Hard drive or OS?

Hey people, I was wondering if you could help me out on a little issue I had.

My laptop is a brand new Sony Vaio VGN-FW51JF_H. For the purposes of this, the only relevant information (I think) is that it's running Widnows 7 64bit and has a 500 GB Serial ATA, 5400 rpm hard drive.

Basically, I tried doing a disc defragment using the in built Windows defragmenter. It got to 99% fine, then got stuck. I clicked cancel, and it cancelled fine. I tried it a couple more times, with it getting stuck at around 40% and then 0%, and me cancelling the defragment both times.

I then put the laptop to sleep and left it for a while. When I woke it up, there was a rhythmic clicking from the disc drive (which I'm told is the computer trying to boot from a disc) and then the screen came up with "Operating System Not Found". I restarted, and got the same thing. All I could do in the BIOS was switch the bootmode from Optical drive first to hard drive first, which stopped the clicking.

This was fairly late at night, so I gave up for that day, planning to try booting it from the recovery disc in the morning.

Now here's the weird thing - in the morning it worked fine. I'd left the laptop off, but it booted up as normal. As far as I can tell, everything seems good.

So basically I'd like your advice. It it just a bug with Windows 7, or is it my hard drive?

Thanks,
-SoM

 

The OS not being recognised sounded like a corrupt MBR but this doesn't automatically fix itself,the boot sector was fine all along but the hard drive just couldn't find it and the chances of that happening along with a failing defragment are pretty slim,it also fails a defragment at different positions also pointing to a failing drive.

It sounds like the hard drive if failing but that is unlikely since it is new so the hard drive may be over heating,its unlikely the rest of the computer is overheating as this usually would cause a hard lockup or restart.

Hmmm fix?Make sure the air intakes are free from blockages and place a room fan blowing air into the air intake then run a defrag see if it finishes.

I don't have know of any universal hard drive diagnostic programs off hand so if someone could post one that would be helpful.

 

Have a look at http://www.ultimatebootcd.com for some hard drive diagnostics.

Just as a precaution, I would back up all your data to another source, just in case you have to send the laptop back.

It may be a faulty-from-new hard drive, which is rare, but does occur.

I assume it is still under warranty?

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

I've downloaded SeaTools for Windows (which tells me that the drive is more specifically a Fujitsu MJA2500BH G1)

I did a SMART test, a Short DST and a Short Generic test, and it passed all three. If you want I'll do a Long DST and a Long Generic test too, but I'll have to do that when I'm not using the computer for a while I guess.

I also downloaded DiskCheckup, which gives everything an 'OK' status.

And yes, my warranty is still available, so that's always an option. I've backed up all my important files, so that's not a problem.

I'm just really confused as to why it would not work, then after a period of being off magically fix itself.

I also don't think it's an overheating issue. The laptop doesn't feel particularly hot, and as I said it's brand new so the filters are clean. The fan is definitely working. Unless Sony's made some critical design flaw I don't think overheating can be the problem. Just to be sure, are there any programs that monitor the hard drive's temperature? I don't particularly want to try another defrag right now incase it does the same thing and then doesn't fix itself.

I've had experiences of faulty from new hard drives, so I'm pretty open to that possibility.

-SoM

 

Try speed fan for the temperature check: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

The fault may be a heat problem: constant use of the drive, such as a defragmenter, will heat up the insides of the drive. Leaving it off overnight allowed it to cool. Just like the "put the drive in the freezer overnight" trick works on drives sometimes.

Please note I am not recommending the freezer trick now.

 

OK I've downloaded that program but it doesn't seem to be detecting my hard-drive... any tips?
Your theory seems plausible, but I did leave it for about 3 hours after the defragment, in sleep mode so it would have had plenty of time to cool down then...

Either way, I can't really say anything until I can get this to detect the harddrive and give me a temperature. All it's telling me so far is that my processor is running at about 40C.

-SoM

 

Ok, since that program you linked doesn't work for me, I downloaed HDTune instead.

I did its Error Scan, which took 2:15 hours, and came back with all green sectors. The temperature rose to about 42C whilst it was doing this, and it seem to idle at about 38C.

Do you still think this seems like a faulty hard drive? Are there any other tests I should do?

-SoM

 

Is the problem with the De fragmentation still occurring? If so, try a third-part defragmentation software, such as IOBit SmartDefrag: http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html

If this crashes as well, then I would now suspect an OS error, as you previously stated.