I have a dirty volume!!

Don't laugh. My ancient Dell Inspiron (well, 7 years old) is now giving me a blue screen on every startup with the message 'the volume is dirty'. It then does a Checkdisk routine and boots OK. I'm assuming that this is an imminent sign of a failing disk and that I need to do a total backup before sending the computer for re-cycling. Is there anything I can realistically do apart from getting a brand new drive?

In reply to a post by GeoffB:

Is there anything I can realistically do apart from getting a brand new drive?

Try running the HDD vendor's diagnostics (either a bootable CD or directly from the OS). It should tell you if the HDD is on its way out.

Back everything up and get a new disk ASAP and do a clone which will then allow you to run everything as before. even if teh old disk is not a problem you will have peace of mind.

Run a decent Virus Scan - or several from different sources. Run a Malware scan - Malware Bytes, it may pick up malware missed by the VirusScan.

Have you installed anything new recently - if so, use System restore to before then, or if nothing new a system restore to a day or two before the problem.

Run a defrag.

When Chkdsk is running does it find any bad sectors and are they marked?


At 7 years old, it still has a few to go ... I had a Win 98 based Dell and I finally decommissioned it in 2009 - over 10 years running 24h/day for most of that time.

Pop in a ubuntu cd. It has built in smart diagnostic tools.

as others have said, back up the data. I would also (if you are capable) open the laptop and make sure the memory and hard disk are pressed in correctly. Sometimes they get loose.