Laptop unresponsive. Disk indicates 100%, very low read/write.

Nick19DC

Prominent
Jun 16, 2017
2
0
510
Hi there,

Since october 2016 I have been experiencing a problem with my laptop (Dell Vostro 3360) where it will suddenly stop responding, most of the open windows become unresponsive (can't click/interact with them), but the task bar and mouse usually stay active but don't do anything. I usually press ctrl+alt+del to bring up the task manager, but that usually won't respond for several minutes. Then when it finally pops up, it shows that my disk load is 100% and the writing is very low (like 0.1MB/S), so it's not actually doing anything. Other times it would simply not respond anymore and I powered it down manually then restarted the laptop and (usually) it works normal again.

Looking around the internet, I expect it to be a hard disk problem, so I made a back-up of all my important files. I also scanned the hard disk with CrystalDiskInfo, HDTune and one other program and each of them indicates "Warning" level and there are some damaged sectors. However now it's June 2017 and my hard disk is still working, though occasionally I still get this random "freeze". I am wondering if it is in fact a hard disk problem or if it is a virus (Windows Defender didn't find any trace, also ran scans with Malwarebytes but didn't find anything), or another hardware problem.

Any and all advice or info would be much appreciated!
Sincerely,
Nick
 

Nick19DC

Prominent
Jun 16, 2017
2
0
510
Hi Reynod
Thanks for the reply, so you are positive it's my hard drive and not something else?
I have back-ups made of everything I need, so I'm good there.
Also thanks for the tutorial video...
I might end up just buying a new laptop though in case other hardware/software is faulty.