Computer Freezing Up

[jwdesign]

Hi forums, I'm hoping you can assit with my problem. Recently my computer has been freezing up, and I'm thinking it may be a hardware issue. I get a bsod, but it disappears too fast. Upon reboot, I get a message saying that no boot device is detected, it will keep repeating, so I had to take off the case, unplug, and reconnect the hard drive.

I did run a diagnostics scan and it gave an error of 0151 (hard drive 0)

It reboots like nothing happened, but it seems to happen again. It's happened 3 times. Usually I'm working in Dreamweaver, or just browsing. It freezes up, and I press the power button because I'm very impatient) When it's froze up. It wont do anything, except that the mouse still moves around.

I haven't given you much, but I'm hoping you can help me. I am a graphic designer, / learning web design and have a lot of on going projects. The computer is fairly old, however, I don't know why unconnecting and reconnecting the plugins for the hard drive would fix the issue?

Thanks for all that you do.

 

[TrainableMan]

An error 0151 suggests that your hard drive is going to fail. It is a SMART drive diagnostic message.
It is recommended that you replace the hard drive before it fails completely and you loose your data.

If your OS is on that hard drive then make sure you know your Windows product key because you will likely need it to reinstall W7. NOTE: do not post your product key here or anywhere online, I simply want to know you have it. If you do not have it written down somewhere then I suggest you install a free program called SPECCY and get your product key from the registry; write it down so that you have it.

If you have a backup drive it would be a good idea to create a System Image. Open Backup and Restore and click on Create a System Image. The System Image can be used to restore your computer in the event of a hard drive failure.

 

[jwdesign]

Thank you for the heads up, in the meantime, how do I go about selecting a hard drive that will fit inside my case, and match up with all of the other components? I don't care too much about space. I've never used more than 500gb, but fast write speeds are more important. I know about SSD's but will the other cords fit with an ssd?

I don't know too much about hardware

 

[TrainableMan]

There are two size harddrives 2.5" and 3.5" (This is the width and also how they are referred to). Laptops use the 2.5" and desktops usually allow at least one 3.5" but also allow 2.5". SSDs are all 2.5".

Unless you have an extremely old computer it has SATA connectors which the SSD would need. However there are newer SATA standards (SATA II & III) that would need a motherboard that supports the faster connection and probably higher rated cables. If you specify the make and model computer we can probably check the supported SATA speeds because you would be wasting money buying a higher speed connection and then running it on a MOBO that doesn't support it..

The hardest part (and it really should not be very hard at all) about replacing your HD with an SSD is that W7 does not have any native drivers for SSDs so when you go to reinstall W7 you will need to load the driver provided by the SSD manufacturer before you will be able to install W7.