Vista Start Problem (Bit Strange)

Hi,

I have a strange problem. I am running Vista Ultimate 32 bit dual boot with linux in a Toshiba Laptop. When computer successfully starts there is no problem in any OS. But the problem is to start vista.
After working at night I turn off the machine and in the morning when I start, the vista roller icon just rolls, it can't proceed, sometimes it restarts saying that unmountable boot volume.
But if I do a hard shutdown (by power button) and start again then machine starts as normally as if there is no problem at all and run all day smoothly (can stop and start multiple times). So it is the problem of starting machine first after several hours of last shutdown. And it is not a one-of problem, it is happening last several days.
Another point, when computer starts successfully it makes a click sound during the vista roller animation and then it starts, no click sound means it can't start. I have installed SP1 recently, the problem occurred even before that.

There is another big problem is that I can't go back to XP as no XP (pro, pro+sp1, pro+sp2, pro+sp3, 64bit) can't be installed in my machine as none of them can find a hard drive although the machine came with XP preinstalled.

Any help or suggestion please

i think i read on another post here that when the harddrive starts clicking it's going bad. ( BACKUP AND REPLACE IT).
scrooge

Thanks scrooge for your response.
If the harddrive is the problem I assume linux would not work, but that is flawless. I think vista is still not as robust as XP yet as there is still lot of related issues, which I have not mentioned here.

So the clicking happens when you try to load vista or when vista is loaded? What do you mean by vista roller animation

How old is your hardware?


As scrooge points out, clicking is not a good sign and is the first stage of hard drive failure. Especially if it goes 'click clunk click clunk click clunk etc...' ( sorry don't know how else to describe it )

Maybe the vista boot / start up data is on the sector of the drive that's going bad - In any case I would definitely back up all your important files / music etc as it sounds like it's only a matter of time before the drive fails....but let's hope I'm wrong. Then run a check disk diagnostics that way you will definitely know if you have an issue...BUT BACK UP FIRST!! JUST IN CASE...

Again thanks for the reply.

My laptop is 6months old. I undertand the concern of click. It is slight click sound. The roller animation is the bar that moves from let to right while vista trying to load OS.

Just to recap the problem: When machine starts I get grub menu to select either linux or Vista. Selecting linux works fine. Selecting vista does not work for the first time in the day after last shutodown 5/6 hours ago. Manual shutdown and starting again, vista starts normally and no problem rest of the day, no matters how many times I start or shutdown.

I checked hard disk by tuneup utilities 2008, it checks for error and some check needs to restart as it wants to check b4 OS starts, all check are passed without any problem.
The configuration: Intel Core Duo, 1.66 Ghz, 2GB Ram, 160HDD, Vista Ultimate 32bit. All drivers are installed taken from toshiba web and no problem with any other device so far.

It would be interesting to see what could be the cause of such strange problem.