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Lloyd is completely right, it's slow because it's failing.
Don't use the harddrive. The more you use it, the more info you're going to lose.
Get the broken harddrive over to another computer and make a sector by sector copy to a harddrive image or another HDD using Symantec Ghost or a similar program. (Norton Ghost isn't a similar program, it's garbage)
Depending on how destroyed the harddrive is you have to decide on whether you reinstall the operating system on the new harddrive and copy the important stuff from the backup, or if you simply copy the entire content of the old harddrive to the new harddrive.
Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES!
Abraham Lincoln
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No it's not a virus, SMART failure means hard-drive is facing mechanical problems, means (most of the time) it can't be fixed. And it will get worse as you use it. So don't try to remove anything, do not defrag or run scan disk. Otherwise it will fail even sooner. Copy the most important data (or at-least copy that data first) to another hard drive. and replace the current hard drive with the new one.
After the replacement you could scan the hard-drive for bad-sectors, but IMO you should not use/trust that hard-drive.
All the hard-drives have 100% failure rate, so sooner or later this kind of issues will occur.
Also advise your friend to not shock/drop the laptop while it's running. (it might not be the only cause, but it is very likely if the laptop is not older than 6-7 years) 
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Joan Murt wrote: I tried to restart t'he computer a warning message appeared: SMART failure predicted on hard disk x. Immediately backup all your data has a hard disk failure is imminent.
Reached that point what would you do?
I would back up the hard drive
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SMART failure warnings are serious: it means the HDD manufacturer is convinced that the physical surface of the disk is well and truely on its last legs. Physical failure of the disk is imminent, so:
1) Do not turn the lappie off! If you do, the risk of it failing when you try to power it back up are a lot higher than if you leave it running and do nothing with the PC...
2) Back up. Now. As everyone else has said, get the critical stuff first, then worry about the less important, then the needed, then the trivial. The problem is that the more you do, the worse the disk will get, so it is very important to prioritise the order in which you get the data off.
If it is turned off at the moment, leave it off. By preference, take it out of the laptop, and insert it as an external drive or second drive to reduce the amount of disk accesses needed before you get to the data - loading a modern OS takes a lot of disk work!
Then once the data is safe, replace the drive, or possibly the whole lappie - it may be cheaper and easier, depending on whether your friend actually backed up the OS install partition when he got the laptop... 
Good luck - and your mate owes you quite a few beers...
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
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OriginalGriff wrote: physical surface of the disk is well and truely on its last legs
The HDD has a bit (or byte) of problems 
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Everyone is correct to say, 1st thing is get the data off.
It is also important to understand what the errors are, so get your hands on one of the many free tools and analyse the SMART data. Here is the wiki describing SMART parameters; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.[^]
Your pal might not need to spend any money, as you can use SMART as a potential friend. HDD warranties used to be quite long, so depending on the make and warranty conditions, you could get a replacement for the price of postage. I have done this twice with Seagate disks (used in my NAS), and all I needed to do was run the seagate tools, extract the error code, check on the website if it was a DIY fix or a send to seagate for replacement.
I have had 2 errors repaired by just using the tools and 2 disk exchanges, and this was years after the disks were bought.
Cheers,
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FWIW, I replace all hard drives at 3 years. It's not IF they will fail, its when. The cost of the hard drive is insignificant compared to the lose in time and data.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house.
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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1) Backup as soon as you can.
*) In the event of problems you can extend the live time of a hard disk by placing it in a bag in the freezer for about an hour, so you can back it up.
*) If the laptop is old you can remove the hard disk and place it in an external usb drive enclosure and backup on another system.
A programmer walks into a bar and asks the bartender for 1.00000000000003123939 root beers. Bartender says, I'll have to charge you extra, that's a root beer float. Programmer says, better make it a double then.
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The "virus" is probably the Internet browser.
Replace the HDD, and install a three-year-old version of a browser. I bet it'll work just fine.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I had a similar problem recently.
All of the posts offer sound advice.
If you ignore SMART advice it will come back to haunt you...
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read." Frank Zappa 1980
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[Not a programming question]
My son was just playing Lego Lord of the Rings on his 3DS and hit what appears to the maximum number of studs -- 4,200,000,000 -- so apparently the game uses an unsigned 32-bit integer, but why not the full 4,294,967,295 ? 
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Taxes? 
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Only 9.4% ? I think not.
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I must admit I don't often encounter "4,200,000,000" and "is that all there is" in the same thought.
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<insert comment on congress here />
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: so apparently the game uses an unsigned 32-bit integer, but why not the full 4,294,967,295 ?
You might also want to check if your son is signed!
modified 5-Oct-13 14:37pm.
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he is a safe assembly then
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: but why not the full 4,294,967,295 ?
Someone put a limit check in an so they wrote the first literal rather than the second. Perhaps because they didn't want to figure out the real number and didn't know how to write a literal as an expression. Or perhaps because there is something that can add a 'large' number to the value and they wanted to make sure the limit was hit well before that could occur.
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Rounding error!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Because when you strip the zeros, you get 42.
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Slideshow: 200+ pics of people getting the bejabbers scared out of them at a Halloween haunted house in Canada. Seriously funny stuff.
Click[^]
XAlan Burkhart
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Picture 2: 
Are you sure that the one on the left isn't an exhibit? 'Cause she scares the bejeezus outta me!
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
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OriginalGriff wrote: Cause she scares the bejeezus outta me!
My favorite was #118. Sheer terror.
XAlan Burkhart
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