[Axlin]

I'm having a very strange problem. Whenever I install Windows XP on my MacBook via Boot Camp, my hard drive flakes out while in Windows. It begins making scratching and clicking noises, the system locks up, and then I get a blue screen saying that there was a hardware failure. The part that has me confused is that I have no issues whatsoever while in OS X. Everything runs perfectly there; my hard drive doesn't even make any noise while I'm in OS X.

I've tried everything I can think of to fix this problem. I've uninstalled Windows, repaired the disk after it was restored to a single volume, and reinstalled Windows. I have done the same process, but using a separate Windows XP CD to see if it's an issue with my copy of Windows, but it turns out that it is not since I'm getting the same issue no matter what XP CD I use. Finally, I have taken my MacBook into the Apple store, where they diagnosed my hard drive, told me it was fine, and told me to wait a few weeks before trying Windows again; I followed their instructions (how exactly is waiting supposed to help in the case of a possible hardware issue, anyways?), and still I'm having the problem. I just can't tell if this is a hardware issue or a software issue (the problem being Windows). It seems like a little of both. How exactly can I go about approaching this issue? Is there some sort of disk repair utility like Disk Utility for Windows that I could try? If it is a hardware issue, how can I convince Apple that my hard drive is faulty?

Thanks in advance.

[mfbernstein]

I'd be inclined to suspect hardware problems. It's possible that your drive just happens to have some bad blocks in the region you allocated to XP. If you remove your XP partition, format it as HFS+ and then attempt to fill it with data from the OS X side, does that work? The most complete (and most expensive) way to check for a bad disk would be to create a boot CD with something like Micromat's Techtool Pro on it, reformat the drive, and run a bad blocks scan on it over night.

[Axlin]

Yeah everything works just fine when the XP partition is removed and the entire hard drive is running under OS X as an HFS+ partition. Is there a trial of Techtool Pro? I couldn't find anything but a free version, but it said that it only supports up to OS 9. The reason being that I can't afford to buy it - I just spent $400 on textbooks today.

[mfbernstein]

Don't think TechTool Pro has a demo, sorry. There is the built-in Apple Hardware Test (hold down the D key), but it's unlikely to find problems, even if they do exist. You can format with Disk Utility's 'zero out bad blocks' option, which may possibly block out the bad blocks (it may not help XP, but it might unmask problems with the drive).

It may be easier just to go back to the Apple Store and try and convince them. For stopgap use of Windows, there's of course Parallels which has a demo.

I definitely sympathize on the cost of textbooks (thank god for course packs...).

[Axlin]

I suppose I'll give the Apple store another shot after the Disk Utility thing you just mentioned. I'll just have to show them exactly what I'm talking about by booting into Windows while I'm there. Thank you for your help, mfbernstein.