# Clean Install - Fixes all software problems?



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

Hi all,

If I do a clean install where I delete all partitions on my drive and install windows 10 on a new partition, it should resolve all software related issues right?
So essentially what I'm asking if it's redundant to do commands like:
sfc scan
DISM
chkdsk
fixmbr

And any other commands to fix a drive are basically done by a clean install correct?


----------



## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

It fixes all Windows problems.


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

Corday said:


> It fixes all Windows problems.


It looks like I have a hard drive issue despite doing extensive health tests on CPU, RAM, and hard drive health is all fine but I frequently have my laptop freeze for a full minute, then I get BSOD with 0% progress, where it then restarts and gives me a "No bootable device" icon. The only way to get it to restart again is force shutting it down and turning it on.

I checked the hard drive itself, plugged in and secured properly.

Upon clean installing my laptop I got the BSOD again while updating windows, the crash dump is not created and it seems to corrupt my HDD every time this crash happens as I get a prompt from windows to repair drives.

I've only had this laptop for a year and a half, and it's hard drive seems to be faulty because I had stuttering issues the first day I used it despite not showing any errors in health checks.

Before I had these BSODs, I did a chkdsk c:/r and it repaired successfully but I still had problems so I did a clean install and the BSOD still shows up.

Is it worth trying chkdsk c:/r again or is it clear I need a new hard drive despite no signs of health errors?


----------



## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

The maker of your HD has a better tool to check its condition.


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

Corday said:


> The maker of your HD has a better tool to check its condition.


I don't think the MQ04ABF100 Toshiba has any specific software for testing that I can find.
I think it is very likely to be hardware issues, you are sure chkdsk c:/r will make no difference if I already did a clean install?


----------



## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

Yours should be a WD. This was before Toshiba bought them.


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

Corday said:


> Yours should be a WD. This was before Toshiba bought them.


Thank you, I'm sorry I'm not sure where to look for their hard drive diagnostic, could you redirect me to where I can find it?


----------



## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

How to Do Western Digital Hard Drive Test? Here Are the Tools


How to scan and test hard drives? Here are some Western Digital Hard Drive Test tools. You can keep reading to get more details and download them to have a try.




www.partitionwizard.com




Scroll to the correct tool.


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

Corday said:


> How to Do Western Digital Hard Drive Test? Here Are the Tools
> 
> 
> How to scan and test hard drives? Here are some Western Digital Hard Drive Test tools. You can keep reading to get more details and download them to have a try.
> ...


If it does find bad sectors, does this mean the drive was just corrupted and a clean install will fix it or does it mean the hard drive itself is actually failing? 
Even if I don't find bad sectors I get the BSOD no bootable device thing anyway.


----------



## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

Step 1) Test the hardware. Why? Because software cannot fix failing/failed hardware.

If the hardware passes, then 

Step 2) Try software to fix corrupt files, etc.


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

SpywareDr said:


> Step 1) Test the hardware. Why? Because software cannot fix failing/failed hardware.
> 
> If the hardware passes, then
> 
> Step 2) Try software to fix corrupt files, etc.


I've tested for hardware before the clean install, it is perfectly healthy but I still get BSOD which is why I have a strange situation with damaged hardware.


----------



## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

Did you run the test? Any clicking sound coming from your computer?


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

Corday said:


> Did you run the test? Any clicking sound coming from your computer?


The occasional slight click every few hours, but there's no beating around the bush I have a hard drive problem if I still get BSOD for no reason.


----------



## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

If you are experienced, I'd suggest trying the HD in another computer as a determining solution, HD or software. Otherwise, read the posting instructions at this forum BSOD, App Crashes And Hangs When you post reference this thread also.


----------



## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

ShangWang said:


> The occasional slight click every few hours


 _Any_ sound other then the normal hum of activity coming from a HDD means it is beginning to fail. As stated, remove the HDD from the computer, insert it as a secondary drive on a desktop, or via a USB Adapter with a power adapter to a different computer. If you use a USB Adapter, once powered on, before inserting the USB, put your ear next to the drive, is there a clicking, or scraping noise? Or is it spinning up and then spinning down? Any of these scenarios would mean it is failing. If it spins up and stays up, plug in the USB to a different computer. Download *Disk Genius* in my signature. Select your drive, and go to the toolbar to *Disk/View SMART Information*. This will give you a overall snapshot of the health of the drive. If there is a* yellow* caution button, then go to *View or Repair Bad Sectors/Verify Now.* This will take some time. If any squares are *Amber* or *RED*, the drive needs to be replaced. We strongly suggest replacing with an SSD drive instead of a HDD.
If the drive is Healthy, then there may be an issue with the RAM.


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

spunk.funk said:


> _Any_ sound other then the normal hum of activity coming from a HDD means it is beginning to fail. As stated, remove the HDD from the computer, insert it as a secondary drive on a desktop, or via a USB Adapter with a power adapter to a different computer. If you use a USB Adapter, once powered on, before inserting the USB, put your ear next to the drive, is there a clicking, or scraping noise? Or is it spinning up and then spinning down? Any of these scenarios would mean it is failing. If it spins up and stays up, plug in the USB to a different computer. Download *Disk Genius* in my signature. Select your drive, and go to the toolbar to *Disk/View SMART Information*. This will give you a overall snapshot of the health of the drive. If there is a* yellow* caution button, then go to *View or Repair Bad Sectors/Verify Now.* This will take some time. If any squares are *Amber* or *RED*, the drive needs to be replaced. We strongly suggest replacing with an SSD drive instead of a HDD.
> If the drive is Healthy, then there may be an issue with the RAM.


The HDD clicks infrequently, but the drive is entirely healthy as shown in tests. RAM is perfectly healthy as I ran a full test with memtest86 too.


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

spunk.funk said:


> _Any_ sound other then the normal hum of activity coming from a HDD means it is beginning to fail. As stated, remove the HDD from the computer, insert it as a secondary drive on a desktop, or via a USB Adapter with a power adapter to a different computer. If you use a USB Adapter, once powered on, before inserting the USB, put your ear next to the drive, is there a clicking, or scraping noise? Or is it spinning up and then spinning down? Any of these scenarios would mean it is failing. If it spins up and stays up, plug in the USB to a different computer. Download *Disk Genius* in my signature. Select your drive, and go to the toolbar to *Disk/View SMART Information*. This will give you a overall snapshot of the health of the drive. If there is a* yellow* caution button, then go to *View or Repair Bad Sectors/Verify Now.* This will take some time. If any squares are *Amber* or *RED*, the drive needs to be replaced. We strongly suggest replacing with an SSD drive instead of a HDD.
> If the drive is Healthy, then there may be an issue with the RAM.


I currently have drive errors due to the unsuccessful crash dump from BSOD and "no bootable device"
To temporarily fix errors, should I do chkdsk c:/r or can I also use WD, the third party minitool partition app which repairs the disk for me on restart?


----------



## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

If you use *Disk Genius, *as previously stated. you will get a visual GUI of the sectors that are good or bad and the overall health of the drive. Using the WD tool is good, but just shows you a Pass or Fail. Check Disk gives you a report, but you have to look for it in the Event Viewer. You can try to "Repair" Bad Sectors in Disk Genius, but If you feel the drive has errors, then there is no reason to test it, just replace it. We suggest an SSD drive. Prices have come down and are close to equal the price of a Mechanical drive.


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

spunk.funk said:


> If you use *Disk Genius, *as previously stated. you will get a visual GUI of the sectors that are good or bad and the overall health of the drive. Using the WD tool is good, but just shows you a Pass or Fail. Check Disk gives you a report, but you have to look for it in the Event Viewer. You can try to "Repair" Bad Sectors in Disk Genius, but If you feel the drive has errors, then there is no reason to test it, just replace it. We suggest an SSD drive. Prices have come down and are close to equal the price of a Mechanical drive.


Thank you again.
Also do you know if a clean install as in deleting all partitions will clear bad/slow sectors the same way chkdsk c:/r does?

I'd like to use this HDD a bit longer as I cannot replace it right now and I don't mind wiping my hard drive again to have windows clean installed with the least problems possible

What I'm asking is would it be better to save time and do a clean install or try doing chkdsk c:/r to temporarily fix problems?


----------



## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

ShangWang said:


> Also do you know if a clean install as in deleting all partitions will clear bad/slow sectors the same way chkdsk c:/r does?


CHKDSK does not "clear bad/slow sectors". It verifies the file system integrity of a volume and attempts to fix logical file system errors.



> Chkdsk’s basic function is to scan the integrity of the file system and file system metadata on a disk volume and fix any logical file system errors that it finds. Such errors might include corrupt entries in a volume’s master file table (MFT), bad security descriptors associated with files, or even misaligned time stamp or file size information about individual files.
> 
> Chkdsk can also optionally scan every sector on a disk volume looking for bad sectors. Bad sectors come in two forms: soft bad sectors, that can occur when data is written badly, and hard bad sectors that can occur because of physical damage to the disk. Chkdsk attempts to fix these problems by repairing soft bad sectors, and marking hard bad sectors so they won’t be used again.


Source: How to Fix Hard Drive Problems with Chkdsk in Windows 7, 8, and 10


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

SpywareDr said:


> CHKDSK does not "clear bad/slow sectors". It verifies the file system integrity of a volume and attempts to fix logical file system errors.
> 
> 
> 
> Source: How to Fix Hard Drive Problems with Chkdsk in Windows 7, 8, and 10


Thanks, I'll do chkdsk c:/r again sometime.


----------



## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)




----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

SpywareDr said:


> CHKDSK does not "clear bad/slow sectors". It verifies the file system integrity of a volume and attempts to fix logical file system errors.
> 
> 
> 
> Source: How to Fix Hard Drive Problems with Chkdsk in Windows 7, 8, and 10


Thanks for the clarification, one last thing do you think third party tools like miniTool partition for WD will make any difference for bad sector fixing on restart compared to chkdsk c:/r?


----------



## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

When Check Disk with the */R *switch is run, it searches the whole disk sector by sector, if it finds a bad one, it will try to _Move_ the data off of that sector to a near by one. Then it marks the sector as _Bad_ so Windows will not put any data on it. this is considered "Fixing" the disk. There are only so many available spare good sectors. So, if there are a lot of Bad Sectors, then Check Disk cannot "Fix" the drive. This procedure is the same with the WD _Long_ Test, Minitool, or *Disk Genius*, in my signature. If there are more then a couple of Bad Sectors, there is no reason to continue "Fixing" the drive, it should be replaced.


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

SpywareDr said:


> CHKDSK does not "clear bad/slow sectors". It verifies the file system integrity of a volume and attempts to fix logical file system errors.
> 
> 
> 
> Source: How to Fix Hard Drive Problems with Chkdsk in Windows 7, 8, and 10


Do you think unplugging the SATA cord and plugging it back in may fix drive errors or is that unlikely?


----------



## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

A hard drive is mechanical, with constantly spinning platters and reciprocating heads, all of which ride on bearings. All of this movement causes wear. And when that wear becomes great enough, the drive can simply no longer do what it was designed to do. In other words, it's worn out and needs to be replaced.


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

SpywareDr said:


> A hard drive is mechanical, with constantly spinning platters and reciprocating heads, all of which ride on bearings. All of this movement causes wear. And when that wear becomes great enough, the drive can simply no longer do what it was designed to do. In other words, it's worn out and needs to be replaced.


I've only had the drive for a year and a half so that's why I'm bewildered that it's already failing, I've had an old laptop that has still been working for 8+ years with only 500GB. SATA cord will have nothing to do with drive errors?


----------



## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

1) Yep. Some fail early, others don't. 

2) It might. Since swapping out a SATA data cable is a simple enough task, I'd give it a try.


----------



## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Formatting, wiping etc will not replace Bad Sectors. 
You didn't say what the brand of drive is, but you mentioned WD. If that is the drive manufacturer, you can check your warranty here Warranty Services It should still be under warranty. HDD's are under warranty for 2 or 3 years. You can ship it back to the factory and they will mail you a* refurbished replacement drive* for free. If the drive is not WD, then you can Google the manufacturers name plus C_heck Warranty. _Be aware that _Refurbished _drives have a higher failure rate then Brand New drives.


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

spunk.funk said:


> Formatting, wiping etc will not replace Bad Sectors.
> You didn't say what the brand of drive is, but you mentioned WD. If that is the drive manufacturer, you can check your warranty here Warranty Services It should still be under warranty. HDD's are under warranty for 2 or 3 years. You can ship it back to the factory and they will mail you a* refurbished replacement drive* for free. If the drive is not WD, then you can Google the manufacturers name plus C_heck Warranty. _Be aware that _Refurbished _drives have a higher failure rate then Brand New drives.


This is the exact HDD:
MQ04ABF100 Toshiba 1TB/1000GB 5400rpm Sata 7mm 2.5" Hard Drive 128mb, 6 Gbit/s.: Amazon.ca: Electronics


----------



## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

__





myapps - Check Warranty






myapps.taec.toshiba.com


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

spunk.funk said:


> __
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It says it's not a correct serial number, I think this is for 3.5 SSD, mine is 2.5 HDD.
Edit: I think I have to call their phone number, I'll let you know what happens.


----------



## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

> Toshiba Storage Products Business Unit Technical Support personnel are available by phone at (877) 689-4899, option #2 for all Toshiba and Fujitsu branded Hard Disk Drive storage products. You may also contact technical support at [email protected]


Source: https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com...ments/HDD_TAEC_US_Canada_Limited_Warranty.pdf


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

SpywareDr said:


> Source: https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com...ments/HDD_TAEC_US_Canada_Limited_Warranty.pdf


Thanks, it looks like I can't get warranty because I got this HDD as part of the laptop I bought, but the woman on the phone asked me for my serial number anyway when I said I got it from a laptop. It looks like I'm missing the TSN, is there any way to find this number other than looking for it on the physical drive?


----------



## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

We suggest removing the HDD from the computer and taking a picture of the label. Attach that picture to any Email communication with Toshiba.


----------



## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

It may well be that the deal between Toshiba and the laptop manufacturer states that the laptop manufacturer is responsible for any warranty claims. To find out, contact the laptop manufacturer's Tech Support.


----------



## egowing (Jun 15, 2021)

SpywareDr said:


> CHKDSK does not "clear bad/slow sectors". It verifies the file system integrity of a volume and attempts to fix logical file system errors.
> 
> 
> 
> Source: How to Fix Hard Drive Problems with Chkdsk in Windows 7, 8, and 10


IMHO: BSOD you are having is related to heat.........blow out all vents on/in your computer!!


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

egowing said:


> IMHO: BSOD you are having is related to heat.........blow out all vents on/in your computer!!


I checked temperatures of my HDD, sits around 37 degrees Celsius, I don't believe it is related to heat. As long as the pin hole is not covered it should be fine.
The BSOD happens at random times, sometimes when I wake it from sleep. Right now it's fine.


----------



## pbug56 (Sep 20, 2008)

Corday said:


> It fixes all Windows problems.


It would also destroy the manufacturers recovery partition.


----------



## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

BSOD's can also be related to a failing HDD. If you download and run the Free *Disk Genius* app in my signature, highlight your drive, go up to the toolbar to *Disk *then *View Repair Bad Sectors*. You will know the health of the drive. If there are more then a couple of Bad Sectors, the drive needs to be replaced ASAP before it fails all together and never start again.


----------



## Rich-M (May 2, 2007)

In my experience Toshiba are the absolute worst hard drives so a year and a half isn't actually unusual with them. The mfgr will hide behind making it the laptop maker's issue to fix and of course if you didn't do an extended warranty with laptop maker the problem is totally yours to fix. Most BSODs in my experience are bad hard drives or incompatible memory. Have you by chance added memory to the laptop since purchase? If npot replace the hard drive or learn how to enjoy BSODs, those are really your only choices as someone said her software will not fix hardware issues and neither will additional posts here!.


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

Rich-M said:


> In my experience Toshiba are the absolute worst hard drives so a year and a half isn't actually unusual with them. The mfgr will hide behind making it the laptop maker's issue to fix and of course if you didn't do an extended warranty with laptop maker the problem is totally yours to fix. Most BSODs in my experience are bad hard drives or incompatible memory. Have you by chance added memory to the laptop since purchase? If npot replace the hard drive or learn how to enjoy BSODs, those are really your only choices as someone said her software will not fix hardware issues and neither will additional posts here!.


Done absolutely nothing to my laptop, it seemed to have started failing by itself. I'm still going to try to get a free repair if possible though.


----------



## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

Unfortunately if you use it, it will eventually fail.


----------



## ShangWang (May 23, 2021)

spunk.funk said:


> BSOD's can also be related to a failing HDD. If you download and run the Free *Disk Genius* app in my signature, highlight your drive, go up to the toolbar to *Disk *then *View Repair Bad Sectors*. You will know the health of the drive. If there are more then a couple of Bad Sectors, the drive needs to be replaced ASAP before it fails all together and never start again.


I've used Disk Genius to look for bad sectors, there were none. That's why I have a strange case since my HDD does not show any health defects.


----------



## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

BSOD, App Crashes And Hangs







www.techsupportforum.com


----------

