Hard Disk about to Crash!!!

W

Wino

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:mad:

Any help/advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

I am getting a
'Pri Master Hard Disk:S.M.A.R.T - Status bad' error.

I believe this is a warning for a HDD crash.
I have had problems for about the last 6 weeks, where I have had to reboot 4 or 5 times before the system settles. I removed all startup items from msconfig but it still hangs.
Then I boot up in Safe mode and reboot again and I'm in.

Can this be a problem with the physical disk itself, bearings or something, or could it be bad sectors?
How can I find out? (diagnostic software)


Also if I have to replace the HDD - what is the best disk at the moment and is there any freeware software than I can mirror the disk with?
 
It sounds like the drive is about to die. I have seen this problem at my work, where the drive struggles to load anything, along with a lot of mechanical noise. Without fail, the drive usually dies not long afterwards.

As for brand, everyone has their own ideas. I've worked with most brands, and Seagate seems to be the most reliable.

As for software, there is CloneZilla, which is open source, but I haven't used it so can't say how easy it is. That's one I know of that is free.
 
once you have backed up your data, use maxllf, it is a low level format program. i have used it on many bad disks in the past and i have restored about 70% of them. of the 70% only one or two have packed up again, the other are still running, some for years ....
 
"driveimage xml" with "bart pe" is also a nice free cloning tool. don't know how viable cloning is if you have a few bad sectors.

If you have 2 hard drives, keep all your installed programs and windows on the primary one. and all your media, documentsn ISO's, installation files etc. on the secondary one, which you backup on an external HDD. That way you wont have a crisis if your HDD Crashes, gets stolen, burns down, or the magnetic field of the antigrav on the ufo flying over your home erases the TPS report you were supposed to present on monday.
 
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1) Without delay, ensure you have a complete backup. Partition images are the best and most complete.
2) Check drive temps (with eg Everest or any of a zillion drive temp utilties). With Summer here, many systems are running way hotter than spec. Heat is the single biggest killer of electronics. If key component temps are beyond spec max, get decent cooling fast! (Three of my systems are liquid-cooled - Koolance.)
 
Best place to buy a HDD in CT

Thanks for all the replies.

Can anyone advise on the best place to buy a HDD in CT?

Also WRT to OP, I dont understand why when I boot up in Safe Mode with Network Support, then the machine doesnt hang at all.

I am going to use DriveImage for this. So what would be the best way to go about this. Install new HDD as a secondry disk, create image from primary disk, MAXLLF the primary disk, (could help), then what?

What is the best/fastest way to get my new HDD up and running?

Cheers
 
When restoring a system image to a new drive, make sure you power down the system after the restore process and remove the original source hdd and attach it as the same device number (general Disk 0) as the original source. If you boot-up with two primary active partitions Windows will mark one as disabled and you'll have to edit it in order to make it bootable again.

I've never done this with DriveImage - always use Acronis True Image Echo Workstation. It works every time.
 
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You can possibly go to drive manufacturers page and download a prog that tests your drive (usualy format a stiffy and puit it on there) that might even give you an RMA code and you can get it replace free if real lucky and not too old <3yrs
Try booting with logging and see where its breaking in the boot process.
Drives are real cheap now..get a new one...and back up your data now...even to another box on the network?
 
Hows this look then price wise? (from Take2)
Is there anywhere in Cape Town I can get similar prices and collect immediately?



Western Digital Caviar Hard Drive – ATA-100 – 8MB Cache - 250GB
WD2500JB
Price: R 690
 
Thanks for the help, on more question.....

.....
Firstly thanks for the help. I bought a new 250GB HDD for R699-00. I created an image of my old disk using DriveImage (sooo easy to use), and this is the best part from my point of view - used BartPE to boot up and restore the image. I first forgot to include DriveImage in the BartPE plugins, but once I had that sorted, all ran smoothly and I am up and running again on my new disk.

Just one question: After restoring my image onto the new disk and changing BIOS to boot from the PM HDD, I was left with a blank screen. My PC didnt know where the boot sector was or something.
What could I have left out to cause this? I had to partition my new HDD first, and I selected to not create a logical drive at this point, my reason being that the backed-up image file would overwrite this anyway. Is this wrong, should I have created the logical drive at the same time as partitioning the new HDD, and then restore?

I fixed it using BootCFG (and some flukey luck because I dont know too much at this level) but I am now left with 2 possible bootup sections when I power up. I can select either one to get in, but I made a mistake somewhere with bootcfg. Any tips on how to fix this without risking an otherwise perfect transition.

Again, thanks for the tips and a big thumbs-up for BartPE!!!!
 
R699 is abit expensive considering PC Zone in dbn has the 500gig seagate hard drive SATA2 selling at the same price

Seagate hard drives come with 5 year warranty. Storegate are one of the main agents for seagate, so any problem take it to them
 
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Look its always terrible to discover that you could have gotten the same product somewhere else cheaper, but for me the most important thing here was to get up and running ASAP, which I achieved, so I will not be upset by your news! :)
 
Well now we have that line and the one about air bags covered!

Ta very moooch!

:)
 
Dont need to, I earn a lot.
I'll leave that for people who REALLY feel the difference between R699-00 and R599-00
 
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