Windows 7 (x64) freezes during file transfer between disks
January 26, 2014 9:27 AM   Subscribe

My Windows 7 PC (HP H8-1300z) has been working quite fine for the past 2 years but it recently began acting up and I can't figure out why. Everytime I attempt to do a copy/paste (backup) with large volume of folders from one drive to another (external) the PC freezes. The fan also randomly goes crazy for a minute or two and then stops.

System specs:

Model: HP H8-1300z / 64 bit
OS: Windows 7 Premium - Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
Processor: AMD FX - 8150 Eight-Core 3.60ghz
RAM: 12GB
Display Adapter: AMD Radeon HD 7570

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I do a lot of production with After Effects so I am constantly backing up large volume of files from one HD to another. I didn't have an issue with this for the first two years I had this PC but it recently started acting up with the fan going crazy (randomly, even when I don't run a large app) and then when I attempt to copy and paste folders from one drive to another, the system freezes. The odd part is that I can still hear my mp3s playing via Winamp/Youtube but I can't move the mouse nor access anything else. It simply just freezes and forces me to manually shut off the PC.

Any recommendations? Is this box about to die on me? Could the memory be a problem?

Thanks in advance!
posted by bostonhill to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)
 
It's overheating. It's probably full of dust. You need to open it up and blow it out. (And check to see that all the fans are still operating.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:01 AM on January 26, 2014


I'd test the hard drives for bad sectors with something like HD Tune:

http://www.hdtune.com/download.html

(The free version is all you need) Run a slow error scan on the drives. If any of the sectors are red, I'd replace it.
posted by meta87 at 10:29 AM on January 26, 2014


There may be dust that needs cleaning out, but this is odd behavior. Why would moving files, or all things done on a machine used for running After Effects, be the thing that causes it to not just overheat, but freeze, even as some tasks continue running?

I wonder about anti-virus software, since thatcan be a CPU intensive activity triggered by filesystem changes. If thats it, it still ahouldn't be cusing your computer to freeze up.

I would also look through the event logs for any clues, like, perhaps, disk hardware errors.

I woul'd also open up task manager and sort by CPU usage, before doing a copy, and see if it hints at what process is spinning up the CPU right before or after the UI becomes unresponsive. If this doesn't work there is something (System Monitor?) that can log this stuff in the background.
posted by Good Brain at 10:32 AM on January 26, 2014


I ran into a similar problem (though the symptoms were not exactly the same) that was caused by pathnames that were longer than 255 characters. I found a free utility called Pathscanner that helped me find the offending paths (you don't need the paid version -- the free version is great).
posted by alex1965 at 12:12 PM on January 26, 2014


try another external drive

try a copy and paste operation within the same drive (c)

I would suggest that the external drive is barfed or close to being so
posted by mattoxic at 6:11 PM on January 26, 2014


i had a problem with this with my old laptop, with me i was finally able to identify that the issue was that one of my sticks of RAM was bad. maybe use google to see if that is part of the problem?

> Everytime I attempt to do a copy/paste (backup) with large volume of folders from one drive to another (external) the PC freezes

does explorer.exe close? does the copy/paste window go kind of frosted and then "crash"? that was the exact process my PC would go through...
posted by knockoutking at 7:11 AM on January 29, 2014


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