Recently, when I started up Windows ME, my computer paused for brief intervals (15-20 sec), and the "working" light (on the CPU) lit up during these periods. It seemed as if the system was having difficulty reading/accessing some parts of the hard disk. Then, when I tried to run certain programs (eg. Windows Media Player 7, most games etc...), the computer hanged (note that media player 7 and realplayer hanged when I tried to play a movie, but media player 2 played those movies just fine. But I don't think it's a problem with RAM, because I could run a program that uses up almost all my RAM without any problems). Even if I didn't run those programs, my computer would occasionally pause (for 15-20 sec with the lights...same thing as when starting up), for no apparent reason at all. Then I ran ScanDisk, and while scanning the surface of the hard disk (data portion), there were certain clusters that it could not read (it tried to...with the same pauses as before), and it advised me to mark those as bad sectors (I only had the patience to mark about a dozen - it took ScanDisk 1+ min to determine that a cluster could not be read, and there were about 40000 clusters left!). Now, for some strange reason, I don't experience any more of those pauses, but the computer still hangs when I run certain programs (same as before), or if I visit certain websites (eg. Yahoo Auction). What's happening? Is my hard disk spoilt? Or is it possibly a fault with the OS (Win ME). How can this problem be remedied (short of formatting the hard disk or buying a new disk)? Will reinstalling ME help? I'll REALLY appreciate some help. Thanks.

Have you defrag'd lately? I am no expert, by any means, but that might help..? I am sure someone will lend some more helpful solutions. Good luck, Red.

You have a MAJOR problem with your disk drive. It is failing for some reason. The drive could be going/gone bad or it could be a recoverable problem with the drive. You need to backup everything on your drive NOW. AFTER you have backed up the whole drive, find out the vendor of the drive (Maxtor, IBM, etc.) and the exact model and go to their web site and find their Disk analysis tool. Normally you use it to make a bootable test diskette. Use this to first test your drive. If it finds defects or problems, it may ask to to low level format the disk with the tool to correct the problems. This will erase the disk drive. You will then have to do a complete restore from the backup you made. Make sure you can do this before you start. I had to do this last week on my IBM 60Gb drive. I have a second disk that I can boot from and a simple backup procedure and was able to save the contents of my C: drive, low level format to clear the problem with the IBM DFT utility, and then restore the software. Took about four hours, but I know the process and was setup to do it. At a minimum, you must run SCANDISK through the whole drive and correct any/all error its finds. If you do not have a second drive to boot from and backup to, I would recommend you consider investing in one, as you may need it anyway.

Harddrives are cheap now days. Go get one the kiddies will love to play with.

Thanks for the answers. To redredredred: I tried to defrag, but the program said that I had some errors on the disk that needs to be resolved with Scandisk before I can defrag. To JackG: Is it really THAT bad (I hope not)? This problem (strangely) comes and goes. There was a period when it was really bad (pauses, hanging when I tried to run a game and all that), but then the next time I turned on my computer (about 2-3 days later) almost everything was working perfectly (I could play a movie with Windows Media Player 7 without the thing hanging on me). Then it turned bad again. If it's really a disk problem why isn't it consistent? But I think you're right in that it is going bad...and yet I really can't afford to format my disk right now. Sigh. Will a format really do the trick (I never formatted before, and always thought that formatting only cleared the data from the disk and doesn't correct physical errors)? To Sarah: I need my data...and my computer's from HP, so it's incredibly difficult to add or remove hardware (I had to remove the power supply box before I could touch the RAM cards). Besides...I'm not really rich... :( Thanks again for the answers guys.

I had the same problem on my old WesternDigital(8.4GB) - There is a bad sector ....Physical Damage there is not alternative ...backup and buy a new HDD