Problem with the Booting

[Bacchu]

2 months ago I bought IBM Thinkpad T43, its a great laptop with the finger print detection and 100 Gb Hitachi Hard-disk.
But recently, I am having little problem with the booting, when I start my windows it takes 10-15 minutes to boot, I re-installed operating system in another partition, but the result was same. SMART feature gives me no errors. I checked my hard-disk with various tools, but couldnt find error.
Does anybody has any idea, what could be causing this problem ?
by the way, HDD is HTS721010G9AT00, Hitachi 100 GB.
Please Help Needed

[christopher_wolf]

Does it stay at the Windows XP black loading screen or at the XP logon screen longer?

If it is the logon screen, check what processes are starting up at that time.

[Bacchu]

Only the IBM software services are enabled and in start-up there are just IBM softwares.

I forgot to mention, there is a constant hard-disk activity while booting. 10-15 minutes of constant hard-disk reading is not a good sign.

[christopher_wolf]

Only the IBM software services are enabled and in start-up there are just IBM softwares.

I forgot to mention, there is a constant hard-disk activity while booting. 10-15 minutes of constant hard-disk reading is not a good sign.

No, it isn't...Hmmmm

Try running Bootvis on your system, as well as disabling services on startup one by one; I can't really think of what IBM service there is that access the HDD alot during startup except for R&R and CSS.

It should tell you after it is done rebooting the system what accessed the disk that much during startup.

Either that or the HDD is near the point of no return; in which case, scan it via PC-Doctor and look at the SMART attributes. I have seen HDDs past their 2xMTBF ratings do that and thrash for 15 minutes during startup...Is this a new HDD or has it been used for quite awhile already?

Can you always boot successfully? I.e. it always thrashes for a certain time period and then you get to login.

[Bacchu]

This is totally a new Laptop with new hard-disk ..., just bought it 2 months ago. I didnt even format it yet.

I checked the hard-disk with the bootable cd with hitachi/ibm diagonostic tool. it didnt show any errors. but, in the beginning of the scan, the read speed is very slow. and later after few minutes of scanning process , it goes normally.

SMART shows no critical errors.

and Yes, I can always boot normally and login after that 10 minutes or so.

I tried installing new win XP on another partition, but the end result is the same.

is it my Hard-disk is dying ?

[christopher_wolf]

This is totally a new Laptop with new hard-disk ..., just bought it 2 months ago. I didnt even format it yet.

I checked the hard-disk with the bootable cd with hitachi/ibm diagonostic tool. it didnt show any errors. but, in the beginning of the scan, the read speed is very slow. and later after few minutes of scanning process , it goes normally.

SMART shows no critical errors.

and Yes, I can always boot normally and login after that 10 minutes or so.

I tried installing new win XP on another partition, but the end result is the same.

is it my Hard-disk is dying ?

Well, the only anomaly there is the unusually long time it takes for the Hitach Drive Tool to start the scan, that isn't normal; for a low-level access program like that is booting from a CD it should be very quick, at least during the start up.

Otherwise, if you can get your hands on another 2.5" HDD to use for temporary purposes, see if it does the same thing with the new HDD with the same Windows XP install image. That would narrow it down to the HDD and the connector.

[Bacchu]

unfortunately I dont have access to another laptop hard-disk, right at the moment
Is there any other way to check the hard-disk besides replacing the hardware ?

I dont have a good experience with Hitachi HDD, in my old laptop too, it crashed.

this time, the problem is really strange, neither there is any detection of bad-sectors.

is there any low-level hard disk utility to check it ?
or can it be defect in the connector ??

[GomJabbar]

My first guess would be your hard drive on it's way out. Take a look in Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer for any ATA/ATAPI errors or SMART errors. (I see you already looked at SMART).

I have heard that viruses, spyware and the like can cause problems such as these. Do a good virus and spyware scan from Safe Mode to rule this out as the problem.

[Bacchu]

My first guess would be your hard drive on it's way out. Take a look in Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer for any ATA/ATAPI errors or SMART errors. (I see you already looked at SMART).

I have heard that viruses, spyware and the like can cause problems such as these. Do a good virus and spyware scan from Safe Mode to rule this out as the problem.

Sorry, but I am sure and certain that its not a virus or spyware. Even while booting in safe mode, its take the same amount of time. probably 1 minutes less

I even installed New Windows XP, but same result. So I dont think its the problem of Virus or Spyware.

Need some ideas PLEASEEEEEEE

[christopher_wolf]

Well, I don't think it is a problem with XP either; else I would have recommended trying to install another OS and see how it handled the HDD during boot.

You probably have a bad HDD on yur hands at this point; it might be possible to get ahold of either IBM or Hitachi and tell them that you got a HDD that seriously impedes your ability to operate your Thinkpad and you would like them to send you a new one.

[Bacchu]

thank you .
I will be contacting the IBM Service Center. I think its my best option right now.