Failing Hard Disk
Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2013 11:57 am
Hello Codenstuffers,
I might not be posting much or maybe nothing at all but I do come online and check new posts almost everyday. I'm busy with my studies and I don't think I'll ever get free time. But the good thing is, this isn't going to last for ever, is it? Hard work done right now will pay back in the future.
So coming to the topic, I installed Windows 8 in the start of last month and a few days later it started showing an error stating "Your hdd is going to fail soon, backup your important data before it fails". I thought it was a minor error so I didn't pay any heed to it. One reason was that I already had my stuff backed up as I had just formatted my laptop with Windows 8. Anyways, the error first showed up when I installed and turned on the game "The Path of Neo" (related to The Matrix trilogy). After that the error showed up a couple more times that day. The next day the computer stopped working. Windows would start but then instead of loading to start screen, showed a black screen. I tried formatting again using my flash drive but that too instead of starting setup, booted to Windows (just fine) and said something about Windows2Go. A few hours later, even that stopped working and now the computer wouldn't boot.
I tried the recovery discs, another Windows 7 disc and Windows 8 flash but nothing worked. Now I knew for sure the HDD has failed. I read somewhere about live CDs and gave Ubuntu (live USB) a try. I used it for some time and thought of trying the hard disk installation. At the second try, it worked. The first two days, the computer sometimes won't boot up and I again used the live USB to reinstall and then it would work. Now I've used Ubuntu for about a month and I love it, but it just ain't good for my kind of user.
So yesterday I took my laptop to a local repair shop and he simply put in a flash and installed Windows 7 without any problem and then installed all the drivers. He was a nice man and charged just a little. But he said there's no problem in the hard disk. I disagreed and I still do. He tried the DVD-Rom and it didn't work, he even tried cleaning the lens with some spray bottle with a nosel (maybe compressed air). I came back home, it was late night so I went to sleep. Now today, the first thing I did was clean the DVD-Rom lens with a wet tissue, insert the Windows 8 disc and install it. It worked.
Oops... while writing this whole thing, I missed the main point of this post. Okay, so when the hard disk was not working, I tried lots of disc utilities to find the problem and most of them referred to "Bad Sectors". In Ubuntu the SMART test said the reallocated sector count was 2047 and "Fail" was written in bold red letters. The HD tune pro reported the following: (I don't remember which button I used to start this test)
------------------------------------------------------
HD Tune Pro: TOSHIBA MK6465GSXN Error Scan
Scanned data : 638 gB
Damaged Blocks : 0.2 %
Elapsed Time : 2:50:33
1 Error at 1095 MB (LBA 2244508)
2 Error at 1097 MB (LBA 2248476)
3 Error at 1391 MB (LBA 2849699)
4 Error at 1393 MB (LBA 2854307)
5 Error at 1419 MB (LBA 2906275)
------------------------------------------------------
Is there a way to repair this hard disk or avoid errors? I don't want to be interrupted by lags and freezes.
Sorry for the long post, thanks for your time.
I might not be posting much or maybe nothing at all but I do come online and check new posts almost everyday. I'm busy with my studies and I don't think I'll ever get free time. But the good thing is, this isn't going to last for ever, is it? Hard work done right now will pay back in the future.
So coming to the topic, I installed Windows 8 in the start of last month and a few days later it started showing an error stating "Your hdd is going to fail soon, backup your important data before it fails". I thought it was a minor error so I didn't pay any heed to it. One reason was that I already had my stuff backed up as I had just formatted my laptop with Windows 8. Anyways, the error first showed up when I installed and turned on the game "The Path of Neo" (related to The Matrix trilogy). After that the error showed up a couple more times that day. The next day the computer stopped working. Windows would start but then instead of loading to start screen, showed a black screen. I tried formatting again using my flash drive but that too instead of starting setup, booted to Windows (just fine) and said something about Windows2Go. A few hours later, even that stopped working and now the computer wouldn't boot.
I tried the recovery discs, another Windows 7 disc and Windows 8 flash but nothing worked. Now I knew for sure the HDD has failed. I read somewhere about live CDs and gave Ubuntu (live USB) a try. I used it for some time and thought of trying the hard disk installation. At the second try, it worked. The first two days, the computer sometimes won't boot up and I again used the live USB to reinstall and then it would work. Now I've used Ubuntu for about a month and I love it, but it just ain't good for my kind of user.
So yesterday I took my laptop to a local repair shop and he simply put in a flash and installed Windows 7 without any problem and then installed all the drivers. He was a nice man and charged just a little. But he said there's no problem in the hard disk. I disagreed and I still do. He tried the DVD-Rom and it didn't work, he even tried cleaning the lens with some spray bottle with a nosel (maybe compressed air). I came back home, it was late night so I went to sleep. Now today, the first thing I did was clean the DVD-Rom lens with a wet tissue, insert the Windows 8 disc and install it. It worked.
Oops... while writing this whole thing, I missed the main point of this post. Okay, so when the hard disk was not working, I tried lots of disc utilities to find the problem and most of them referred to "Bad Sectors". In Ubuntu the SMART test said the reallocated sector count was 2047 and "Fail" was written in bold red letters. The HD tune pro reported the following: (I don't remember which button I used to start this test)
------------------------------------------------------
HD Tune Pro: TOSHIBA MK6465GSXN Error Scan
Scanned data : 638 gB
Damaged Blocks : 0.2 %
Elapsed Time : 2:50:33
1 Error at 1095 MB (LBA 2244508)
2 Error at 1097 MB (LBA 2248476)
3 Error at 1391 MB (LBA 2849699)
4 Error at 1393 MB (LBA 2854307)
5 Error at 1419 MB (LBA 2906275)
------------------------------------------------------
Is there a way to repair this hard disk or avoid errors? I don't want to be interrupted by lags and freezes.
Sorry for the long post, thanks for your time.