Question about a hard drive scan

I scanned my hard drive with HD Tune Pro. The results came back with one error message- Error at 15409 MB (LBA 31557736). Is anyone familiar with this program and what this message could mean? Or is there a more appropriate website/forum I should be posting this question to?

 

I'm not familiar with this program, but does it recommend some type of action?

 

Unfortunately, it doesn't.

 

It looks like you have one bad sector on the HD which isn't all that alarming.
Which brand HD is it--or the model number will do (probably shows in HDTune).

Sometimes the manufacturer's diagnostic utility can repair an error.

 

According to HD Tune, it's a Toshiba.

 

Of course, Toshiba doesn't have a proper utility. http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287#toshiba

If HDtune says the SMART status is OK then I wouldn't worry about it. A few bad sectors on a drive is normal. It is only as they increase rapidly that there is a problem.

If you are running Windows you can use chkdsk /r which will scan the whole HD and look for bad sectors and move any data from them and then mark them unuseable. If you only have one partition on your HD then you can go to Computer and right-click the C: drive and select Properties, under the Tools tab select Error Checking. Tick both boxes and hit Check Now. It will ask to schedule at next reboot so say Ok. The surface scan can take a while depending on the size of the drive.

 

It's okay- maybe there is another way to do a repair. In HD Tune, the 'status' (I'm assuming that refers to the SMART status) just says n/a. I ran the check disk- The first part was fine, but when it got to the second phase of the second part, it said 'Windows was unable to complete the disk check."

I originally noticed that there was a problem a few days ago when the computer beeped during startup. The internet was also extremely slow. Everything seemed to be fine the day before. Avast also was allegedly detecting many viruses, before it failed to complete a scan that day (I know I don't have any viruses- I did a scan yesterday with both Avast and Malwarebytes and neither of them detected anything). Everything seems to be working properly now, so I'm not too worried. But if there is a problem, I'm hoping I can get it fixed before something more serious happens to the drive.

 

Although someone on another forum just told me my hard drive is failing...I really don't like the sound of that.

 

You can try the Windows diagnostic utility here: http://storage.toshiba.com/storage-services-support/warranty-support/software-utilities#diagnostic Worse that happens is it says yours is not a Fujitsu/Toshiba drive.

I'm not certain which part of chkdsk failed. You can always try again.
Ticking only the first box goes through stages 1-3 which fixes any problems with the file system itself. Relatively quick.

Ticking the second box goes through stages 4-5. Four being the exhaustive sector by sector reading and trying to recover data from any bad sectors and moving it to a new location. Then marking a problem sector as not to be used.

One bad sector is not indicative of a failing drive. There will always be a few bad sectors on any drive. It is only when you get increasing numbers of bad sectors that you have a problem. Chkdsk should be sufficient as it lets Windows find bad sectors and it marks them as not to be used, which is good enough unless you have tens and tens of bad sectors.

 

Ok- yeah hopefully it's still just a minor problem. I tried the check disk twice- not sure why it won't work. I'll try the Windows Diagnostics Utility.

 

Why won't it let me select the target drive to test?

 

My guess is that it does not recognize it as a Toshiba branded Fujitsu drive. There is something about the companies merging HD manufacturing as to why Toshiba doesn't have a utility.

I'm giving HDDScan a try to see if it provides any useful information. I'll let you know what it shows as far as bad sectors on my drives. http://hddscan.com/

 

What were the scan results?

 

As far as I could tell the HDDScan results were only about read speeds, no information about bad sectors.

I believe SeaTools will work on any brand HD. I thought there were restrictions about only attempting a fix on a Seagate/Maxtor brand drive brand drive but don't see that restriction in the program.

I only ran the Quick Smart and Quick Generic test just now. It would be the Long test that would find bad sectors and have any fix option available.

I ran the quick tests in the Windows version but if I wanted to really test I would use the DOS/CD version.

I don't have time today but I will burn the CD version and run it late tonight or tomorrow and see if it allows fixing. You might want to try it yourself if you have a blank CD or download the Windows version.

 

Ok. I really appreciate all of the work you are putting into this.

 

Sorry for no definitive results-I realize now that all my experience with manufacturer's diagnostics is related to WD branded drives as that is the brand I always purchase.

I ran the Seatools for DOS on 4 drives but all found no bad sectors so I was never given the chance to test whether or not a repair attempt would be available for non-Seagate drives. Reading the documentation--it sounds like repair is only an option for Seagate drives using the DOS version but I guess it couldn't hurt to run the test yourself to verify that it won't offer to repair.

I think I would download the Windows version and run the short generic and the long generic test to see if you get a pass or fail. That would tell you if the original program you used was accurate. If the long generic fails then try DOS CD version to see if the long generic will run and offer to fix bad sectors or not.

When you are done that I really would concentrate on at least getting chkdsk to complete the first three stages. Not having that complete is not a good sign.

 

Check Disk seems to have worked this time. I ran Seatools for Windows- the long generic test failed and both the short generic and SMART tests passed. What does that mean? I haven't tried the DOS CD version yet.

 

That the SMART test passed means that the drive hasn't experienced multiple bad sectors or read/write problems. SMART is cumulative and keeps track of errors over the life of the drive, when the drive has experienced a certain number of errors the SMART status is tripped and goes from Good to Bad/Fail. Your SMART status is good so you just have a random bad sector. BTW sectors are tiny. Might hold a few letters of a single word. There are millions of them on a HD.

So my interpretation is that you have a bad sector that is seen by two different softwares. Unfortunately, neither will fix it. You can try the CD version of Seatools to see if it will offer to fix the error. I think it may not offer on a non-seagate drive but you don't know if you don't try.

Because Toshiba doesn't seem to have a utility I don't know what to tell you. SpinRite is supposed to be very good but is very expensive when comparing the price to a new HD.

Formatting the HD will mark bad sectors bad so they won't be used in the future. But that means imaging the whole drive onto an external HD. Then formatting the internal drive and putting the image back onto the internal HD.

I think I would go ahead an run chkdsk with the both boxes checked and see if it will complete. That would mark any bad sector bad as far as Windows is concerned and avoid problems. (You said chkdsk completed but I not sure if you meant just the first three stages or the full chkdsk that includes surface scanning for bad sectors.) If you already completed the surface scan you don't have to do it again but you might want to run it in a few weeks and see if it finds any new bad sectors.

 

Everything with Check Disk completed (with both boxes checked). How much longer do you think the drive will be usable? I copied my important data onto a flash drive, but I want to delay buying a new hard drive for as long as I can.

 

I also have one more question- for a few months, I have had a problem with my keyboard (at least I thought it was a keyboard issue). When I type, sometimes the cursor will backspace and erase text automatically. And when I intentionally delete text, it will sometimes delete much more than it should. Is this a problem with the keyboard or could the hard drive (or some other hardware in my laptop) be causing the problem?

 

Sorry, I thought I replied to this yesterday.

As long as your SMART status is Pass you should be fine. SMART is an early warning system. If it still hasn't been tripped then the bad sector was just an isolated bad sector and not a major problem. When SMART gets tripped and goes to Fail then it is a crap shoot as to when the drive will fail. Sometimes it is the next day sometimes people run them for months. In actuality the drive doesn't exactly fail but becomes unreliable and eventually an important operating system file gets damaged and the OS won't load.

I replace a drive as soon as I get a bad SMART status if it is an OS drive. I don't like the uncertainty. That said after I replace the drive and load the OS, I usually just format the failed drive and use it for data files as extra storage. Most times those drives are still good for a couple of years used like that. It is only when you hear mechanical sounds of metal touching metal that a HD becomes totally dead.

Since chkdsk passed all 5 stages you should be OK. I'd run chkdsk all five stages, once a month and note if it finds any files in bad sectors. If you start seeing files in bad sectors then consider replacing the drive. Might run the SMART status test in Seatools once a month for a month or two and make sure that doesn't change either.

As far as the keyboard, I doubt that is HD related. Sounds like you may have a sticky backspace key. You might try running with an external keyboard someday and see if you can duplicate the problem. If it happens using the external then it wouldn't be a sticky backspace key.

 

Oh ok- hopefully this one will last a while. I will continue to monitor it with Check Disk and Seatools. And hopefully I'll be able to get an external keyboard to work. Thank you again for all of your help.