Hard drive going bad?

mcsmc · Aug 7, 2010

Hi

I'm GUESSING the hard drive is going bad, but I'd like a few more opinions on the matter.

Computer is a pink Disney netbook (friend's daughter's...). It wouldn't boot -- Windows XP was stuck at the animated loading screen (with the "progress bar" chugging along). And no, it wasn't simply loading slow... I let it try that for an hour or so.

So, I used a USB bootable Ubuntu (no optical drives on netbooks!), which booted fine. However, hard drive access was very slow, and I got several input/output errors attempting to copy files from the HDD to the USB drive. Also, there were several corrupt files on the drive.

I used the Recovery reimaging utility on the netbook to restore it to factory settings. Then, after updating XP (TOO many reboots!), I'm getting an application initialization failure on one of the parental control apps at bootup. If I try manually starting the application, it won't load either.

So, I run a chkdsk /r and it's been stuck at stage 4 of 5 (verifying file data) at 21% for over an hour.

So... hard drive going bad, or what?

mcsmc · Aug 7, 2010

Update:

It got past 21%, but has replaced bad clusters in two files, one of them being the page file (pagefile.sys)... it's now on stage 5 of 5 (been stuck at 0% for awhile).

DavidGP · Aug 7, 2010

Hi

Yes if you are getting bad clusters then even with HDDs having some spare cluster blocks to help compensate for bad blocks, in the end once you start getting HDD issues, the drive is starting on the slippy slope to death, may happen in a day maybe a year, but as you noticed now the drive is causing issues.

I would just let the chkdsk run it may take ages.

Could also check the SMART status of the drive (if they drive lists SMART) with an app like this HERE

or if you know the make of HDD then you can use the tools (if available) from the maker, most listed HERE (Seagate Tools, WD Lifeguard, Maxtor Powermax, Fujitsu diagnostic etc)

mcsmc · Aug 7, 2010

Halo said: ↑

Hi

Yes if you are getting bad clusters then even with HDDs having some spare cluster blocks to help compensate for bad blocks, in the end once you start getting HDD issues, the drive is starting on the slippy slope to death, may happen in a day maybe a year, but as you noticed now the drive is causing issues.

I would just let the chkdsk run it may take ages.

Could also check the SMART status of the drive (if they drive lists SMART) with an app like this HERE

or if you know the make of HDD then you can use the tools (if available) from the maker, most listed HERE (Seagate Tools, WD Lifeguard, Maxtor Powermax, Fujitsu diagnostic etc)
Click to expand...

Hi Halo, thanks for the tips. I checked the SMART status with Everest (free edition), it all checked out (but then again, corrupt files and bad clusters... so SMART isn't all in all).

I think I'm going to attempt to image the drive onto a new drive as you've confirmed my suspicions that the drive is failing.

Thankfully, none of the data on the drive is NEEDED, but it would be nice to maintain the original factory software setup without having to buy a DVD from Disney or someone!

I don't know the make of the drive... I might take the netbook apart to get to the drive in order to see, as you're right, the manufacturer utilities are helpful.

DavidGP · Aug 7, 2010

Thats a great idea on imaging first then trying to fix, the only pitfall at times with imagin a dying or corrupted HDD is that in the imaging process you may also carry across the corrupted block areas, so worth baring that in mind also.

A seperate backup of just the important data (pics, docs etc) would also be worthwhile incase a clean install to factory helps, then you can pop back the important files, be in on the same HDD or a new one.

Before you take apart have you tried to boot into safe mode.

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Hard drive going bad?

mcsmc MajorGeek

mcsmc MajorGeek

DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

mcsmc MajorGeek

DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member