Preventing hard disk failure? and more

yeeha · Aug 5, 2006

Are there any steps an intermediate user can take to reduce wear and tear on a new hard drive, or otherwise prevent future failures or performance degradation?

And, supposing I have a disk that *might* be about to fail, and *might* have an unknown virus or spyware infection.. if I install it as a slave or secondary hard drive,

1) Do I risk infecting the master disk with the viruses/spyware from the slave?

2) Can a damaged disk running as a slave cause indirectly cause damage to a healthy master disk?

Thanks in advance

TimW · Aug 5, 2006

Phew ....good questons ....really ...never be afraid to ask ..1) best way to reduce wear on your drive is to defragment it once a month (less if you use it infreguently ..more if used alot)
2) a hard drive set as a slave with virus on it will / can definetly infect a master ..just like a floppy can transfer when you open something on it, or an e-mail attachment if you open it.
3) No a failing hard drive will not affect any other hard drive though if you are using a program in the failing drive that is processing a file from the good drive, you may lose the work/file if it fails as you are working it.
Does this help?

yeeha · Aug 5, 2006

Yes, very much thanks

next questions,

1) How can I use the utilities on my pristine drive to scan the questionable drive for infections, without risking a cross-infection? Can I temporarily write protect my disk or something? Login without admin priveleges?

2) Do (freeware/cheap) software utilities for hard disks have the ability to detect actual damage in the drive? Or in other words, is there a way I can find out if my old drive is really about to fail (or broken in some less serious way) without paying somebody to inspect it ?

Hearing the awful clicking sounds was enough to motivate me to buy a fresh drive before hell broke loose, but I'd prefer to know something more conclusive before actually chucking the old one in the trash. I would love to use it as a slave drive for applications so I can keep the new disk in the best shape possible, and even boost my overall performance a bit.

TimW · Aug 5, 2006

You had clicking sounds? Not good ...that usually means that the armature is physically hitting the surface of the discs ...they are supposed to "float" over them ...not touch them ....the pivot on the armature starts to wear out ...
So with that in mind ....if you have removed all the files that you need from the disc ...and still want to risk it for say double backups ...two things to do...
1) your anti-virus should be able to run scans on all drives (if you set it to) ....would help to know what anti-virus you have,
2) if the drive is "clean" ....nothing on it you want to keep ...when it is slaved, you can go to control panel / admin tools / computer management / disc management / right click on that drive and choose format ...when that is done right click again and choose tools / check disc (check both boxes for repairs and error checking)....
3) a new hard drive in the 60 -80 gig range is $50 - 70.00

Had to reread .....set a system restore before you slave the other drive and run the anti- virus ...just to be safe.

yeeha · Aug 5, 2006

Wow, you're too helpful. Are you trying to sell me something? jk

thanks for all the help, everything seems to be running swimmingly, and I think I'll wait till tomorrow to experiment with your suggestions.

For now.. never thought I'd be so happy to be home on Sat. night playing Ghost Recon.. whatta dork !

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Preventing hard disk failure? and more

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TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

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TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

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