't felt. If it is wool then the best thing to do is to knit a little sample and measure it and try it.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Ah! It's 30% soy % 70% wool, or threabouts. I thought that would stop it felting too, but Rowan have a book of felted patterns out and that included a lovely bag made from Tapestry :) Thing is, the book was £5 and the pattern was effectively "knit a rectangle" so I didn't buy it. Now I'm wondering how much I'd have to knit to get a bag big enough to put TG Magazine in...

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I wonder if I should submit a few pics to that site (or try my hand at generic stock first).

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

1) Backups are key.  KEY.  I would do that immediately, and way before doing any of the following stuff.

2) See if chkdsk is in the startup:

- Start > Run > msconfig > [OK]
- Click the |Startup| tab.
- If you see chkdsk there, uncheck that box.  Click [OK].

4) Reboot.  Iff that doesn't work, keep going here.

5) Reset the Registry setting (this assumes you have WinXP or Win2k):

- Start > Run > regedit > [OK]
- File > Export - select 'All', and save as 'backup.reg' to your My Documents folder.
- The Registry Editor looks a lot like Windows Explorer.  Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager
- In the right-hand pane, look for 'BootExecute'.  Make sure the Data for that is set to autocheck autochk *.
- If it is not, right-click on 'BootExecute' and select Modify.
- Copy this below text and paste it in that box:
autocheck autochk *
- Reboot.

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

Also, the last time I had this issue, and every time B's had this issue, the hard drive was on the brink of failure.  So doing the above will make the doctor stop poking around, but it won't make the patient better, you know.

[pink-weasel.livejournal.com]

The only way to find out is to knit a swatch, measure it to the mm, felt it and then measure it again and work out the percentage shrunk. Then work out how big you want the bag and add the aditional percent.

Sock photos please!

[twisted-times.livejournal.com]

The lovely SB is very right - it's well worth backing up what you can't afford to lose ASAP. The hard drives have a Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) of 3 years quoted. Of course, Murphy's Law states that it will be your HDD and not anyone else's that will fail inside that 3 year mark.