Hard Disk question

XabbaRus · 01-07-08, 04:20 PM

Funny thing happened today.
I deceided to defrag my disk using Windows defrage, after 1% got blue screen information that something happened and stopped to avoid damage and a memory dump address. So I restarted my PC and ran defrag again. Same thing happened.

So I used a 3rd party program O&O Defrag and defragged my drive without problems, I then got it to run a disk check and report says file system damaged but didn't sya whether it was physical or if files corrupted.

any ideas? It only crashed when I tried Xp's defrag.

SUBMAN1 · 01-07-08, 04:36 PM

I'm guessing you have a look at the SMART data. I bet your drive is heading for the garbage bin. Hope you got all your stuff backed up. You have speedfan if I remember correctly, right? It will show you what SMART is reporting for the drive.

SMART won't always catch a problem when there is one though. Check out Seatools. It will run a diagnostic (takes a long time). That will tell you if a problem really exists if SMART says otherwise.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...loads/seatools

I think they have an online version, but it is not as thorough as the offline bootable version. ALso, make sure you don't need your computer for a while - it takes a long time since it checks every last sector.

Hope this helps

-S

PS. Could also be a flaky driver, but since most systems use WIndows generic drivers for HD's, this is unlikely. Another thought is a badly designed or faulting hard drive controller. Last idea is bad system memory. All these ideas are further down the list of prevalence though since the most likely culprit is a dying hard drive.

PPS. Last idea - faulting WIndows defrag tool?

Doubt it though since I've never seen this simple program screw up before.

Blacklight · 01-07-08, 04:37 PM

Sounds to me like your hard drive is going ka-putt. I'd start backing stuff up now.
Maybe try a nice fresh destructive system restore and see if that changes things. It definitely sounds like your hard drive is on it's way out though so start getting prepared now just in case.

XabbaRus · 01-07-08, 04:47 PM

It is 2 1/2 years old and has been used a lot. That is my first thought I have it partitioned into 4 drives. I wonder if I replace the hard drive soon if I can still set it as the slave and move the stuff I really need from the partitioned drives to the new one.
At least a decent HDD isn't too expensive.

XabbaRus · 01-07-08, 04:51 PM

Would this be a decent drive?
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...ory_oid=-31455

It is within my budget and 250GB seems enough or should I go for two smaller drives, though I might not have the space.

SUBMAN1 · 01-07-08, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XabbaRus

Would this be a decent drive?
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...ory_oid=-31455

It is within my budget and 250GB seems enough or should I go for two smaller drives, though I might not have the space.

Seagate has a special on 300 GB drives right now - $69.

Let me look and see if any other deals exist.

-S

PS. Samsung always makes a good product by the way. I only buy Samsung or Seagate anymore. Those are the only 2 drive manufacturers in my house. Seagate comes with a 5 year warranty too.

XabbaRus · 01-07-08, 05:00 PM

OK I'll look at the samsung one. I'll see if I can get it cheaper on Amazon.

If I get this drive before my current one fails what would be the best way to get data off or shall I just burn to disc all my important stuff?

SUBMAN1 · 01-07-08, 05:01 PM

I'm not a big fan of Hitachi - they run hot and are a bit nosier than a Seagate or Samsung, but they are extremely fast. Here is an Ultrastore 750 GB for $200 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145184

Here is the Seagate 16 MB Cache, 300 GB, 7200 RPM for $69:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148290

Those are the only two deals for internal 3.5" HD's I see other than Western Digital, and if you aren't buying a WD Raptor, don't buy Western Digital.

-S

SUBMAN1 · 01-07-08, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XabbaRus

OK I'll look at the samsung one. I'll see if I can get it cheaper on Amazon.

If I get this drive before my current one fails what would be the best way to get data off or shall I just burn to disc all my important stuff?

Burn it. If you really look at what you need, you won't find that much. ALl your other stuff is simply software that can be re-loaded.

I'd save your email to a .pst file (password protected - I've lost .pst email files before for 'not' including a password - weird, huh?)

Save your My Documents, and yoru desktop, and your favorite files. Look for savegame files and back those up as well. The rest can be re-loaded.

-S

XabbaRus · 01-07-08, 05:06 PM

ONe thing which is better SATA or PATA, I have 4 SATA/150 connections and 1 PATA

Also would that Samsung drive being SATA II be compatible with my Mobo? D915GAG

SUBMAN1 · 01-07-08, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XabbaRus

ONe thing which is better SATA or PATA, I have 4 SATA/150 connections and 1 PATA

Also would that Samsung drive being SATA II be compatible with my Mobo? D915GAG

SATA all the way. Its faster and less overhead. Besides, 80 pin cables have a downside that can build up and damage a hard drive over time (electrical signals don't.... well, I won't get into it) so SATA fixes that. The drive says SATA II, but this is a backwards compatible spec. SATA II goes to 300 MB/sec and supports Native Command Cueing, but installing it on a SATA 150 port works just fine.

-S

XabbaRus · 01-07-08, 05:46 PM

Oh one more thing, why was it that XP's defrag led to the crash of my PC and not O&O defrag when it did a defrag and then a chkdsk which is what reported file system damaged?

Peto · 01-07-08, 08:06 PM

XP's defrag didn't lead to the crash--it just brought it rudely to your attention. chkdsk and defrag are more "on the same page" when reporting problems.

I've been seeing many more HD crashed in the last year. More than I've ever seen before. As companies create larger capacity drives, they seem to be more on the edge of failure. I personally think 250GB drives to be the sweet spot of the market right now (size/cost/reliability).

Back up your data immediately. Your drive could go completely boots-up in a heart-beat, especially on system start-up. Your system already warned you so consider each additional rpm from the drive as "borrowed time".

My favorite drives are Seagate but Samsung also makes a good product.

XabbaRus · 01-08-08, 03:38 AM

Yea now my DVD burner is playing up.
I have burned DVDs on it before with no problems but when I put in a blank DVD-R or +R both Windows and Nero give me a 0 bytes, or disc full message.

It is an NEC-3500AG. It could be crap media and I'll get some branded stuff becase I backed up some stuff not too long ago.

Argghhh. The basic PC is fine, I can't afford a new PC but a new HD I could easily manage.

Stealth Hunter · 01-08-08, 03:40 AM

Use the force, Xabba...

01-07-08, 04:20 PM	#1
XabbaRus Navy Seal Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 5,330 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	Hard Disk question Funny thing happened today. I deceided to defrag my disk using Windows defrage, after 1% got blue screen information that something happened and stopped to avoid damage and a memory dump address. So I restarted my PC and ran defrag again. Same thing happened. So I used a 3rd party program O&O Defrag and defragged my drive without problems, I then got it to run a disk check and report says file system damaged but didn't sya whether it was physical or if files corrupted. any ideas? It only crashed when I tried Xp's defrag. __________________

01-07-08, 04:36 PM	#2
SUBMAN1 Rear Admiral Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 11,866 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I'm guessing you have a look at the SMART data. I bet your drive is heading for the garbage bin. Hope you got all your stuff backed up. You have speedfan if I remember correctly, right? It will show you what SMART is reporting for the drive. SMART won't always catch a problem when there is one though. Check out Seatools. It will run a diagnostic (takes a long time). That will tell you if a problem really exists if SMART says otherwise. http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...loads/seatools I think they have an online version, but it is not as thorough as the offline bootable version. ALso, make sure you don't need your computer for a while - it takes a long time since it checks every last sector. Hope this helps -S PS. Could also be a flaky driver, but since most systems use WIndows generic drivers for HD's, this is unlikely. Another thought is a badly designed or faulting hard drive controller. Last idea is bad system memory. All these ideas are further down the list of prevalence though since the most likely culprit is a dying hard drive. PPS. Last idea - faulting WIndows defrag tool? Doubt it though since I've never seen this simple program screw up before. __________________

01-07-08, 04:37 PM	#3
Blacklight Ocean Warrior Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Connecticut Posts: 2,507 Downloads: 145 Uploads: 0	Sounds to me like your hard drive is going ka-putt. I'd start backing stuff up now. Maybe try a nice fresh destructive system restore and see if that changes things. It definitely sounds like your hard drive is on it's way out though so start getting prepared now just in case. __________________ Be my friend or be a mushroom cloud. "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes !"

01-07-08, 04:47 PM	#4
XabbaRus Navy Seal Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 5,330 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	It is 2 1/2 years old and has been used a lot. That is my first thought I have it partitioned into 4 drives. I wonder if I replace the hard drive soon if I can still set it as the slave and move the stuff I really need from the partitioned drives to the new one. At least a decent HDD isn't too expensive. __________________

01-07-08, 04:51 PM	#5
XabbaRus Navy Seal Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 5,330 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	Would this be a decent drive? http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...ory_oid=-31455 It is within my budget and 250GB seems enough or should I go for two smaller drives, though I might not have the space. __________________

01-07-08, 05:00 PM	#7
XabbaRus Navy Seal Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 5,330 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	OK I'll look at the samsung one. I'll see if I can get it cheaper on Amazon. If I get this drive before my current one fails what would be the best way to get data off or shall I just burn to disc all my important stuff? __________________

01-07-08, 05:01 PM	#8
SUBMAN1 Rear Admiral Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 11,866 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I'm not a big fan of Hitachi - they run hot and are a bit nosier than a Seagate or Samsung, but they are extremely fast. Here is an Ultrastore 750 GB for $200 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145184 Here is the Seagate 16 MB Cache, 300 GB, 7200 RPM for $69: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148290 Those are the only two deals for internal 3.5" HD's I see other than Western Digital, and if you aren't buying a WD Raptor, don't buy Western Digital. -S __________________

01-07-08, 05:06 PM	#10
XabbaRus Navy Seal Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 5,330 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	ONe thing which is better SATA or PATA, I have 4 SATA/150 connections and 1 PATA Also would that Samsung drive being SATA II be compatible with my Mobo? D915GAG __________________

01-07-08, 05:46 PM	#12
XabbaRus Navy Seal Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 5,330 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	Oh one more thing, why was it that XP's defrag led to the crash of my PC and not O&O defrag when it did a defrag and then a chkdsk which is what reported file system damaged? __________________

01-07-08, 08:06 PM	#13
Peto Ace of the Deep Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: The details of my life are quite inconsequential Posts: 1,049 Downloads: 4 Uploads: 0	XP's defrag didn't lead to the crash--it just brought it rudely to your attention. chkdsk and defrag are more "on the same page" when reporting problems. I've been seeing many more HD crashed in the last year. More than I've ever seen before. As companies create larger capacity drives, they seem to be more on the edge of failure. I personally think 250GB drives to be the sweet spot of the market right now (size/cost/reliability). *Back up your data immediately.* Your drive could go completely boots-up in a heart-beat, especially on system start-up. Your system already warned you so consider each additional rpm from the drive as "borrowed time". My favorite drives are Seagate but Samsung also makes a good product. __________________ If your target has a 30 degree AOB, the range from his base course line equals the current range divided by 2.

01-08-08, 03:38 AM	#14
XabbaRus Navy Seal Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 5,330 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	Yea now my DVD burner is playing up. I have burned DVDs on it before with no problems but when I put in a blank DVD-R or +R both Windows and Nero give me a 0 bytes, or disc full message. It is an NEC-3500AG. It could be crap media and I'll get some branded stuff becase I backed up some stuff not too long ago. Argghhh. The basic PC is fine, I can't afford a new PC but a new HD I could easily manage. __________________

01-08-08, 03:40 AM	#15
Stealth Hunter Silent Hunter Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Y'ha-Nthlei Posts: 4,262 Downloads: 19 Uploads: 0	Use the force, Xabba...