C:\Windows\Assembly\Nativeimages\.... file is hanging up T60

[amy55407]

I should preface this by saying that I sometimes do stupid things that I have no business doing. When I have a computer problem or error I usually search for it on Google and try to fix it myself. Usually I'm within my abilities but I don't know about now. I'm about to do my second clean install in 3 weeks because of this so I thought I'd come here for help first.

I was defragmenting my hard drive prior to doing a backup onto an external hard drive using AusiLogics disc defragmenter. The computer would hang when it got to a file C:\Windows\assembly\nativeimages_v2.0.50727_32\PresentationFramework.....ni.dll. I couldn't really see the whole path because of some elipses but it was something like that.

The computer hung and the only way I could shut it off was by holding down the start button. I went looking for the offending file and couldn't see it in the folder it was supposed to be in. I went to Google and learned how to go into the registry and make a change to see the files. When I clicked on the folder, the computer hung also and I had to hold down the start button to shut it off.

Well, the stupid thing I may have done is that I deleted the offending folder to see if I could just make the problem go away (hmmm, maybe there's actually a good reason microsoft hid this from me).
I ran the defragmenter again and guess what, it was still hiding in the recycle bin even after it was emptied. The computer hung immediately when I started to defragment.

I even tried Eraser, which is a program to really eliminate all traces of files on your computer and it got hung up on this file.

So, I'm wondering if I should just get those recovery discs out and start all over again or is there something else I might be able to do. Since I did a clean install a few weeks ago I'm actually somewhat prepared to do this if I need to.

I wasn't really sure where else to go to ask this question. Thanks for any assistance you can offer. Oh, and I have Vista.

[amy55407]

I solved it. I was tempted to delete the post but I can't! I searched some more and figured out I could delete the entire recycle bin and then windows would recreate it. It worked. I just finished defragging the hard drive. We'll see if there are any other problem as a result of what I did.

[hart22]

Sometimes if it hangs like that on a particular file, even after moving it to the recycle bin, it may mean the file was residing in a faulty sector on your physical hard disk. You might try running some hard drive diagnostics from Windows or the BIOS and see if anything turns up. If a bad sector(s) turns up there isn't much that can solve the problem, but at least you'll know what was wrong before.

[amy55407]

Thanks for the suggestion. I ran PC-doctor short hard drive test and it failed the "SMART Short Self Test" with the error "The read element of the test failed". I tried running the longer test but my computer froze at a particular place more than once.

In short, I'm getting my second new hard drive in less than a year from IBM. I'm hoping this is just a little bad luck and not something that is going to happen twice every year. This is my first Thinkpad and this experience is not enamoring me to the brand.

I'm not sure if I should start a different thread but I'll go ahead an ask here. The drive is still functioning but poorly. Since the hardware is the problem would it be ok to make an image to put on the new drive? Or will I be imaging a problem I don't want? I also have the recovery discs and a fairly recent backup of the drive. I just did a clean install a few weeks ago so I don't really want to start from scratch again unless that the best way to go.

Thanks for any recommendations.

[egibbs]

I recently had a 7K60 drive fail in a similar manner. I was able to chkdsk /f it but it found (and said it fixed) hundreds of errors. After that I imaged the drive with Acronis and transferred the image to the new drive.

There were a few things that I found that were hosed afterward. A lot of my pictures had gone bad - colored blocks and lines in them, displaying the middle to bottom on the top and then the top down below it, etc. I just copied the whole My Pictures directory from a backup onto the new disk and overwrote what was there. Other than that most of the apps seem to function, though I'm sure there are some obscure commands I never use that would cause a BSOD if I tried them.

Try running chkdsk first and see how bad it is. If it's not too bad I'd image it and see if it works.

Ed Gibbs

[amy55407]

I didn't see anything that looked ominous when I ran check disk so I went ahead and cloned (I made a backup first just in case) the old one to the new one, which came today. Everything seems to be working fine and I'm not having the hang ups I was having before.