Harddisk-related (possibly) crashing issue

[lithium112]

Hi,

My computer started crashing recently in various, seemingly unrelated conditions. To preface, my setup is:

HP Pavillion dv5250 notebook

Windows XP Professional SP2

120GB, 5400RPM Harddrive (SATA, I believe)

Symptoms of the crash are the following:

System becomes slow (at first) and then unresponsive. The light that symbolizes a harddisk access operation keeps lighting up for a few seconds (2-3 sec each time) and then going off for about 1 second before lighting up again. It continues with this pattern until I reboot the computer by holding the power button. After I restart it and check the Event Viewer, I see multiple entries of a warning under the System heading, several seconds apart, leading up to the time of the reboot. The events always list "disk" as the Source and contain the following:

Event ID: 51

Description: "An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation."

(As every event logged, it also provides the raw data dump (in bytes and words). Please let me know if this is important and I will post it. Though, from what little I could find regarding Event 51 warnings, the data is fairly typical and doesn't provide too much information beyond the description).

The crash is encountered in various conditions:

I first encountered the problem when connecting a new mp3 player I'd purchased through a USB port. I find it odd that the system starts paging the hard drive repeatedly, when I am connecting an external memory device...

Then the problem occurred in other circumstances:

- when trying to view the properties of the hard disk through the Device Manager

- at the end of a game installation

- when trying to access the properties of a wireless network card through Device Manager

To me, the above conditions seem entirely unrelated. The only possible explanation I can come up with is that there is a problem in communication between the hard drive and external devices through the motherboard or something. I really don't know.

If anyone has any insight to offer regarding this problem I would be very grateful, as this has been bugging me for a while now.

Also, if there is any other information I can post to shed light on the issue, please let me know.

[Idontwantspam]

"A paging operation" indicates that maybe windows was trying to read or write from the pagefile. How much space is on the drive? There may not be enough for the page file to operate properly. If there is lots of space, just try disabling the paging file and seeing if that helps. It can be found in the System control panel applet, under the advanced tab. Good luck!

[lithium112]

I have about 6GB of free memory on my hard drive and my paging file size is set to 2046 MB. So, in theory, I have enough memory, though I suppose it's possible that it is fragmented on the drive, screwing up the paging somehow.

So should I disable the paging file completely (set it to 0 MB) or just reduce the size?

I read a little about paging and it seems that a problem could arise if the paging file is too small, because it could lead to thrashing. Or did I misinterpret that?

[Idontwantspam]

I would try disabling it all together, temporarily, and seeing if that helps. If it does help, then we can consider how you could fix the problem. If it doesn't make a difference, then turn the paging file back on.

The other option is if the paging file is so small that it's ineffective. Although a paging file is not mandatory for Windows to run, it tends to work better unless you have insane amounts of RAM. How much RAM does your system have?

Also, just so you know, when you say you have 6GB of "memory" free, you probably mean of "hard drive space" left - memory is RAM, which is different from hard drive space.

[Zxian]

That kind of error usually happens when there are bad sectors on the drive, or the drive itself is failing.

Simply reducing the size of that pagefile is only going to delay the problem, since you're just waiting for another file to be accessed at that location.

Open a Command Prompt (Start->Run->cmd->OK) and type in the following command:

chkdsk /R

This will scan your hard drive for errors, and if possible, fix them. Since this is likely your system drive, you'll have to reboot for this to complete.

Let us know how things go.

[lithium112]

Thanks a lot Zxian! Your suggestion worked.

I had actually tried running chkdsk in the past, but with the /F flag instead or /R. The problem is now fixed.

I guess this leaves me with the question of: what causes this type of drive corruption, so that I may avoid it in the future?

Once again, thanks a lot for your help!

[Zxian]

I'm actually not entirely sure as to the exact cause of bad sectors. It could be controller related, or that areas of the physical disk no longer properly magnetize. Perhaps someone else could shed some light on this...?

[puntoMX]

Perhaps someone else could shed some light on this...?

Well, I see it mostly when the drive got bumped when it was spinning, making the head touch the disk, making a small scratch on that place. This would make perfect sense here as the "paging" area is used most on a drive. Other than that, I would ask someone else to shed some light on this .

[cluberti]

Hard disks can fail for a number of reasons, really. I would think the most common would be a head crash (read/write heads touching/skimming the platter surface, causing damage), but I've seen the air filters in a drive fail (the inside was dusty as hell) which caused bad sectors and death, and I've seen magnets fail which renders the motor useless (that wonderful clicking sound you hear during spinup signifying that the head can't be positioned due to magnet or motor failure). They can of course fail if they're running and they ... bang into something too, of course, but that's not as common as head failure.

[lithium112]

I've seen the air filters in a drive fail (the inside was dusty as hell) which caused bad sectors and death

Hmm.. never thought about dust being an issue for the drive. That might be worth looking into, even if its not what caused this particular problem.

[jaclaz]

Hmm.. never thought about dust being an issue for the drive. That might be worth looking into, even if its not what caused this particular problem.

Yep, the point is how would you put a remedy to it?

I mean, opening the Hard Disk to vacuum clean the platters it's NOT exactly a good practoce.

jaclaz