Diagnose & Repair of HD Problem - R40

[jd2020]

I'm working with a friend's R40 that has been locking up/freezing periodically. So, I ran chkdsk with repair at boot up. It completes, then when Windows XP boots, BSOD error occurs. The explanation is only visible for a few seconds so I don't know what exactly it said. It starts with "SYSTEM 5_INITIALIZATION FAILED" (I think). And at the bottom I did see that a number of memory locations mentioned at the bottom are the same (0x000000, 0x000000, ...) I think.

I tried the chkdsk with repair again overnight and it apparently ran several loops of this problem - CHKDSK - XP Boot - ERROR - Restart - CHKDSK ... By selecting "safe mode" I'm able to get into XP. Sometimes Win XP will boot successfully on the second try after "repairs". Now when I try to enter SAFE mode, I got unpacking of files on the display that ends with "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\agp4400.sys" and then it freezes. Hard drive light indicates spinning but nothing happens for over 10 minutes.

I've run the Windows I386 memory test from CD and found no RAM errors.

Was planning to restore the HD, but now wondering whether its a memory issue. Any ideas how I can further trouble shoot or resolve?
Thanks much.

[jd2020]

Correction: The bottom line of the BSOD is

STOP 0x00000071 (0x0000000, 0x0000000, 0x0000000, 0x0000000)

[GomJabbar]

First, you can press F8 at the beginning of the boot sequence, and there is a boot option (on certain versions of Windows) to: "Disable automatic restart on system failure". Next time you reboot, the BSOD will remain so that you can read it.

My guess is that your hard drive is failing, although I suppose certain virus's may cause simular behavior. You could try reformatting and reinstalling Windows, but I am pretty sure you need a new hard drive. If you can go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer. Look for any IDE ATA or ATAPI errors. This may be indicative of hard drive problems.

There are also hard drive diagnostic tools, such as the one HERE.

Click HERE for information on the SESSION5_INITIALIZATION_FAILED, STOP: 0x00000071 error.

[jd2020]

Here are my interim results. I gave up running a PC-Dr hard drive read/write test after about 24-hours. It had found one error in sector 6310777 - "ECC ERROR" -- and had completed about 35000000 of 71791605 sectors.

Now I'm wondering whether the sector error could result in the freeze behavior I had been experiencing and whether it can be fixed short of replacing the HD.

Also, it seems that PC-Dr should have completed a read/write scan of the HD in less than 24 hours, rather than the projected 48 it was going to take.

I will run the Hitachi or Fujitsu Fitness Test as soon as I can, and report the results.

[jd2020]

Update: The Hitachi Drive Fit Test found errors and claimed to have fixed them. The R40 booted up ok after this, but when I ran check dsk, it still reacted just like before. I even got the same BSOD error.

Am resigned to gettting a new HD, but wonder whether this one can be salvaged as an external drive if I completely wipe & reformat it?

Also, if I use a disk copy utilility like Acronis True Image, will it copy the damaged data to the new disk? Thanks v. Much!