What program to check HD when it has "Primary Master Hard Disk SMART status bad"?

[cpliu]

I just had blue screen after rebooting. Rebooted again, it stopped with a
message "Primary Master Hard Disk SMART status bad. F1 to continue." I then
booted with Windows 2K boot CD and "chkdsk"'d the HD. After that, the
message still showed up but I could booted to desktop. From what I read, my
HD is close to crash. I'm backing up my documents, but wonder what program
can I use to make sure the HD is really dying and if there is a way fix the
HD?

Thanks,


cpliu

 

[Arno Wagner]

I just had blue screen after rebooting. Rebooted again, it stopped with a
message "Primary Master Hard Disk SMART status bad. F1 to continue." I then
booted with Windows 2K boot CD and "chkdsk"'d the HD. After that, the
message still showed up but I could booted to desktop. From what I read, my
HD is close to crash. I'm backing up my documents, but wonder what program
can I use to make sure the HD is really dying and if there is a way fix the
HD?

Really none. You can use 'smartctl' to get a detailed listing of the
smart status. However that will still not give you real insights into
whatrher the condition is deadly to the HDD or not. You will have to
tust the manufacturer on that. In most cases the manufacturer
is correct.

Also a bad SMART status cannot usually be repaired in a meaningful
way. Again you have to trust the manucaturer that their choice
of thresholds is sensible.

Arno

 

[cpliu]

I just had blue screen after rebooting. Rebooted again, it stopped
with a message "Primary Master Hard Disk SMART status bad. F1 to
continue." I then booted with Windows 2K boot CD and "chkdsk"'d the
HD. After that, the message still showed up but I could booted to
desktop. From what I read, my HD is close to crash. I'm backing up my
documents, but wonder what program can I use to make sure the HD is
really dying and if there is a way fix the HD?

Also, is it possible to fix it by reformatting the HD (120GB WD) and the
problem would go away? If it is still under warranty, can I have it
replaced using "Primary Master Hard Disk SMART status bad" as the reason?

THANKS again,

cpliu

 

[Arno Wagner]

Also, is it possible to fix it by reformatting the HD (120GB WD) and the
problem would go away?

Unlikely. SMART measures parameters that indicate a fundamental
problem with the disk. If, e.g., the limit for reallocated sectors
is exceeded, there is a good chance that more will show up since a
healthy HDD will only have a few of those and will ordinarily not
even get close to the limit in its lifetime.

If it is still under warranty, can I have it
replaced using "Primary Master Hard Disk SMART status bad" as the reason?

Depending on the manufacturer they may want you to run an additional
diagnostics program. But basically a bad SMART status is enough
for a warranty replacement since it indicates a very serious problem.

Look on the webpage of the manufactuer (unless the place you bought it
at covers warranty, in the EU, e.g., they have to do that for 2 years
now, in that case contact your vendor) for the procedure of getting a
warranty replacement.

Arno

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

I just had blue screen after rebooting. Rebooted again, it stopped with a
message "Primary Master Hard Disk SMART status bad. F1 to continue."
I then booted with Windows 2K boot CD and "chkdsk"'d the HD.
After that, the message still showed up but I could booted to desktop.

From what I read, my HD is close to crash.

If it continues the rate of decay, yes, very likely.

I'm backing up my documents, but wonder what program
can I use to make sure the HD is really dying

By using a SMART Attributes display program and looking up which
of the Pre-failure parameter(s) cause the bad status and then evaluate
whether these failures may have been caused by external influences.
smartctl from http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ appears pretty good.

and if there is a way fix the HD?

Depends on the parameter(s) that cause(d) the bad SMART status as
mentioned above. If caused by external influences then removing/cor-
recting these influences may return the drive to a healthy status again.
External influences can be: bad powersupply, bad cabling, high temperature,
excessive vibration, etc.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Really none. You can use 'smartctl' to get a detailed listing of the
smart status. However that will still not give you real insights into
whatrher the condition is deadly to the HDD or not.

You will have to tust the manufacturer on that.

So why even bother to look it up, Arnie?

In most cases the manufacturer is correct.

You did a worldwide survey, did you, Arnie?

Also a bad SMART status cannot usually be repaired in a meaningful way.

And what does Arnie consider a meaningful way, Arnie?

 

[cpliu]

Thank you all the advice. I did the chkdsk a few times and SMART message
does not show up anymore. Could it be a false alarm initially? I've
backup'd my data. Even I can still use it, I won't save any data to it.

Thanks,

cpliu

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Thank you all the advice. I did the chkdsk a few times and SMART message
does not show up anymore.

Could it be a false alarm initially?

Unless there is some weird conincidence of factors
that triggers a firmware fault to surface, not likely.

More likely a situation where a pre-failure attribute value
that crossed it's threshold value returned to a safer value.

Check the SMART data and see if there is a worst value that is below treshold.