Hard disk failure???

[Guest]

A month ago a message appeared on my PC as soon as I switched it on, before
loading windows. The message is" S.M.A.R.T failure in IDE device detected.
Backup your data. To continue press F1 and continuing in this state is at
users risk.etc." Then when I press the F1 key a blue screen with white fonts
appeared listing thousands of bad clusters or corrupted files etc. Then one
week later another message appeared when I tried to access the D drive. The
message is " The drive in D is not formatted. Do you want to format it?" I
used the most recent version of Norton anti-virus and that shows no virus
present. But its says urgent attention is needed. The PC is very slow.
Someone told me that I can never get rid of bad sectors and the only option I
have is to buy a new hard disk. Another one told me that I have to format the
hard disk and reinstall windows. So. what do I have to do to bring back the
PC to the condition it was before. ( It is a pentium III, 128 RAM, 30GB
capacity. i think the BIOS version is very old )

 

[Sleepless in Seattle]

Buy a new hard drive or toss the computer. 128 MB RAM is inadequate anyway.

 

[Sandman]

'Sleepless' is, of course correct.. You wrote; 'play til your fingers
bleed', ...well your PC is bleeding.. You can get a new HD very cheap right
now, but, as 'sleepless' said, you really are running inadequate RAM
(recommend 512 minimum for XP) So, if you can afford to, get a new
motherboard, CPU, RAM and HD....Translation; You need a newer PC. And, no
offense intended here; learn to use your browser to search for answers
also.. SMART failure info, for example, is straight forward, to the point
and all over the Web..

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

SMART failures are rarely wrong. Formatting and reinstalling will not fix
this, you need to purchase a new hard drive.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[MIke]

Hi! 128RAM is NO WAY near enogh for XP plus programs, especially
multi-tasking!

When your PC needs memory, and there is not enough ram, it temporarily
takes it from your hard drive...ie virtual memory ...great way to
work your hard drive to death!

Once you're squared away, get plenty or ram, (I have 512 ram. then you
can go in and reduce the amount of virtual memory.

Mike

 

[Alex Nichol]

A month ago a message appeared on my PC as soon as I switched it on, before
loading windows. The message is" S.M.A.R.T failure in IDE device detected.
Backup your data. To continue press F1 and continuing in this state is at
users risk.etc."

That is a report from the drive itself that it is about to fail When
you get it it is essential to back things up and take steps to replace
the drive (contact maker for test programs and warranty if still
applicable). You may well have let things go too far, and it has failed

 

[David H. Lipman]

Go to the hard disk manufacturer's web site and download their diagnostic software
respective to your hard disk. After the test, you will know if the hard disk is bad or
not..

Quantum/Maxtor - PowerMax
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Western Digital - Data LifeGuard Tools (DLGDiag)
http://support.wdc.com/download/

Hitachi/IBM - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate - SeaTools
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

Fujitsu - Diagnostic Tool
http://www.fcpa.com/download/hard-drives/

Samsung - Disk manager
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/shdiag.htm



--
Dave






| A month ago a message appeared on my PC as soon as I switched it on, before
| loading windows. The message is" S.M.A.R.T failure in IDE device detected.
| Backup your data. To continue press F1 and continuing in this state is at
| users risk.etc." Then when I press the F1 key a blue screen with white fonts
| appeared listing thousands of bad clusters or corrupted files etc. Then one
| week later another message appeared when I tried to access the D drive. The
| message is " The drive in D is not formatted. Do you want to format it?" I
| used the most recent version of Norton anti-virus and that shows no virus
| present. But its says urgent attention is needed. The PC is very slow.
| Someone told me that I can never get rid of bad sectors and the only option I
| have is to buy a new hard disk. Another one told me that I have to format the
| hard disk and reinstall windows. So. what do I have to do to bring back the
| PC to the condition it was before. ( It is a pentium III, 128 RAM, 30GB
| capacity. i think the BIOS version is very old )
| --
| play till your fingers bleed