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Is my Hard Drive near his death?


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"D" is my second hard drive which has problem recently exposed.

When DMA is enabled on this drive, the computer freezes sometimes, when I try to access files on it.

Running scandisk under Windows froze the machine as well.

Running scandisk under DOS showed "Scandisk encountered a data error while reading FAT on Drive D. This prevents ScanDisk from fixing this drive. [Exit]"

Then I disabled DMA, and scandisk seemed to work under Windows.

It took about one hour to scan the first 70,000 clusters, then 2 hours to do 500,000 clusters, out of 1,200,000.

I stopped the process at about half the cluster scan because it was too late in the evening. I will re run the check tomorrow fully.

Here is the ScanDisk.log:

*******************

Microsoft ScanDisk for Windows

NOTE: If you use an MS-DOS program to view this file, some of the characters

may appear incorrectly. Use a Windows program such as Notepad instead.

Log file generated at 20.12 on 12/22/2007.

ScanDisk used the following options:

Thorough test

Check dates and times

Automatically fix errors

Drive (D:) contained the following errors:

ScanDisk could no longer write to or read from sector 1376 of this drive's file allocation table.

Resolution: Repair the error

Results: Error was not corrected.

ScanDisk could not properly read from or write to cluster 3902,

which contains some or all of D:\temp\BATCH0.AUP.

Resolution: Repair the error

Results: Error was partially corrected.

ScanDisk could not properly read from or write to cluster 156434,

which contains some or all of D:\temp\BATCH5.AUP.

Resolution: Repair the error

Results: Error was partially corrected.

ScanDisk could not properly read from or write to cluster 157267,

which contains some or all of D:\temp\BATCH10.AUP.

Resolution: Repair the error

Results: Error was partially corrected.

ScanDisk could not properly read from or write to cluster 188752,

which contains some or all of D:\temp\BATCH20.AUP.

Resolution: Repair the error

Results: Error was partially corrected.

ScanDisk could not properly read from or write to cluster 190631,

which contains some or all of D:\temp\BATCH22.AUP.

Resolution: Repair the error

Results: Error was partially corrected.

ScanDisk could not properly read from or write to cluster 192842,

which contains some or all of D:\SysRest\71209AAB.ARJ.

Resolution: Repair the error

Results: Error was partially corrected.

ScanDisk was canceled.

-------------------

Can someone tell me what "Error was partially corrected " means?

And if I should buy a new Hard Disc ASAP, before the datas on it became totaly lost.

I still didn't try to read files on this drive by fear of crashing my PC.

Thanks for your help.

Edited by Fredledingue
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Hmmm .....

Sounds like surface degradation or mechanical defect(s) to me ... Probably more prudent to not run another scandisk at this point. If the scan stutters all over the drive surface, it is possible that the read/write section (maybe amplifier/coil/etc etc) is wearing out.

IMHO, you should attempt to copy your most important documents first before running a scandisk again. If the previous scandisk has gone through the first 10%-20% of your drive, it "probably" has fixed the FAT and DIR (YMMV). After having copied those wanted documents then you can attempt to scan the drive again.

If the drive is a slim maxtor, its going to RIP soon. If its a seagate, data recovery is possible but will burn a big hole. If its a WD, a surface erase can be of some help. If its a Samsung, its odd coz they're tough.

Rgds

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Yes first back up your important data and get another drive. I have drives that have shown similar scandisk logs after power outages. I’ve had some success in making them useful again by using the manufactures original startup utility and then Scandisk from the Windows ME boot disk followed by a format from whatever OS startup disk you’re using. All previous information is lost this way but it’s worth a try before tossing the drive.

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Thanks to all, for your replies.

Sysdll

I'v got a power outage recently, yet it was still working properly after that. The file allocation table could have been affected, I don't know.

Do you think that repeated power outages could physicaly damage the drive? Or it's just bad for the datas?

The irony is that I'v bought a power accumulator (Mustek) supposed to provide power for computers during outages: It works when you pull the plug out of the wall, it doesn't when the power shut down from the network. Money in the wind...

Anyway...

This drive is already over 5 years old. I won't mind buying a new one.

Going to disconnect it now.

Edited by Fredledingue
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The last time I saw error messages like that from Scandisk, the drive was on its last legs. The problem came on with very little warning. By the time I realized I had a problem, I'd already lost data. Managed to recover about 80% of the data by installing the drive as a slave and copying data a few folders at a time.

Have you tried Spinrite? I haven't used it but it's reputed to be good for data recovery and fixing errors.

Rick

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Thank you for all your compassion for the dying hardware, especialy on this christmas eve. :angel

I have copied about 9 Gb of the most useful datas to the other drive with one error here and there. About 99% of the datas have been saved out.

TotalCopy (aka Tcopy) has been of great help copiying the datas bypassing the errors without a crash.

Then I disabled the drive from bios. I'll disconnect it as soon as I figure out which one it is in the case. I suppose the one that is cold is the one to remove but the fan and the fresh air blowing to them is so efficient that there is no feelable difference of temperature.

Is it bad for hardware to be maintained too cold?

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Unless you are a Eskimo and live in a iglo, no. My WD is supposed to operate between 5°C and 55°C according to their own specs. Don't worry about that. It's not abnormal that a five year old drive gives up. Especially when used a lot. Sometimes it's starts with degrading performance and you can wait (and backup!) for the end to come. Just one power outage can be to much for a old drive.

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Cold is generally good. If you value your data, then always make a back up before it crashes. The quickest way to do this for future reference is to make an image of the entire disk and save that somewhere else. Then you can always retrieve data if you really need it.

A power outage can indeed play havoc with the disk corruption and even the electrical control board on the drive itself. That may not be the case here, but you can't be sure without testing, so save your data first, then repair. Spin Rite is excellent for for a disk in your situation and wilol identify any bad sectors. It is like Scan Disk on steriods. It is slow, though, so set it to go overnight. If you can read data, then your partition table is probably okay. What happens to older disks is that the magnetic domains in some areas become a bit weaker and when the signals are right near the borderline, it becomes difficult for the drive to distinguish between a 1 or a 0. Those signals generate scan errors and the bad sectors are usually marked and avoided. As a disk ages, more and more of those can show up. ScanDisk and other utilities will mark these and then activate replacement sectors from an unused part of the disk. Most of this is transparent to the user until the errors become too numerous and the "spare" sectors too few.

Also, if the FAT is corrupted just a little, some of the file bits may have become lost or crosslinked. ScanDisk will find these and collect them into one file. Usually it is useless. If it's a five year-old disk I'm guessing it is no more than maybe 40GB. A brand spanking new 500GB Samsung will cost you no more than about US$80-90. I'd spring for a new disk and relegate this one to temp duty and not for important data.

Good luck with it!

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Here is the report.

What does it tell, Doctor? :huh:

SMARTUDM - HDD S.M.A.R.T. Viewer 2.00
Copyright © 2001-2003, Sysinfo Lab
Copyright © 1997, Michael Radchenko
www.sysinfolab.com e-mail: support@sysinfolab.com

þ HDD 2 Model: ST340016A
þ HDD 2 Size: 38166 Mb (37.27 Gb)
þ Location: Primary Slave
þ Serial Number: 3HS2NY56
þ Controller Revision: 3.10
þ Buffer Size: 2048.0 kb
þ Compatibility: ATA/ATAPI-5
þ PIO Mode Support: 4
þ SW DMA Mode Support: None
þ MW DMA Mode Support: 2, Active: None
þ UDMA Mode Support: 5 (UltraDMA/100), Active: 5
þ Current AAM Value: 80h (80h recommended) - enabled
þ S.M.A.R.T.: [û] disabled
þ SMART Self-test: [ ]
þ SMART Error Logging: [ ]

þ T.E.C. prediction monitoring started at: 28-12-07, 23:58:06
Attribute ID Threshold Value Indicator 1/Month T.E.C.
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
* Raw Read Error Rate 1 34 65 þþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
* Spin Up Time 3 0 70 þþþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
Start/Stop Count 4 20 98 þþþþþþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
* Reallocated Sector Count 5 36 100 þþþþþþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
* Seek Error Rate 7 30 87 þþþþþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
Power On Hours Count 9 0 82 þþþþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
* Spin Retry Count 10 97 100 þþþþþþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
Drive Power Cycle Count 12 20 96 þþþþþþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
Drive Temperature 194 0 18 þþ 0.0 Unknown
Hardware ECC recovered 195 0 65 þþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
Current Pending Sector 197 0 100 þþþþþþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
Uncorrectable Sector 198 0 100 þþþþþþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
UltraDMA CRC Error Rate 199 0 200 þþþþþþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
Write Error Rate 200 0 100 þþþþþþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
TA Counter Increased 202 0 100 þþþþþþþþþþ 0.0 Unknown
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
NOTE: "*" means life-critical attribute
þ T.E.C. not detected.

Attribute ID Threshold Value Worst Raw Type
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
* Raw Read Error Rate 1 34 65 58 0000092279A5h PR ER
* Spin Up Time 3 0 70 70 000000000000h
Start/Stop Count 4 20 98 98 000000000B95h EC SP
* Reallocated Sector Count 5 36 100 100 000000000000h EC SP
* Seek Error Rate 7 30 87 60 00001D3CDD39h PR ER
Power On Hours Count 9 0 82 82 000000003DF7h EC SP
* Spin Retry Count 10 97 100 100 000000000000h EC
Drive Power Cycle Count 12 20 96 96 000000001247h EC SP
Drive Temperature 194 0 18 52 000000000012h SP
Hardware ECC recovered 195 0 65 58 0000092279A5h ER EC
Current Pending Sector 197 0 100 100 000000000021h EC
Uncorrectable Sector 198 0 100 100 000000000021h EC
UltraDMA CRC Error Rate 199 0 200 200 000000000000h PR ER EC SP
Write Error Rate 200 0 100 253 000000000000h
TA Counter Increased 202 0 100 253 000000000000h EC SP
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
NOTE: "*" means life-critical attribute
Attribute types:
PR - Performance-related ER - Error rate
EC - Events count SP - Self-preserve

þ Reallocated Sectors: 0
þ Current Temperature: 18 C
þ Drive Power Cycle Count: 4679

Edited by Fredledingue
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Hmmm .....

Seagate Barracuda IV ST340016A with 40GB capacity. The smart readings looks okay to me but as per your earlier description it does seems to have some difficulties with reading/writing. The reallocated numbers are small. There's a way to find out ...

Once you have copied out your data. Use any suitable utility to zero fill the entire drive then scan the drive again. If it seems to be smooth while scanning without much stuttering then its propably safe for normal use else its prudent to use it for secondary backup.

Rgds

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