CRC, cyclic redundancy check, multiple errors.

[drewjustforyou]

this is all extra info, you can skip straight to MY QUESTION if you
please, it is below.


the meddlesome cats are at it again, knocked my laptop (less then a
year old, hp pavillion, under warrenty) off the table, locked it up,
had to hard shutdown.

scandisk of the C drive on startup showd alot of unreadable files,
obvious signs of harddrive damage.

take it to compusa to get warrenty work done on it, they suggest i save
my data to an external, rather then paying them 60 bucks to back up my
stuff. i start backing stuff up, and end up working around CRC errors
up the wazoo.

im going to say 1 in every 50 files is CRC errored.

anyways

MY QUESTION:

Should i request they change out my harddrive when i take it in to get
it worked on? is this perminate damage to the harddrive? or will a
reformat/reinstall of windows xp, with the factory c.d's be enough to
salvage the computer into previous working order?

ty for your time!

-Drew

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

this is all extra info, you can skip straight to MY QUESTION if you
please, it is below.


the meddlesome cats are at it again, knocked my laptop (less then a
year old, hp pavillion, under warrenty) off the table, locked it up,
had to hard shutdown.

scandisk of the C drive on startup showd alot of unreadable files,
obvious signs of harddrive damage.

take it to compusa to get warrenty [warranty?] work done on it, they suggest i save
my data to an external, rather then paying them 60 bucks to back up my
stuff. i start backing stuff up, and end up working around CRC errors
up the wazoo.

im going to say 1 in every 50 files is CRC errored.

anyways

MY QUESTION:

Should i request they change out my harddrive when i take it in to get
it worked on? is this perminate [permanent?] damage to the harddrive? or will a
reformat/reinstall of windows xp, with the factory c.d's be enough to
salvage the computer into previous working order?

ty for your time!

-Drew

CRC errors is bad news. Replace the disk!

 

[needingAname]

CRC errors is bad news. Replace the disk!

harddrive... not disk... i agree though, CRC bad!

so ask them to replace the entire harddrive?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

harddrive... not disk... i agree though, CRC bad!

so ask them to replace the entire harddrive?

When you go to a computer shop then you can buy a
200 GByte disk. You can also buy a 200 GByte hard
drive if you wish.

Once you have this disk you can create several partitions
on it so that you have drive C: and drive D: and perhaps
other drives.

I believe this is the current usage of the terms "disk"
and "drive", although I'm aware that many people use
the term "drive" when they mean "disk".

 

[Jonny]

When you go to a computer shop then you can buy a
200 GByte disk. You can also buy a 200 GByte hard
drive if you wish.

Once you have this disk you can create several partitions
on it so that you have drive C: and drive D: and perhaps
other drives.

I believe this is the current usage of the terms "disk"
and "drive", although I'm aware that many people use
the term "drive" when they mean "disk".

Have to agree. The term "disk" refers to the hard disk or hard drive. The
circular magnetic media in a hard drive is/are called platter(s). The term
"disc" is in reference to CD/DVD media.

 

[needingAname]

okay, sorry for the ignorance, but the question:

is reformating the harddisk/drive/peach/whatever, going to get rid of
the CRC errors? or will they still be there after the
reformat/reinstall of windows?

can they be avoided with a slight loss of memory?

 

[Lem]

okay, sorry for the ignorance, but the question:

is reformating the harddisk/drive/peach/whatever, going to get rid of
the CRC errors? or will they still be there after the
reformat/reinstall of windows?

can they be avoided with a slight loss of memory?

Probably, reformatting will not help.

The way a disk works is that there is a circular "platter" coated with
magnetizable material spinning at a relatively high speed. The computer
"reads" from or "writes" to the disk using a "head" that is positioned a
few thousandths of an inch above the surface of the disk. If a disk
drive is subjected to a strong acceleration (such as stopping abruptly
when it hits the floor after falling for several feet), the head may
contact the spinning disk and physically gouge (or remove) some of the
magnetic material from the surface of the disk. This is called a "head
crash" and this sort of damage is not repairable.

If there are only a few spots that are physically bad, the formatting
routine might be able to recognize them and mark them as "bad" so they
will not be used for data, and thus allow you to use the disk, but if
you have warranty coverage, it's time to throw this unit in the trash
(or before you dispose of it, you could take it apart and see for
yourself how disk drives look on the inside).

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

When you go to a computer shop then you can buy a
200 GByte disk. You can also buy a 200 GByte hard
drive if you wish.

Once you have this disk you can create several partitions
on it so that you have drive C: and drive D: and perhaps
other drives.

I believe this is the current usage of the terms "disk"
and "drive", although I'm aware that many people use
the term "drive" when they mean "disk".

Unfortunately many people misuse the word "disk" to refer specifically to a
diskette, and don't realize that their "hard drive" is also a disk.

The difference is that a diskette is media only, and has to be inserted into
a diskette drive to be used. But the hard drive is a complete unit,
containing both the drive (the read-write mechanism) and the media (the
disk). So the 200GB "thing" is both a hard drive and a disk.

 

[Jonny]

No. The only way to reduce such is to use such a tool that will map out
areas of the hard disk that are not holding data or up to snuff. There is a
limit of such areas mapped out. If significant, such a tool will stop doing
so and let you know same. There will be also loss of file data which may
affect operation of XP. Replacement of hard drive is the only solution at
that point.

This author is not in agreement or disagreement with the assessment of the
hard drive being the source of data loss. I/O including RAM, as part of
that scheme, may also be a contributing factor.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The vast majority of CRC errors are caused by bad clusters
on the disk. Seeing that the OP's cat knocked the laptop off
the table (as mentioned by the OP), it is likely that the disk got
damaged. It is extremely unlikely that "I/O including RAM"
could be behind this problem.

 

[Jonny]

Agreed. The possibilities lean to the hard drive itself based on the
information provided. But, am not in the habit of making a hardware
diagnosis based on such limited information. Some of which may be simply
circumstantial, not really pertinent.
--
Jonny

The vast majority of CRC errors are caused by bad clusters
on the disk. Seeing that the OP's cat knocked the laptop off
the table (as mentioned by the OP), it is likely that the disk got
damaged. It is extremely unlikely that "I/O including RAM"
could be behind this problem.