When your gaming PC is in critical condition

I’m sure many have been there... turn it on for a few hours of grinding and that Windows blue screen of death appears, circling and circling the little dots go.
PC repair guys face shows concern, it may be the end of the hard drive...
Thank fuck I did a back up if needed.
Anyway it may be a new Entropia install
A sad day seeing my PC being carried away....

hard drives are cheap , so you ok enjoy the day

Better its just the harddrive instead prozessor saying good bye

GoNi said:

Better its just the harddrive instead prozessor saying good bye

Click to expand...

Swapping out the dead drive and swapping in the new is a relatively easy fix.


Make sure you buy the largest SSD you can as a replacement. Cool / Fast / Small / Silent.
Magnetic is going the same way as VHS.

yeah , if you have not had an SSD in the past I think an SSD will impress you a lot

Broken disk, I'm just behind me ^^

1. HDD is great and economical for long term massive storage and use to make backups.
2. SSD is fast but it means always making backups and often.
3. SSHD hybrid drives give a fair compromise and are faster then HDD with economical large file storage area.

Alternatively add 1 SSD for operating system, and 1 HDD as second drive for file storage and windows virtual file.
Put windows virtual file on its own dedicated small drive for better performance, ie) D: 32GB SSD second drive.
And having 2nd drive just for virtual file is a must have for newer games like RSI's SC.
I would prefer to use physical ram drive again for 2nd drive (virtual file) but none designed for a +decade.

Consider retiring SSD drives every 2 years and just do a drive image to the new drive with something like G4L on bootable CD or USB stick. Keep the old drive incase the new SSD fails, that happened to me last year with my new 4 month "old" drive, but thankfully still had the previous drive and I lost nearly nothing.

so harddisks can cause bsod's?

hmmm, getting a lot of those as well.
might want to replace my 10 years old (?) drive as well then

wizz said:

so harddisks can cause bsod's?

hmmm, getting a lot of those as well.
might want to replace my 10 years old (?) drive as well then

Click to expand...

Yes BSOD can be caused by drive problems HDD, SSD, and SSHDs.
I've seen BSOD caused by 1 stick of RAM when using a RAM drive (found which one with Memtest86+).

Also since 2015 Windows 10 appears to suppress SMART warnings on boot that your HDD is failing...

Since around windows 7, the windows UEFI boot manager broke most recovery programs.
In the past you could've easily used programs like spinrite to recover info/data on any HDD.
Can still use some of those recovery programs on HDD if you don't use Windows 7, 8, 10.

However most HDD should last 2-3 years (check warranty).
Some Seagate and WD drives had a 5 year warranty.
Very few drives have endured daily use for 10 years and keep working.

Max Hec said:

However most HDD should last 2-3 years (check warranty).
Some Seagate and WD drives had a 5 year warranty.
Very few drives have endured daily use for 10 years and keep working.

Click to expand...

hmmm, my drive is from 2009.
Maybe time to get another one

I put an SSD in last year just to run Windows OS, an 8T HD for all videos, music and back-up and another SSD just for gaming.

As long as you keep your comp clean (reg, HDs and OS), physically clean (open and blow out, do a visual and clean/adjust/repair/replace anything you see that is worn or wobbly), every driver updated (obviously including video card), your comp will last a lot longer.

Most people do no upkeep or updating. They just replace their innards with "the latest" cards, coolest programs and never clean out all the superfluous, outdated data.

I guess I'm kinda old fashion. After I spend a couple thousand dollars on a PC, I want to keep it around for a few years.

Oh - also stuff as much RAM (matching) into your box as possible.

Mega said:

Swapping out the dead drive and swapping in the new is a relatively easy fix.


Make sure you buy the largest SSD you can as a replacement. Cool / Fast / Small / Silent.
Magnetic is going the same way as VHS.

Click to expand...

I have simple PC's running as servers (mail, domain etc) for over 10 and 15 years now without problems!
Having SSD and put precious data on it (even gaming data are precious for me)? not recommended if you don't get frequently backup. SSD can "die" instantly without warnings and leave you desperate.

A good method is to have just the system in C: (SSD) and everything in a normal SATA HD, but everything at all.

better be prepared for Virtual Reality with Windows 12 and wait for its release before buying a new PC.