Corrupt Disk

[Bob]

I reported a problem I was having with corrupt ntfs volume with my
hard drives. I thought I had cured the problem by cleaning the
Registry. That stopped the problem of Windows running CHKDSK at reboot
(a problem that is allegedly tied to bad HP scanner software). But
then one of the disks went BSOD every time I restarted.

I fixed it by mounting it as D: and running "CHKDSK /R" from a DOS
Console. I had to run it 3 times total to clean it up. But now it runs
without any problems - no more BSODs.

Just about every day I look at this forum, someone is talking about
their bad hard drive. The single best advise given by the experts is
to keep the drive COOL. Heat is what kills hard drives. Use
Motherboard Monitor 5 to alert you when the drive starts to get hot so
you can figure out what the problem is and fix it. It might be as
simple as blowing the dust out of the fans.

The second most important thing you can do is periodically clean the
disk internally. That means running the Defragger and making sure
there is at least 20% free space for Windows to sprawl on. Also run
CHKDSK /R to check and remove bad sectors. Run it until there are no
errors. You can use third party products such as SpinRite, but CHKDSK
works just fine.

If you do those simple things you will get long service out of your
hard disks. I have a 30GB I bought in 1999 still running with no
problems.

 

[paulmd]

I reported a problem I was having with corrupt ntfs volume with my
hard drives. I thought I had cured the problem by cleaning the
Registry. That stopped the problem of Windows running CHKDSK at reboot
(a problem that is allegedly tied to bad HP scanner software). But
then one of the disks went BSOD every time I restarted.

I fixed it by mounting it as D: and running "CHKDSK /R" from a DOS
Console. I had to run it 3 times total to clean it up. But now it runs
without any problems - no more BSODs.

Just about every day I look at this forum, someone is talking about
their bad hard drive. The single best advise given by the experts is
to keep the drive COOL. Heat is what kills hard drives. Use
Motherboard Monitor 5 to alert you when the drive starts to get hot so
you can figure out what the problem is and fix it. It might be as
simple as blowing the dust out of the fans.

The second most important thing you can do is periodically clean the
disk internally. That means running the Defragger and making sure
there is at least 20% free space for Windows to sprawl on. Also run
CHKDSK /R to check and remove bad sectors. Run it until there are no
errors. You can use third party products such as SpinRite, but CHKDSK
works just fine.

If you do those simple things you will get long service out of your
hard disks. I have a 30GB I bought in 1999 still running with no
problems.


--

This is mostly excellent advice. But one thing: Never trust a harddisk
once chkdsk reports bad sectors. It could be a sign that things are
about to go (or have already gone) catastrophicly wrong.

 

[Bob]

I had never run anything on that disk so it was like that from the
factory. I consider the first repair to be something you can expect. I
do agree with you that if the disk continues to fail after that, it is
a sign of trouble.

 

[Rod Speed]

I reported a problem I was having with corrupt ntfs volume with my
hard drives. I thought I had cured the problem by cleaning the
Registry. That stopped the problem of Windows running CHKDSK at reboot
(a problem that is allegedly tied to bad HP scanner software). But
then one of the disks went BSOD every time I restarted.

I fixed it by mounting it as D: and running "CHKDSK /R" from a DOS
Console. I had to run it 3 times total to clean it up. But now it runs
without any problems - no more BSODs.

Just about every day I look at this forum, someone is talking about
their bad hard drive. The single best advise given by the experts is
to keep the drive COOL. Heat is what kills hard drives. Use
Motherboard Monitor 5 to alert you when the drive starts to get hot so
you can figure out what the problem is and fix it. It might be as
simple as blowing the dust out of the fans.

The second most important thing you can do is periodically
clean the disk internally. That means running the Defragger

There's no need to do that.

and making sure there is at least 20% free space for Windows to sprawl on.

There's no need to do that either. I regularly run
the PVR down to a lot less than that every evening.

Also run CHKDSK /R to check and remove bad sectors.

You shouldnt be getting bad sectors. If you are, the drive is dying.

Run it until there are no errors. You can use third party
products such as SpinRite, but CHKDSK works just fine.

If you do those simple things you will
get long service out of your hard disks.

The only thing you actually need to do is
ensure the drives stay cool, say below 40C

I have a 30GB I bought in 1999 still running with no problems.

I have drive much older than that with no problems at all
and all I ever did with those is to make sure they run cool.

 

[Rod Speed]

Nope, there is no need to aggressively defrag, and no
need to ensure that there is that much free space either.

Not always, some drives can produce a single
bad if they are writing during a power glitch.

I had never run anything on that disk so it was like that from the
factory. I consider the first repair to be something you can expect.

You're wrong. Most never see that with their hard drive.

I do agree with you that if the disk continues
to fail after that, it is a sign of trouble.

It shouldnt have had a visible bad at all.

 

[Bob]

There's no need to do that either. I regularly run
the PVR down to a lot less than that every evening.

If you defrag you will need room.

 

[Rod Speed]

If you defrag you will need room.

Pity you claimed the space is needed so you dont get a bad drive.

And decent defragger will tell you if there isnt enough space to defrag.

 

[Bob]

Pity you claimed the space is needed so you dont get a bad drive.

And decent defragger will tell you if there isnt enough space to defrag.

The defragger that came with Win2K claims it needs 15% free space. So
I give it 20%.