Laptop Hard Drive Problem

[Fruit2O]

I have an 80GB hard drive and use an exact duplicate to make a clone
about once a week. The clone is in a module caddy. Very frequently,
my clone (using Ghost 2003) stops before it's finished and I get a
write error message. When this happens and I try to boot using my
primary drive, I sometimes get a message that the cloned drive is
unrecognizable. I also sometimes get this message even if the cloning
succeeded. This particular drive is a replacement for one where I had
the same problem. Therefore, I don't suspect the drive and I do
suspect the drive module caddy. I ran Sea Tools from Seagate on the
drive and it told me that I had four corrupt attribute records and
"some other problems." But Sea Tools isn't specific about these other
problems nor do I know what a corrupt attribute record is. Sea Tools
told me that it inserted data attributes in the corrupt records - but I
don't know if this is supposed to fix those problems - nor do I know
what the other problems are. Are there disk drive utilities out there
that I can download that will not only analyze hard drives - but will
repair them if possible? These are Toshiba drives and Toshiba tells me
that they don't have any diagnostic software for hard drives for the
consumer.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Fruit2O" <[email protected]>

| I have an 80GB hard drive and use an exact duplicate to make a clone
| about once a week. The clone is in a module caddy. Very frequently,
| my clone (using Ghost 2003) stops before it's finished and I get a
| write error message. When this happens and I try to boot using my
| primary drive, I sometimes get a message that the cloned drive is
| unrecognizable. I also sometimes get this message even if the cloning
| succeeded. This particular drive is a replacement for one where I had
| the same problem. Therefore, I don't suspect the drive and I do
| suspect the drive module caddy. I ran Sea Tools from Seagate on the
| drive and it told me that I had four corrupt attribute records and
| "some other problems." But Sea Tools isn't specific about these other
| problems nor do I know what a corrupt attribute record is. Sea Tools
| told me that it inserted data attributes in the corrupt records - but I
| don't know if this is supposed to fix those problems - nor do I know
| what the other problems are. Are there disk drive utilities out there
| that I can download that will not only analyze hard drives - but will
| repair them if possible? These are Toshiba drives and Toshiba tells me
| that they don't have any diagnostic software for hard drives for the
| consumer.

Replace the hard disk.

 

[Fruit2O]

From: "Fruit2O" <[email protected]>



Replace the hard disk.

But this is the second hard disk I've tried from the same manufacturer.
Doesn't seem likely that I would have the same problem.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Fruit2O" <[email protected]>

..
|
| But this is the second hard disk I've tried from the same manufacturer.
| Doesn't seem likely that I would have the same problem.

Get it from a different manufacturer this time.

 

[Nate]

But this is the second hard disk I've tried from the same manufacturer.
Doesn't seem likely that I would have the same problem.

I have seen a lot of problems where there is a whole batch of hard drives
within the same 3-6 month time period that are faulty from one manufaturer.
I would try a different brand

 

[R. McCarty]

SpinRite from GRC is one Disk Analysis & Repair tool.

If it was me, I'd Replace Ghost 2003 for Acronis True
Image Version 10. Forget about "Cloning" - use Image
based backups instead. Easier to store and manage.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "R. McCarty" <[email protected]>

| SpinRite from GRC is one Disk Analysis & Repair tool.
|
| If it was me, I'd Replace Ghost 2003 for Acronis True
| Image Version 10. Forget about "Cloning" - use Image
| based backups instead. Easier to store and manage.
|

If SeaTools couldn't help, Gibson's crap won't help either.

 

[Nate]

From: "R. McCarty" <[email protected]>

| SpinRite from GRC is one Disk Analysis & Repair tool.
|
| If it was me, I'd Replace Ghost 2003 for Acronis True
| Image Version 10. Forget about "Cloning" - use Image
| based backups instead. Easier to store and manage.
|

If SeaTools couldn't help, Gibson's crap won't help either.

You notice how symantec screws up everything they buy from the little guys?

 

[DL]

Memory problems can also corrupt a clone/image

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Nate" <[email protected]>


| You notice how symantec screws up everything they buy from the little guys?
|


Unfortunately... YES !

 

[Enigmatic Thinker]

Memory problems can also corrupt a clone/image

Leaving aside the description of Gibson's software as "crap", is there
a rational and reasonable reason as to why that might be so - and I'd
prefer something other than "because I say so".

Thanks

 

[arachnid]

But this is the second hard disk I've tried from the same manufacturer.
Doesn't seem likely that I would have the same problem.

If those are Seagate drives, it is very possible. I bought three of their
100G laptop drives last year. Two died within 6 months and the third is
getting flaky. A lot of people swear by Seagate but I've never had
anything but bad luck with them. About once every ten years I forget that,
buy a few, and am reminded once again why I so despise Seagate. Just
look at their diagnostics programs and you can see the lack of quality.

Western Digitals have been real good to me. I really like this 120G
Western Digital Scorpio laptop drive I got for $120 (retail model, I
don't like OEM drives because they're usually lacking cache memory).
It's whisper-quiet and runs cool compared to every other HD I've had in
this machine. It's quick, too. Only had it a few months but I have faith
it'll last forever because no Western Digital drive has ever failed on me.