Clicks of death, good opportunity to switch to Linux

[jasong]

I'm typing on a tablet, so I'll be less verbose than normal.

My computer is giving the clicks of death, so I figure it's about to die. I managed to reboot it, but turned it off again when I realized I didn't know how to escalate the chkdsk command to admin.

That's the first thing I need to know, assuming no admin password, how do I convince chkdsk to do it's thing? Simply typing chkdsk into a dos prompt doesn't work, not on any account listed in the Win7 login screen. Is there a trick that I'm not aware of?

Assuming that I confirm the hard disk is dying, I need advice on how to tell my gamer friend to download Ubuntu(?) and write it to a bootable cd on Win7. I don't know, maybe making bootable cds has gotten easier since I last used Linux. If I just need to copy/paste, that's awesome.

Thanks for any help.

[swl551]

open command prompt as Admin
then CHKDSK C: /F

ubuntu installer will make a bootable cd for you.

[kracker]

Probably hard drive. Linux won't fix that.

EDIT: Use a Win7 recovery disk to access chkdsk if nothing else works.

[kladner]

Hiren's Boot CD is good for what ails you, and then some. It will boot to Linux, "mini-XP", or DOS. There is a huge list of utilities which might be useful for different kinds of recovery needs.

SystemRescue disk isn't quite as stuffed with features as Hiren's, it is still well stocked.

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

OR

http://www.sysresccd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage

[jasong]

Originally Posted by kracker

Probably hard drive. Linux won't fix that.

EDIT: Use a Win7 recovery disk to access chkdsk if nothing else works.

I know Linux won't solve the hard disk problem, but I need to convince my father it's the hard disk or it'll be impossible to get along with him in the near future.

Doesn't really matter now, because I just restarted the computer, and it automatically checked the disk for consistency, returning multiple errors within seconds.

I'm about to research how to do a net install, then tomorrow I'll ask my father to make me a cd. I have an external hard drive I can install it on.

Ultimately, I want to run Win7 within Linux for gaming purposes, and nothing else.

I'll post updates on my progress. :) Hopefully, I'll be able to post an update from my "new" Ubuntu computer tomorrow night.