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can a file or folder structure make a pc crash at random?

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nudone:
i'm experiencing weird hard drive problems at the moment.

i was convinced that a particular hard drive was on it's way out and making my system lock up or reboot - but the SMART readings for this particular drive indicate it's perfectly healthy.

so, all i can see that might be wrong with the drive is the data that is on it. there's about 150 gig used on the drive and i'm slowly removing what i can from it just in case the drive does die.

therefore, my question is: am i talking rubbish - can something on this drive make my machine lock up or reboot when it feels like it - just data. i'm not running programs from it. the problem only occurs when the drive is being accessed in some way but it's not consistent and i can't see a pattern to it all.

i've spent today reinstalling windows xp and updating all the drivers - i've not really installed any of the programs i'd normally have on the machine. i was expecting this to cure the problem but the machine rebooted itself when i was transferring data from the dodgy(?) drive to a dvd - the machine rebooted as the data on the disk was about to be verified.

i'm prepared to throw the drive out the window if it's dying - how reliable is this SMART stuff?

heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!

mouser:
it's not that you have data on your hd that is evil and is causing the blue screen, BUT:

1) hardware problems (like with memory chips) can cause these kinds of crazy behaviors.
2) if it's always the same file - then it could be something like an antivirus bug trying to scan a file.
3) it could always be the vd burning software if it only happens with that.

I have learned to take very seriously the possibility of hardware errors when encountering hard-to-pin-down reboots like this.  It's one of the reasons that it's becoming more and more useful to have a 2nd pc around to test stuff and move hds, etc.  Condsider getting yourself a cheap secondary pc if you don't have one yet.

nudone:
good point. i have other older machines but they don't have sata drive capabilities - maybe i could just get a sata pci card thing.

first, i'll remove all the data, then format the drive and then start again with it. first sign of it playing up and i'll scrap it.

the drive seems to behave perfectly until i start transferring data to or from it. well, that is what i first thought but it really doesn't do it consistently so i can't spot which file could be the problem - it's always something slightly different. no anti virus software is on the machine either - not since i've reinstalled windows today.

i'll leave it until tomorrow and then just carry on removing stuff from it.

jgpaiva:
I've had a similar problem, only that the computer wouldn't reboot. But explorer would crash when i opened some folders. I never got to understand exactly what it was, but i suspect it was codec-related, since it happened mostly in folders with movie files. I don't exactly remember how it disappeared but i think it was with a codec update.

f0dder:
NTFS can get slightly corrupted, which can sometimes be enough to cause random freezes or just plain weird behaviour. It's usually fixed by a "chkdsk /f x:", which might require a reboot (ie, for system and paging file partitions). Dunno when/why this happens and why it's not auto-fixed...

Never lost data anyway, thanks to the journaling. (Well, except when playing with drivers and being very reckless, or when having hardware trouble :) ).

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