Software failure, Hard Drive culpable?

[Tungsten_Hue]

Greetings, 

I've recently run into a string of software issues which is seriously hindering my workflow, however I am not sure it is strictly a software issue.

 

My computer is a laptop which I've been using for university for two years now, going on a third. When I first got it, the computer worked fine for about 6 months, at which point the computer would not be able to fully boot, it would freeze before reaching the login screen. After reinstalling windows (7) a few times, I got a registry cleaner which has kept my computer in proper working order ever since (as far as the OS is concerned).

 

Two weeks ago I was trying to load a Solidworks model I was working on to finalize some design flaws. Solidworks would not open the weldment file I made. I could open my original sketch, which I also saved, but it would crash when I tried making a weldment from it. Talked to the tech support, reinstalled it and now Solidworks is just generally slow all round, still doesn't do weldments, big problem for me. I will also mention that the model files themselves are fine, my team members have no problem opening the files.

 

 

Not really workflow related, but Steam stopped working, could not boot it at all, had to uninstall, + 100 gigs of games, not keen on putting it back on my computer for the time being.

 

Also can't run the windows experience index test. May be a graphics driver issue since it just crashes on a graphics test, but point is, many things are going wrong.

 

Positive takeaway? I have a lot more free disk space.

 

Computer:

Core i5 2450M 2.5GHz

8GB Ram

Nvidia 525M (say nothing about this, I got this computer for 270$, so there)

500GB Hitachi harddrive. 

Windows 7 Home premium (64)

 

Do you guys think it is software or hardware? I personally think the hard drive is dying. since I carry this machine to and from school, it suffers a fair bit of abuse. Even though I have a padded back pack and take very good care of it over all, you can only do so much right?

 

Question: Do you guys get computer trouble often? When I was young I remember people saying that computers were very reliable, probably just youthful naivety. 

 

Thanks for the help.

[DigitalHermit]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

 

Does the hard drive make any weird noises?

 

If not,

Run a disk check wich chkdsk and defrag the drive (in safe mode) using defraggler... It might just be a heavliy fragmented drive...

[Tungsten_Hue]

The hdd has not made any weird noises since I got it, only regular operating noise, also i recently ran 2 hdd checking programs, one seemed to just stop responding, the other didn't come up with anything. (both were running off a USB)

 

I've never defragmented a drive before, I heard it could be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. I like to think I am fairly competent with computers though. Should probably backup onto my external hdd first. In the meantime, please feel free to propose other ideas.

 

Also thanks for quick reply!

 

 

UPDATE: I am entirely surprised and pleased that it seems to have worked. I will be honest, I thought it wouldn't do a thing. Thanks for the quick help.

[icantthinkofausername]

registry cleaners are useless, since unused registry entries are just ignored by the system so to say