Did you try booting up in safe mode ? (tapping F8 at start up)
If you can,run a checkdisk this way (in the windows safe mode environment).

If you can't, that bad cluster could be located in the first sectors of your system partition (a temporary solution might be to resize this partition at the beginning)

....or the CPU fan might need some dusting or fastening first.

Well me I don't consider replacing the hard drive as now the proccessor is going on me. I can't even run the computer. The computer stays at the Windows screen and won't start up. I don't think I will ever get another HP. I have to wait to get a new one though.

Hi Michelle, I've never had a processor fail on me. most computers I've had have just become obsolete, though over the past several years I have had some HDD's go on me, but I think each time it was my own fault because I'd not routed cables inside the computer case properly, plus had had too many components inside the wrong sized cases, so overheating was a problem. I didn't have enough case fans nor did I use external fans to keep the airflow moving around the back of my computers. At only 2.5 years i'ts still a relatively new computer, so I'd consider replacing the HDD, so that when you get your new one you'll have a back up computer. :) My newest is also about the same age as yours, though I have added new HDD's, a new PSU and a new Graphics card oh yeah and a new Motherboard ah yes and more memory and a new OS, hmmmm, thats virtually a new computer, lol apart from the cpu, fans and cables, lol. The newest component is a HDD that I purchased last week, the rest are over a year old apart from the OS (Win 7 ultimate) and new memory sticks. I'm still able to play all the latest big bucks games with no or no apparent loss of framerate despite having a cpu thats about 3 years old; I can max the graphics out on all my games apart from GTA IV and then only the LOD isn't maxrd out (LOD = distances). I only have a 3.2GHz Athlon dual core 64 bit cpu, which you can now pick up for around £20 without the fan or heatsink. I paid nearly £200 for it almost 3 years ago plus another £70 for a combo heatsink and fan that only just fits in the case, but then didn't build the computer for nearly six months by which time I remember the cpu had come down to around £140. I bought another a few weeks ago to build a computer for my daughter. she doesn't need the latest as she nly play the odd game on steam, preferring to play some of those online games like Moshi Monsters and a Penguin game.

Almost 2 1/2 years, not that old. We had a computer that lasted 5 and another one that lasted 4 years. The hard drive failed and now the computer proccesor is failing. I am on my dad's computer.

Michelle, how old is your computer?? Just curious.

Robert is right; if bad sectors keep popping up, then it would indicate something is amiss (Unless you keep turning the computer off without going through the proper procedure). That would be a good time to start backing up important data. If you get no more bad sectors, the Hhrd drive is probably Hunky Dory. If you are getting a new computer, have you considered getting a spare HDD as well so that you will have two computers? You can pick up a cheap 200Gb drive for next to nothing these days as the Big Gig drives are now the thing to buy. you can get a 2 Terabyte drive for as little as £80 (approx $120) in the UK at the moment, and I believe they are even cheaper in the US? I was paying as much for a 40Gb drive several years ago. 2 Terabytes is 2000 Gb. Ideal for HD videos or if you're like me piurchasing games virtually every day as well as downloading mods for most of the bigger games.

Alternatively type "chkdsk C: /f /r" in your admin command prompt window in an attempt to repair/recover any errors chkdsk finds,after rebooting. The process could take a long time though..
Don't choose the dismount option in Vista.
If no more bad sectors pop up after a new checkdisk after a week or so,your drive is stable and does not (yet)need to be replaced.

I know my hard drive has a bad cluster. I know that isn't a software glitch. I don't know I will have to see what my brother says.

Thanks all for your help though. I guess I have to run a chkdsk scan a lot on this computer to make sure no other sectors go bad.

Short answer: chances are the hard-drive will hold -- but you run a risk of losing important files on your PC.
To venture a guess, the hard-drive is probably intact, but your installed operating system may have become unstable.
This would be a good time to make a back-up copy of your personal data (such as emails, browser bookmarks, documents, music, pictures, device drivers and important downloads).
Often, problems with a PC are caused by software glitches and not by physical faults in the electronic components per se.

We are not replacing the drive. My brother rather buying me a new computer than replacing the hard drive, but that is going to take time. I'm just wondering if this will last long enough. The only thing I can think of why Windows wouldn't load is because the game was on the bad cluster.

If you did need to replace your HDD you don't need a new computer. HDD's are easy to install. you will find space within a computer for extra HDD's and sockets on the motherboard to plug the HDD's in. If you do purchase a new HDD make sure you get a cable to connect to the motherboard and also check to see if there are spare power plugs connect to the power supply. If you only have the one HDD in the computer there will almost certainly be spare plugs but if not you can get asplitter cable that is connected to an exsisting connector and you then have two or more plkugs/sockets coming off of the cable.

You can find several videos that show you how to install a new HDD HERE

You don't need to take out the old one. Most computers have the capacity to hold 5 or more HDD's depending upon how many sockets there is on the Motherboard and how much space is available on the racks/bays that hold the HDD's. (I have five HDD's in my main computer ranging from a meagre 40Gb (just about to be replaced by a 2Tb drive) and another 2Tb drive.

There are lots of tutorials available on the net. Do be sure to buy a HDD with ATA connectors at least. The older IDE drives are becoming obsolete. most motherboard manufacturers don't place IDE sockets on the motherboard apart for one that you'll use for your DVD reader/writer. IDE sockets are large and have many pins.socket holes, whereas an ATA socket is small. (check google images for picture to see for yuorself. Depending upon how old yuor computer is, there may not be any ATA sockets on the compputer. anything over seeral years old is more than likely to have IDE sockets. (you can pick up IDE HDD's quite cheaply because of this).

No, a HDD can have many bad clusters and still work normally. Everytime a bad cluster is found it is marked by windows software as a bad cluster and is then ignored 'totally' The amount of space taken up bay a bad sector is insignificant and will not impact on your HDD. That said, if you find bad sectors keep appearing without the reason I mention above; then there coul be an underlying problem.

I would not buy a new HDD unnecessarily.

Thank you White. I am new to bad clusters. What does it mean for me? You think we will need a new computer or a new hard drive? My brother said if it is the hard drive he will get me a new computer, but not for a while. I read articles on the web that said different things. One article said that when a cluster goes it means that you hard drive is starting to fail. I read another article that said that it isn't that much big of a deal because hard drives of today were made for this type of thing or something like that.

Bad clusters can be formed due to improper shutdowns. Bascally what happens is the reader that scans the HDD is left in physical contact with the disc and can damage that portion of the disc when you restart the computer. In the old DOS systems you used to have to 'park' the head before you turned the computer off. Now it's automatically done provided you swith off the computer properly.; usually one sector. It doesn't happen often, but once it does, that sector is unuseable.

Once a bad sector has been detected by the computer via checkdisk it is marked as unuseable and the disc is then remapped. There should be no after effects once it's marked.

To start off my problems started yesterday after I downloaded Bejewled 3. Windows would not load so I took the computer back to factory settings. This did not fix the problem. Anyway my brother is not a computer genius, but he knows more than I do. To top it off we started having problems with the display on top of it. It kept going into sleep. So today when my brother came home from work he someone managed to get it up and running. He also ran a Smart Drive Test and it failed. He wasn't sure why. He said maybe it is a mistake. So anyway I ran chkdsk and chkdsk found one bad cluster and it marked it unusable. Having been on the net for 10, 11 years I have never had a bad cluster. What does this mean? Thank you.