How to repair a hard disk

Lino

Lino

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Hey all

So 2 weeks back I got this 250GB Western Digital Hard disk (SATA) from a friend.

Anyways put it in an external drive bay etc, however it has been giving me a few issues.

For example when copying data to it sometimes it slows down to the point of no return. When copying data from it, some files come up with CRC error.

Is this disk on its way out, or can I maybe repair it>???
 
Have you tried Spinrite? Get in touch with The Techie as he should be able to help you out...;)

I had a CRC error on mine and AFAIK it is not really repairable after some quick googling - bad sectors - although spinrite claim to resolve these issues...
 
DDV TECH said:
K@K friend, take it back to him, some people......
Click to expand...

I agree, I should really have a talking to him:confused:

DJK said:
Have you tried Spinrite? Get in touch with The Techie as he should be able to help you out...;)

I had a CRC error on mine and AFAIK it is not really repairable after some quick googling - bad sectors - although spinrite claim to resolve these issues...
Click to expand...

No have not tried Spinrite, thanks DJK will try all this. What ever happened to your disk? Did you replace it>?
 
Linoman said:
No have not tried Spinrite, thanks DJK will try all this. What ever happened to your disk? Did you replace it>?
Click to expand...

Its with the professionals - was supposed to hear back from them today but alas, nudda. I'll give them till Monday afternoon till I rant them out though - they gave me a decent discount...
 
DDV TECH said:
Take him out for a beer, you never know.....
Click to expand...

Would I did tell him a while back we should, but he never replied to that. I tell you people these days;):D

DJK said:
Its with the professionals - was supposed to hear back from them today but alas, nudda. I'll give them till Monday afternoon till I rant them out though - they gave me a decent discount...
Click to expand...

This wouldn't by any chance be the friends laptops that you dropped would it>?
 
LOl, lets see next week, and I think it was an external drive and a whisky glass, and then the sister got blamed somehow....:D
 
@DJK good luck with that.

@DDV I am going to PM him next week and find out if he is up for a beer.

"Goes back to reading up on Spinrite
 
Well after using various tools and even performing a low level format on the drive. I have come to the conclusion that this drive is better suited as a door stop.

The joys of technology.
 
Linoman said:
Well after using various tools and even performing a low level format on the drive. I have come to the conclusion that this drive is better suited as a door stop.

The joys of technology.
Click to expand...
Did you try spinrite?
 
bwana said:
Did you try spinrite?
Click to expand...

A mod replying to a thread of mine, I feel honored:D

Sorry I had to, but seriously though.

I didn't try Spinrite as I discovered one needs $$$ for it:(
 
on Linux you can install smartmontools (http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/). not sure of there is a Windows port/alternative. it prints useful info to your syslog informing you of drive failures before they happen. it should give you more info.
snip from my log
Code: 
smartd[3106]: Device: /dev/sda, SMART Usage Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed from 41 to 42
smartd[3106]: Device: /dev/sda, SMART Prefailure Attribute: 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate changed from 58 to 57
smartd[3106]: Device: /dev/sda, SMART Usage Attribute: 195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered changed from 58 to 57
smartd[3139]: Device: /dev/sda, SMART Prefailure Attribute: 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate changed from 57 to 56
smartd[3139]: Device: /dev/sda, SMART Usage Attribute: 195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered changed from 57 to 56

is the drive well ventilated? not sure how intelligent the internal circuitry is, but it could be slowing down the drive to reduce heat.

you could also try and partition the disk into a few partitions (10) to see if the problem is with specific area of the disk or the head/circuitry. if only certain partitions cause errors, at least you can still use the others (you can mark a partition as hidden using fdisk or even grub).
 
Last edited:
andres101 said:
on Linux you can install smartmontools (http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/). not sure of there is a Windows port/alternative. it prints useful info to your syslog informing you of drive failures before they happen. it should give you more info.
snip from my log
Code: 
smartd[3106]: Device: /dev/sda, SMART Usage Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed from 41 to 42
smartd[3106]: Device: /dev/sda, SMART Prefailure Attribute: 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate changed from 58 to 57
smartd[3106]: Device: /dev/sda, SMART Usage Attribute: 195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered changed from 58 to 57
smartd[3139]: Device: /dev/sda, SMART Prefailure Attribute: 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate changed from 57 to 56
smartd[3139]: Device: /dev/sda, SMART Usage Attribute: 195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered changed from 57 to 56

is the drive well ventilated? not sure how intelligent the internal circuitry is, but it could be slowing down the drive because of heat.
Click to expand...


Thank you, I shall do that. No the drive is in an external drive case. (USB)
 
Ok I so got Spinrite.

Anyway does it support USB or not?
 
i'm not sure if smartmontools will work with the drive then. it reads SMART attributes from ATA (SATA/PATA) drives. I suppose it depends on how the USB device exposes itself (ATA Controller or Mass Storage).
 
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