Advice on HD crash

P

patanjalimuni

Friends,
My basic questions, detailed below:
1. Would it be unwise to try to use a failed harddrive again as my main
system drive, if it checks out OK with CHKDSK and actually boots?
2. Otherwise, would it be a good/bad idea to copy ALL files from the old
drive, including system files, to a new, bootable drive. (I assume this
would require booting from a special diagnostic CD, since otherwise Windows
would lock some files)

My main concerns: I don't want to reuse the drive if it's too flakey, and I
wouldn't want to copy system files if some of them are likely to be corrupt.

Details:
I'm running XP SP3 on a Toshiba laptop. The 3-year old Hitachi IDE harddrive
crashed this morning

Symptoms:
--The system would hang during boot (...and the speakers gave off a
fire-alarm type of sound!)
--Could boot to safe mode, but after scheduling CHKDSK to run on reboot and
rebooting, it hung again, and couldn't
even get into safe mode.

I used Toshiba's restore DVD to restore the system to a different drive,
then hooked up the old drive with a USB cable and ran "CHKDSK /r" from the
command line. The only errors found were that some free space was marked as
allocated. I'm able to access the drive.

I do have a good document backup, but it's tempting to try to use the old
drive to avoid the moderate hassle of reinstalling a lot of programs and
redoing all my settings.

I am running a virus scan, but am 99% certain that nothing will be detected.

Thanks for your insights!
 
S

Shenan Stanley

patanjalimuni said:
My basic questions, detailed below:
1. Would it be unwise to try to use a failed harddrive again as my main
system drive, if it checks out OK with CHKDSK and actually boots?
2. Otherwise, would it be a good/bad idea to copy ALL files from the old
drive, including system files, to a new, bootable drive. (I assume this
would require booting from a special diagnostic CD, since otherwise
Windows would lock some files)

My main concerns: I don't want to reuse the drive if it's too flakey, and
I wouldn't want to copy system files if some of them are likely to be
corrupt.

Details:
I'm running XP SP3 on a Toshiba laptop. The 3-year old Hitachi IDE
harddrive crashed this morning

Symptoms:
--The system would hang during boot (...and the speakers gave off a
fire-alarm type of sound!)
--Could boot to safe mode, but after scheduling CHKDSK to run on reboot
and rebooting, it hung again, and couldn't
even get into safe mode.

I used Toshiba's restore DVD to restore the system to a different drive,
then hooked up the old drive with a USB cable and ran "CHKDSK /r" from the
command line. The only errors found were that some free space was marked
as allocated. I'm able to access the drive.

I do have a good document backup, but it's tempting to try to use the old
drive to avoid the moderate hassle of reinstalling a lot of programs and
redoing all my settings.

I am running a virus scan, but am 99% certain that nothing will be
detected.

Thanks for your insights!
Click to expand...

1) Did you use the hard disk drive manufacturers diagnostic utilities to
check the hard disk drive and do a low-level (zero-write) on the entire
drive followed by the more rigorous (destructive) testing and it passed
those?

2) You would have to use a cloning/imaging utility. Most new hard disk
drives (retail) come with this utility for you to use.

What backups do you have in place anyway?
 
T

Tim Meddick

Hi patanjalimuni,
By far and away, most hard-drive "crashes" or
read/write failure is caused by software errors and not a hardware issue
with the drive (I say again most - not all). Since after running CHKDSK /R
you seem to be able to access the drive with no problems it's my guess that
you will not have a reoccurrence. Regularly run chkdsk from the command
prompt (and if needs be chkdsk /f and reboot) on system partitions to avoid
build up of any problems.
 
S

sgopus

That fire alarm sound is nothing to do with your hd, it's coming from your
BIOS and it could be your cpu overheating, check for dustbunnies on your case
fans and CPU Fans.

the other question about an Hd, if it's proven you have a Going bad HD, copy
the files immedietly off the drive, and stop using it, it's not a question of
if it will fail, but when as all drives will fail, plan for the worst,
you'll never be sorry.
 
D

db

the term disk crash
is subjective.

is the disk faulty/
defective as in
mechanical failure

or did the file system
crash as in data
corruption?

-------------

hard drives are calculated
to last / live a number of
hours.

so if your hard drive's
life cycle has not been
used up within the 3 year
period,

then run a chkdsk /p
and reload the o.s. if
the results of the check
prove favorable.

afterwards, since you
have the option to buy
hardware

then buy an external
drive to keep copies
of your user files, in
case you crash the o.s.
again or you physically
loose the drive.

microsoft also provides
25 gigs of free space
to store user files on
its skydrive service.
--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @hotmail.com
"share the nirvana" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
T

Tim Meddick

Hi DatabaseBen,
I find this very interesting, please, could you
give us more information on the "free" skydrive service? I am fascinated
that I might be able to use this as backup space...
 
T

Tim Meddick

Cute! However, I wondered if you had anything to say about it since you
brought up the subject but, hey! I'll go away and google for a bit....
 
T

Tim Meddick

Apologies to db - I thought (assumed) it was him answering, as I addressed
the post to him.
 
M

Mike Torello

Tim Meddick said:
Cute! However, I wondered if you had anything to say about it since you
brought up the subject but, hey!
Click to expand...

HUH? You're senile. That was my first post in this thread.
I'll go away and google for a bit....
Click to expand...

Take your time...
 
M

muni

[note: I'm replying from a different account]

Shenan, thanks very much for your comments...

In answer to your questions:
--Haven't used an industrial strength test yet...thought maybe I
should get data off the drive first. Not sure what Hitachi or Toshiba
have [is there a generic utility which you would recommend for testing
the drive?]

--I do weekly and monthly backups of docs, desktop, and some settings
to two different hard drives, plus have been using Mozy for daily
backups. After this experience, however, I'm considering using disk
imaging software, to save the inconvenience of reinstalling a lot of
stuff.

Someone later in this thread mentioned a Microsoft service which gives
25gb free space--that sounds better than the 2gb free space offered
with Mozy.

Many thanks again for your input!
 
M

muni

[posting from a different account]

Thank you all for your comments--
I will have to check out the 25gb free space from Microsoft!

--Patanjalimuni
 
T

Tim Meddick

Tim Meddick - NOT RISING TO THE BAIT!

Baby, love is strange Many many people,
Seem to take it for a game
My sweet baby, love is strange

Many people, they don't understand
They think that having love is,
Like having money in the hand

Let me hear you sing it -
Na na na na na na love is strange!
 
D

db

my pleasure.

here is the link
with all the info:

http://windowslive.com/Online/SkyDrive

they taught the would
"sharing". but it has
private features as well.

in addition, if you can add
a feature to your office
programs that will let save
your doc's, spreadsheets
directly to here:

http://www.officelive.com/

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @hotmail.com
"share the nirvana" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
D

db

you're welcome.

(pardon my grammar
in the previous post.)

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @hotmail.com
"share the nirvana" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
M

muni

How did you determine that your hard disk was at fault and not the software?
Click to expand...

Not absolutely sure it was the HD,
Couldn't boot, so the logical option was to install my spare drive,
and that worked. But maybe it worked because of a software difference.
I do feel leery of using a drive that has had problems, at least as my
main drive, but will check it out with Hitachi diagnostics.

Anyway...thanks again for your comments
Patanjalimuni
 
R

Randem

How large is your HD and how did installing your spare drive work? Did you
remove the first drive then boot from the other one? Please explain.

--
Randem Systems
Your Installation Specialist
The Top Inno Setup Script Generator
http://www.randem.com/innoscript.html
Disk Read Error Press Ctl+Alt+Del to Restart
http://www.randem.com/discus/messages/9402/9406.html?1236319938



How did you determine that your hard disk was at fault and not the
software?
Click to expand...

Not absolutely sure it was the HD,
Couldn't boot, so the logical option was to install my spare drive,
and that worked. But maybe it worked because of a software difference.
I do feel leery of using a drive that has had problems, at least as my
main drive, but will check it out with Hitachi diagnostics.

Anyway...thanks again for your comments
Patanjalimuni
 

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