Problems with new HDD I bought - Crashes/Freezes/BSOD's

Hi guys
Before I start, here are my laptop's specs: https://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultra...specifications (mine is the i7 740QM, 640GB 5400rpm version)

So I bought a new HDD for my laptop recently, because the one my laptop had was 5400rpm and 640gb. I needed more space, and people told me 7200 is faster (although not a huge difference), so I bought this one.

Took the old HDD that came with my laptop out, and put the new one without problems. The OS installation went fine (Windows 7), and eventually I arrived at the desktop. I started by installing all the updates first, and since there were alot of them I went to download other apps I usually use in the meantime. Everything seemed fine, but near the end of the updates the PC crashed/freezed completely. No BSOD, nothing. It simply froze, I couldn't press ctrl + alt + del or even move the mouse pointer. So I turned it off with the power button, and turned it back on...

...and, from that point on, this happened all the time. Everytime I turned it back on, it eventually crashed (some times it would show the BSOD, pointing for the error MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION). Some times it would crash after tinkering around in windows, other times it would crash in the login screen (while logging in, too) and other times it wouldn't get past the black screen after the windows logo (while loading OS). At first I thought it was the lack of drivers, so I formatted and reinstalled everything again. This time I immediately went to look and install the drivers that I thought were causing/related to the issue (chipset, etc.). I ended up installing all drivers, from manufacturer's website. After doing it, and tinkering around with windows for a bit, it eventually crashed again. I would turn it off and on again, but like last time, it eventually crashed.
At this point, I started trying about anything I could think of. Formatted and reinstalled again, thinking I had to activate it before doing anything first, but it eventually crashed again. Formatted and reinstalled again, thinking I had to check the HDD for errors, but windows found nothing, and one time when windows loaded the boot/tools screen (not sure how it's called in english) I loaded command prompt and typed in chkdsk /f but it said something like "cannot lock the drive". Formatted and reinstalled again, this time trying another OS (Windows 8), but it ends up the same. After that I thought I could've inserted the HDD incorrectly into the SATA port of my laptop, so I opened it up again, took all the necessary screws, and noticed that the disk adn indeed inserted correctly. Out of desperation, I gently blowed in the SATA port (laptop and HDD) thinking it could be dust or something else interfering.the connection. Turned it back on, same thing again. Everything I tried, it eventually crashed...

I started thinking: it's not an incorrect OS install (everyone went fine, with no crashes in between any of them), it's not the lack of drivers (with or without, it ends up the same), it's not if windows isn't activated, it's not an error that windows can detect, it's not windows 7 or 8, it's not the laptop itself (I just opened it up and put in the old HDD, and it's working flawlessly. Like nothign ever happened, which got me relieved) ...I can only think of two possibilities: either it's simply a defective drive, or internal heating/voltage problems. I remember one time I turned off the PC after it crashed, went to bed and when I woke up I turned it on and took much longer to eventually crash. I took a mental note, and after repeat testing, the drive does take longer to crash when the laptop is turned off for a longer period of time. This lead me to believe that it could be the causes that I just mentioned, what do you guys think?

You think it could be something else? Is it the Travelstar 7k1000 HDD that's simply a bad drive? Please help me, I need to know if there's anything else I can try or if I should just simply return the drive. Maybe the HDD's fine, I haven't tested in other laptops (only have one), and there's just something i'm missing. Maybe it's incompatible with my laptop, or it could be the problems I mentioned earlier...

Thank you for your time

Hello Kratos,

Much to absorb so let me see if I got this right (with a few questions added):

So you removed the original hard drive and simply replaced it with a blank new drive; correct?
Did the old drive have an OEM partition structure?
How did you mange the clean installation of Win 7? Was it via a retail disc or other method?
If a clean install, did you select the proper installer? (UEFI or Legacy to match your BIOS configuration)
Did your install hang anywhere during the install process, forcing you to do a manual power down/restart to continue?

Also, if you are convinced it might just be the new hard drive, you can run "chkdsk" from the installation CD/DVD prior to attempting another clean installation:

https://kb.wisc.edu/page.php?id=6565

Good luck and I hope this information helps you.

my2cents

my2cents said:

Hello Kratos,

Much to absorb so let me see if I got this right (with a few questions added):

So you removed the original hard drive and simply replaced it with a blank new drive; correct?
Did the old drive have an OEM partition structure?
How did you mange the clean installation of Win 7? Was it via a retail disc or other method?
If a clean install, did you select the proper installer? (UEFI or Legacy to match your BIOS configuration)
Did your install hang anywhere during the install process, forcing you to do a manual power down/restart to continue?

Click to expand...

Hello. First of all, thank you for your help

1. Yes, removed original HDD and replaced with a blank new HDD I bought (specified in the OP);
2. Not sure what you mean by OEM partition structure, sorry. I can tell you that the old HDD, that is now inserted in my laptop until I can fix the issue with the new one, has 3 partitions: C, D and another one that I believe is for emergency;
3. Retail Disc (tried a USB boot instalation as well);
4. Again, not sure what you mean here. I just put the retail W7 disk, booted with it, formatted the drive and installed it clean. UEFI boot is enabled in my BIOS, if that's what you mean...;
5. No, like I said in the OP all installs went fine with no crashes/freezes/hangs (which got me to belive it's overheating or voltage problems).

my2cents said:

Also, if you are convinced it might just be the new hard drive, you can run "chkdsk" from the installation CD/DVD prior to attempting another clean installation:

https://kb.wisc.edu/page.php?id=6565

Good luck and I hope this information helps you.

my2cents

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your posts. Will try this out

But should I try it with one formatted partition, or in blank unnalocated space state (exactly how I got it)?

Again, not sure what you mean here. I just put the retail W7 disk, booted with it, formatted the drive and installed it clean. UEFI boot is enabled in my BIOS, if that's what you mean...;

Click to expand...

Yes, that's exactly what I was looking for..

So, when you boot to do the initial install, you might have two otpions available, and they might look like this:

CD/DVD
UEFI CD/DVD

or if from USB:

USB (device name)
UEFI USB (device name)

In your case, it is important to select the UEFI installer or you may run into issues.

No, like I said in the OP all installs went fine with no crashes/freezes/hangs (which got me to belive it's overheating or voltage problems

Click to expand...

Wow! Did I miss that from your first post or is this a brand new assumption on your part? If so, it seems kind of funny that this would happen coincidentally with the replacement of your new hard drive... or did I miss something else?

Also, here is one more suggestion just in acse the hard drive checks out OK and you have determined there is not a heat issue and you have confirmed you have selected the proper installer:

As a last resort, you could try placing the old hard drive back in, creat a complete system image backup to an external drive (if available), install the new hard drive, and do a system image restoral to the new drive. Once done, you could use disk management to expand the new partition to utilize the new available space or make adjustments accordingly.

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

my2cents

my2cents said:

Again, not sure what you mean here. I just put the retail W7 disk, booted with it, formatted the drive and installed it clean. UEFI boot is enabled in my BIOS, if that's what you mean...;

Click to expand...

Yes, that's exactly what I was looking for..

So, when you boot to do the initial install, you might have two otpions available, and they might look like this:

CD/DVD
UEFI CD/DVD

or if from USB:

USB (device name)
UEFI USB (device name)

In your case, it is important to select the UEFI installer or you may run into issues.

No, like I said in the OP all installs went fine with no crashes/freezes/hangs (which got me to belive it's overheating or voltage problems

Click to expand...

Wow! Did I miss that from your first post or is this a brand new assumption on your part? If so, it seems kind of funny that this would happen coincidentally with the replacement of your new hard drive... or did I miss something else?

Also, here is one more suggestion just in acse the hard drive checks out OK and you have determined there is not a heat issue and you have confirmed you have selected the proper installer:

As a last resort, you could try placing the old hard drive back in, creat a complete system image backup to an external drive (if available), install the new hard drive, and do a system image restoral to the new drive. Once done, you could use disk management to expand the new partition to utilize the new available space or make adjustments accordingly.

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

my2cents

Click to expand...

Hmm that's weird, never encountered any of those options. I just picked the boot priorities according to what I would use to install windows, and that's it. Where do you encounter those options, in the BIOS or while loading the bootable disk/USB? I could make a USB bootable windows installer, with UEFI only boot. Would that help?

I said the OS installs went fine here :

Kratos Aurion said:

I started thinking: it's not an incorrect OS install (everyone went fine, with no crashes in between any of them)

Click to expand...

...that would be a good idea, but I don't have any external drive I could ask one from my friend, but it'll take time for me to report back this idea. But as soon as I get a chance to try this out, i'll post the results.

Once again, thank you so much

Hmm that's weird, never encountered any of those options. I just picked the boot priorities according to what I would use to install windows, and that's it. Where do you encounter those options, in the BIOS or while loading the bootable disk/USB? I could make a USB bootable windows installer, with UEFI only boot. Would that help?

Click to expand...

The BIOS should dictate what installer option are selectable. If you have both options, they should be available via the one time boot menu "if" your installation CD or USB drive supports both UEFI and Legacy boot. Here is a snapshot of my Win 7 SP1 installation drive. Note there are two installers available:



Also, here's a tutorial that may provide an addition explanation. This is for Win 8 because you are posting in a Win 8 forum; however, I think you should have actually posted your issue on the Win 7 forum first. Anyway, we can still try to help.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...e-firmware-interface-install-windows-8-a.html

Ok, I formatted the drive again with a successful UEFI USB boot this time. After clicking "New" on the unnalocated drive, it created 4 partitions like the tutorial shows.

But after creating the partitions I canceled, and tried to do the command prompt thing. Ran chkdsk, but it says "volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk might report errors when no corruption is present" just like last time i tried.
It also said "read-only chkdsk found bad on-disk uppercase table - using system taable". What does this mean?
Later on, it said:
"7 data files processed.
Errors detected in the uppercase file

Windows has checked the file system and found problems."

When I try to do chkdsk /f, it says it can't because it's write protected...?

At this point, it is just worth a try to do the clean install again, wipe the hard drive clean again, select next and the let the UEFI installer complete the installation. Once done, sit tight for a bit and/or check for errors by running scan disk (from within Windows) to do a pre-check for errors (with correction "on"). If found, then do a full disk scan with chkdisk.

Ok i'll do that. It's late, i'm gonna go to bed now but as soon as I wake up ill give it a try xD

Thank you so much for your help

Kratos Aurion said:

Ok i'll do that. It's late, i'm gonna go to bed now but as soon as I wake up ill give it a try xD

Thank you so much for your help

Click to expand...

Goodnight! I think you are on your way to a fix...

Ok, so I installed the OS (8) again through UEFI, using a bootable flash drive. I'm not gonna say that the problem was fixed already, it's too soon to be firing the firewoks, but I can say that I noticed certain performance differences. I updated it, activated it, installed the apps and browsers I usually use (not all of them, yet), I even defragged and partitioned the drive (using AOMEI) to see if it would crash again because of the stress/heating and it didn't!

I made this post using the new HDD. I'll be wary of the drive's behaviour and if it eventually starts crashing/hanging again, i'll report. But so far, working like a charm!

Thank you so much for your help, my2cents :thumb:

but I can say that I noticed certain performance differences. I updated it, activated it, installed the apps and browsers I usually use (not all of them, yet), I even defragged and partitioned the drive (using AOMEI) to see if it would crash again because of the stress/heating and it didn't!

Click to expand...

All because you installation partition structure now conforms to your UEFI BIOS requirments. Problem solved. Glad we could help.

my2cents

I still don't get it, I formatted other drives/PC's and never installed it through UEFI and never had problems. Does this only apply to 7200rpm disks?

Does this only apply to 7200rpm disks?

Click to expand...

Applicable to all disks and RPM speeds. Can't go back in time so let's hope you are stable at this point.
Good luck.

Yeah, let's hope so xD Thanks again!