Computer crashed and is now... broken?

[Lunaesca]

So, my computer was running fine this morning. I step away from it for not more than an hour to return to that oh so lovely blue screen. My computer started before I could see why it had crashed, and upon starting up went into 'Repairing disk errors. This may take over an hour.' Well, I let it do it's thing for three hours and... nothing changed. Still stuck on that screen. I restarted it only to have it go back to the repairing disk errors screen. My OS is Windows 8, so I popped in my installation disk and booted my computer from the cd. When the installation guide comes up, I am at least now presented with the option to repair my computer. Thing is, I'm not really sure where to go from here. The options I have now are:

Continue - Exit and continue to Windows 8
Troubleshoot - Refresh or reset your PC, or use advanced tools
Turn off your PC

The Troubleshoot options are:

Refresh your PC - If your PC isn't running well, you can refresh it without losing your files
Reset your PC - If you want to remove all your files, you can reset your PC completely ( don't really want to do that )
Advanced Options

Advanced Options are:

System Restore - Use a restore point recorded on your PC to restore Windows ( I'm not even sure my computer has a restore point, unless it created one automatically on it's own at some point )
System Image Recovery - Recover Windows using a specific system image file ( not even entirely sure what this is )
Automatic Repair - Fix problems that keep windows from loading
Command Prompt - Use the Command Prompt for advanced troubleshooting

My computer was running perfectly fine up to this point. I honestly have no idea what the problem could be, or how to go about getting my computer running again. My hard drive is brand new, only had it for about a month, and my other parts I haven't even had for a whole year yet ( my computer was built in Feb. ). I really hope I can get my computer fixed without losing anything. Any help will be very much appreciated.

[Keller]

Sounds like you might have a bad HDD. Either way, try booting up as normal too see what happens, I doubt you'll do any damage.

[Lunaesca]

I haven't even had my hard drive for a month, so I really have no clue why it would be bad.
I've stated that I've already tried booting it as normal, but every time I do I get 'Repairing disk errors. This may take over an hour.'

I tried using restore points, but I keep getting errors, and I don't have any image restore points.

[Deleted]

that realy sounds like hddrelated. even if its a new hdd it still can be broken. if you can, install windows on another hdd. if that works fine, its defenately the hdd and you have to send it back to where you bought it/or the manufacturer to get a replacement.

[Deathquoi]

I haven't even had my hard drive for a month, so I really have no clue why it would be bad.
I've stated that I've already tried booting it as normal, but every time I do I get 'Repairing disk errors. This may take over an hour.'

I tried using restore points, but I keep getting errors, and I don't have any image restore points.

A new hard drive can still be bad.

[Lunaesca]

I'm not really sure how that proves that it's my hard drive that's the problem. I'm currently using my laptop so that's like saying because my laptop's hard drive is working, that somehow proves my desk top's hard drive is broken.

I really have no clue what could have broken it if it is broken. It was running perfectly fine until it suddenly crashed. Isn't there some way I can fix it and just have a working computer again?
I don't have the money or anything to replace a busted hard drive.

---------- Post added 2012-12-03 at 07:28 PM ----------

Is there some way I can check what caused it to crash/what is preventing it from getting passed the repairing disk errors screen?

---------- Post added 2012-12-03 at 07:35 PM ----------

If there is a problem with my hard drive and it has to be replaced, is there any way i can recover my files from my current hard drive?

[Keller]

I'm not really sure how that proves that it's my hard drive that's the problem. I'm currently using my laptop so that's like saying because my laptop's hard drive is working, that somehow proves my desk top's hard drive is broken.

I really have no clue what could have broken it if it is broken. It was running perfectly fine until it suddenly crashed. Isn't there some way I can fix it and just have a working computer again?
I don't have the money or anything to replace a busted hard drive.

---------- Post added 2012-12-03 at 07:28 PM ----------

Is there some way I can check what caused it to crash/what is preventing it from getting passed the repairing disk errors screen?

---------- Post added 2012-12-03 at 07:35 PM ----------

If there is a problem with my hard drive and it has to be replaced, is there any way i can recover my files from my current hard drive?

Did you try firing the build up with regular settings? what're the results?
We cant know for certain it's your HDD until you do.
It could be the sata controller on your mobo.

[Lunaesca]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, Keller. The only things I am able to do is turn it off and boot it up normally - which always leads me to the repairing disk errors screen, or boot it from the cd drive, and when I try using repair settings ( such as refreshing my pc or booting from a restore point ) I get errors saying it failed.

Aside from that, the only thing I can do is get into my BIOS and I don't know what to do in there.
I'm not really huge on computer tech. So anything I need to do to figure out what is wrong with my computer, I'd need to be walked through it.
I stated before I can get into command prompt ( as well as BIOS ), so if there's anything I need to do in there to figure out what's wrong, just tell me what I need to do.

[THoyt]

As other have said...

They've given you advice and you're refusing to take it. You said it was running perfectly, and all of a sudden, it crashed... well, all of a sudden, something went wrong/bad/broke. I've had numerous HDD's that were bad out of the box before, I've had HDD's that died in a day, and so on. Just because it's new, doesn't mean it's going to last for X amount of time.

By what you're telling us, it is drive related, there is no way around it. I'd advise hooking up another HDD and installing windows on it and come back and tell us what hapened.

There are ways to retrieve files off of old or bad HDD's, depending on how bad the disk is. Files are almost always recoverable unless the actuator arm is bad, in that case, you'll have to take it to a shop.

[Lunaesca]

I'm not refusing anything, just trying to understand things better. Sorry if it seems that way.

I still don't see what putting windows on another hard drive is going to do? What exactly am I going to come back and tell you what happened?
It just sounds vague, to me at least.
Unless you're trying to say to run it with another hard drive and try to access mine that way?

---------- Post added 2012-12-03 at 07:58 PM ----------

I just want to make sure if it is or isn't a problem with my hard drive for sure. Because I don't want to go through the hassle and time of replacing it and whatnot, only to have it happen again because it was something else, you know?

Something like this did happen before when I first got my new hard drive, but at that time the problem was an outdated driver that was preventing Windows 8 to run because it wasn't compatible. So I just want to make sure it isn't something like that again.

[Keller]

Yeah, i've got a barracuda that gets me the absolute same issue- it freezes on the windows screen, then on the second restart it goes into automatic repair where it does diagonostics and fixing bad sectors, that'd be the most likely cause. try to replace the Drive to see if that's the issue, if it isnt - it's your mobo.

[Haros]

So basically it's like playing doctor with computers. You've described a list of symptoms of something being wrong with your computer and the people in this thread have given their best shot at diagnosing the problem. While it may not be correct, a problem with the HDD is the most likely cause so if you have a spare HDD around you can test with it should be your next step towards solving the issue. After you do this if you come back and say that it did or didn't work people can help you further.

[Lunaesca]

Okay so, I put my hard drive in another computer and loaded that computer's hard drive. Going into that computer's files, I was able to see my hard drive and access all my files perfectly fine. I even copied files I wanted to save to a flash drive with no problems at all.
I have a friend that knows a lot about computers and was on the phone with him during this, and he said that because I could see my hard drive and access everything without problems and my files loaded instantly, that the problem isn't my hard drive. But then he had to go because he was busy.

So from here, what can I do?
Should I just reinstall windows 8 and start over? ( which sucks because reinstalling everything will be a pain )

If the issue lies with an outdated driver, I have no idea how to check which one it is or how to fix it, since I can't get past that stupid disk repair screen.

[stuck4cash]

A new hard drive can still be bad.

Not only can it be, but hardware vendors (and companies that produce products in general... car companies, furniture, etc) have a "fault tolerant" amount. Ie, an amount of equipment that they're happy to ship bad. Basically they balance customer dissatisfaction (ie, too many DOA hard drives is bad) and cost to increase the success rate (the costs go up exponentially as you get closer to 0% failure rate). Usually they're happy with 1-2% of product to fail.

Now, back to the problem at hand. I know that HP computers provide tools in the bios to do a hdd check but I'm not sure if it's available for computers that are custom built (ie, not sure if asus, gigabyte etc provide those tools). If yours does then you'll find it under your bios settings and it might be referred to as a "DPS test". (and no, it's not recount. )

Okay so, I put my hard drive in another computer and loaded that computer's hard drive. Going into that computer's files, I was able to see my hard drive and access all my files perfectly fine. I even copied files I wanted to save to a flash drive with no problems at all.
I have a friend that knows a lot about computers and was on the phone with him during this, and he said that because I could see my hard drive and access everything without problems and my files loaded instantly, that the problem isn't my hard drive. But then he had to go because he was busy.

That's not true at all. If the disk is failing in a sector that a windows file is in then it won't boot but you can copy the files off easily. (I'm assuming you took the hard drive to another computer, booted it up and accessed your one as an extra drive). This is especially likely because you wouldn't be copying your windows files off, only your data files. What would be a better test is plugging the working hard drive into the computer and boot from it. If it boots fine then it's definitely the hard drive, if it doesn't then you'd need to look at something else.

Hard drives and motherboards have the highest rate of failure from my experience (I'd say either one of those in at least 75% of cases, the rest is usually bad drivers or a failing graphics card but both can be ruled out in this case because of the symptoms you described).

I'd strongly do a proper HDD test before reinstalling windows. If the disk is just starting to fail then windows might install fine but you'll end up having the same problem again in a short period of time (and it should still be under warranty now but might not be when it fails again).

[Lunaesca]

I just remembered that whenever I would restart my computer, it would say a sound driver was out of date and needed to be updated, but when I went through all my drivers and checked for updates, it said all of them were up to date. Could it have possibly crashed because of this?

[stuck4cash]

I just remembered that whenever I would restart my computer, it would say a sound driver was out of date and needed to be updated, but when I went through all my drivers and checked for updates, it said all of them were up to date. Could it have possibly crashed because of this?

It got stuck on a scan disk, didn't it? The drivers are not loaded for a long time after that.

There's at least 5 people in this thread telling you it's your hard drive that is faulty and you have done very little prove otherwise.

[Lunaesca]

It was stuck on a repair screen.
Just want to be sure about everything.

[stuck4cash]

It was stuck on a repair screen.
Just want to be sure about everything.

There's 7 people in here that have said it's most likely a hard drive and 0 that have any other suggestions. What more do you need to be sure about?

You need to run a proper test on it, not just copying files off of it (that is a good idea though since you'll likely need to get a new hard drive). I've seen hard drives pass a comprehensive HP test (it does a deep read from all sectors on the disk) but still be failing.