Hard Disk Problem

[Melina]

Since two weeks ago, I had a hard disk problem.
It said: "\Device\Harddisk1\D, has a bad blocks"

I want to ask some questions, I think it is really long because I want to
know the most reliable answer/opinions so I'm write clearly about my
condition:

1.What should I do now?
Now I'm in the middle of backing up my data by copying them, but event
viewer sometimes gave me in the middle of copying:
a.An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk1\D during a paging
operation.
b.The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within timeout period.
c.A CRC error (Someone tell me it is because the data that was copied is in
Bad Blocks.

Someone tell me that these event are caused by the Bad Blocks because these
event start appearing as my HD get Bad Blocks, but I want to be sure that I
don't have any other hardware problems. Also, someone tell me, another
hardware error doesn't cause bad blocks. Is it true? Could someone clarify
this?

2.I wonder what caused the bad blocks?
Because, there is 3 HD in my Computer.

The first one is where I installed my Windows. It is 6 years old and never
had any Bad Blocks problem. Now it still doesn't. (I hope it doesn't/won't
appear because I make two partition on it C:/ and D:/ and many important
files especially in D:/, C:/ is where I installed Windows and many other
programs.).

The second one is the HD with Bad Blocks.It was bought 1 years and 3 month
ago. Some people said it was because overheating but this HD has lower
temperature in SMART Test (41 C while the other two is 43-45 C) and sudden
movement, I still don't think this is the cause because if it it true, the
other two could also have Bad Blocks but it doesn't happen.

The third one is my Brother HD that has same type and was bought on same day
with my HD that has Bad Blocks. His still doesn't any problem with Bad Blocks.

Using Speedfan, The fitness of my HD that has Bad Block is only 57% while my
6 years old HD is 98% and my brother 95%.

So, I wonder what caused the differences, I used all the HD with same
working time ,obviously (all the HD is powered up as my PC is powered up). A
Comupter technician tell because there is too much data in my HD, I think
that not really correct, my 6 years old HD in D:/ partition has only 1% free
space from 20GB (about 110MB), while this HD with Bad Blocks still has about
16-20% free space from 160GB (about 35GB).

4.Some people say that Bad Blocks could be cause by Logical or/and Physical
problem on the HD and if it was Logical, it could fixed with some
program/software, it is true?

5.I've brought my PC with all the HD to a Computer Technician and he told me
that the HD (that with Bad Blocks) is fine and he told me to format it to fix
this problem. Should I do as he says or get a new HD?

6a.If I should/must get a new HD, should I run a HD Check Utility as
precaution there is not Bad Blocks in the new HD?
6b.If I copied backup data from my External HD, will the new HD get Bad
Blocks problem?

7.In my brother HD there is a weak sector when I'm verify his HD using
HDDScan, there is a folder that took about 15-30 seconds to access, it is
about 15GB and has about 30.000+ files.This folder was always like that since
several months ago when it was created, it holds several games for PC. Does
this cause the weak sector/ was caused by the weak sector?

Thanks. Sorry it is really long

 

[DL]

A hd can fail / cause problems at any time, including when new
If it has problems, and your hd manufacturers site will have a free utility
to test it, theres no point in using it, unless you are prepared to lose
everything stored on it.
Do as you are doing, back up your data then test the drive. If the utility
reports faults discard it.

 

[Ghostrider]

Since two weeks ago, I had a hard disk problem.
It said: "\Device\Harddisk1\D, has a bad blocks"

I want to ask some questions, I think it is really long because I want to
know the most reliable answer/opinions so I'm write clearly about my
condition:

1.What should I do now?

<<snipped for relevance>>

There is just one thing to do. Replace the hard drive. Hard drives
do go bad. The price of a hard drive is cheap compared to the data
that is kept on it. There should not even be a question about trying
to save or prolong it. Like many manufacturered things, they have a
finite life time, sometimes short and other times, long.

Moreover, if the data is not confidential or important and the hard
drive is still under warranty, run the manufacturer's diagnostics test
and send the report along with the Windows error report along with the
HD for a replacement. But note that the usual policy of businesses is to
destroy the hard drive without even considering a warranty replacement.

But if one has enough time on their hands, get Steve Gibson's Spinrite
and start testing the hard drive with it. It might take a day or so,
but if you don't need your computer while it is running Spinrite, that
is fine.

 

[Lil' Dave]

Since two weeks ago, I had a hard disk problem.
It said: "\Device\Harddisk1\D, has a bad blocks"

I want to ask some questions, I think it is really long because I want to
know the most reliable answer/opinions so I'm write clearly about my
condition:

1.What should I do now?
Now I'm in the middle of backing up my data by copying them, but event
viewer sometimes gave me in the middle of copying:
a.An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk1\D during a paging
operation.
b.The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within timeout period.
c.A CRC error (Someone tell me it is because the data that was copied is
in
Bad Blocks.

Someone tell me that these event are caused by the Bad Blocks because
these
event start appearing as my HD get Bad Blocks, but I want to be sure that
I
don't have any other hardware problems. Also, someone tell me, another
hardware error doesn't cause bad blocks. Is it true? Could someone clarify
this?

2.I wonder what caused the bad blocks?
Because, there is 3 HD in my Computer.

The first one is where I installed my Windows. It is 6 years old and never
had any Bad Blocks problem. Now it still doesn't. (I hope it doesn't/won't
appear because I make two partition on it C:/ and D:/ and many important
files especially in D:/, C:/ is where I installed Windows and many other
programs.).

The second one is the HD with Bad Blocks.It was bought 1 years and 3 month
ago. Some people said it was because overheating but this HD has lower
temperature in SMART Test (41 C while the other two is 43-45 C) and sudden
movement, I still don't think this is the cause because if it it true, the
other two could also have Bad Blocks but it doesn't happen.

The third one is my Brother HD that has same type and was bought on same
day
with my HD that has Bad Blocks. His still doesn't any problem with Bad
Blocks.

Using Speedfan, The fitness of my HD that has Bad Block is only 57% while
my
6 years old HD is 98% and my brother 95%.

So, I wonder what caused the differences, I used all the HD with same
working time ,obviously (all the HD is powered up as my PC is powered up).
A
Comupter technician tell because there is too much data in my HD, I think
that not really correct, my 6 years old HD in D:/ partition has only 1%
free
space from 20GB (about 110MB), while this HD with Bad Blocks still has
about
16-20% free space from 160GB (about 35GB).

4.Some people say that Bad Blocks could be cause by Logical or/and
Physical
problem on the HD and if it was Logical, it could fixed with some
program/software, it is true?

5.I've brought my PC with all the HD to a Computer Technician and he told
me
that the HD (that with Bad Blocks) is fine and he told me to format it to
fix
this problem. Should I do as he says or get a new HD?

6a.If I should/must get a new HD, should I run a HD Check Utility as
precaution there is not Bad Blocks in the new HD?
6b.If I copied backup data from my External HD, will the new HD get Bad
Blocks problem?

7.In my brother HD there is a weak sector when I'm verify his HD using
HDDScan, there is a folder that took about 15-30 seconds to access, it is
about 15GB and has about 30.000+ files.This folder was always like that
since
several months ago when it was created, it holds several games for PC.
Does
this cause the weak sector/ was caused by the weak sector?

Thanks. Sorry it is really long

Its rather unusual for three hard drives on one PC to simultaneously develop
such a problem. I would suspect something that all have in common like the
ribbon cables. Another anomaly is that some manufacturer's hard drives
don't play well if another of a different manufacture is onboard, or on the
same ribbon cable. The power supply could be borderline for handling all
those hard drives as well.

 

[Melina]

Its rather unusual for three hard drives on one PC to simultaneously develop
such a problem. I would suspect something that all have in common like the
ribbon cables. Another anomaly is that some manufacturer's hard drives
don't play well if another of a different manufacture is onboard, or on the
same ribbon cable. The power supply could be borderline for handling all
those hard drives as well.

Actually only one HD that is failing, but now I'm little more cautious about
the other two.

I want to know some more about something some people said and some things
than concerns me. Please answer the questions one by one.

1.How do I check whether my HD get enough power form the Power Supply?

2.Does using torrents to download some files, make HD failed sooner?
I'm assuming this because I'm regularly using torrents to download a file to
this HD that now has Bad Blocks, I rarely used it before to my 6 years old HD
and never had Bad Blocks problem. Or my HD can handle torrent operations
(torrents write block by block) so it caused Bad Blocks and caused my HD to
fail?

Could someone clarify this? Does using torrents to download making Bad
Blocks or not? Now I'm scared using torrents again because I'm not sure it
was the cause of Bad Blocks.

3.Some people said that downloading a file can corrupt the file system in
the HD. How could it be possible? As far as I know, downloading a file is
almost the same operation as copying a file (it used Read and Write
Operation), only downloading used Internet Connection. Assuming the download
file doesn't have any Malware/Viruses.

If this true, doesn't it mean if I copy my backup data to my new HD, it can
also cause the file system in the new HD?

4.Does it normal to have sounds like "wrrrrrrmmmmm" when my PC powered up?

5.I get a weird thing before I realized that I had Bad Blocks in my HD.
It was like this:
a.I mean to copy a folder to my DVD to backup, but I accidentally using cut
operation. It worked fine.
b.I copy back the folder to my HD that now has Bad Blocks, it still worked
fine.
c.I try copy that folder to my External HD, it gave me CRC error in the
middle of process.

How could this happened? I though an OS (Windows) is supposed to marked a
Bad Blocks so it's not used anymore because I've run CHKDSK /f /r on the HD
that now has Bad Blocks problem.

Thanks for all your reply. Now I really want to know whether using torrents
to download could make my HD failed sooner than the other two or not aside
the other questions.

 

[Lil' Dave]

Actually only one HD that is failing, but now I'm little more cautious
about
the other two.

I want to know some more about something some people said and some things
than concerns me. Please answer the questions one by one.

1.How do I check whether my HD get enough power form the Power Supply?

2.Does using torrents to download some files, make HD failed sooner?
I'm assuming this because I'm regularly using torrents to download a file
to
this HD that now has Bad Blocks, I rarely used it before to my 6 years old
HD
and never had Bad Blocks problem. Or my HD can handle torrent operations
(torrents write block by block) so it caused Bad Blocks and caused my HD
to
fail?

Could someone clarify this? Does using torrents to download making Bad
Blocks or not? Now I'm scared using torrents again because I'm not sure it
was the cause of Bad Blocks.

3.Some people said that downloading a file can corrupt the file system in
the HD. How could it be possible? As far as I know, downloading a file is
almost the same operation as copying a file (it used Read and Write
Operation), only downloading used Internet Connection. Assuming the
download
file doesn't have any Malware/Viruses.

If this true, doesn't it mean if I copy my backup data to my new HD, it
can
also cause the file system in the new HD?

4.Does it normal to have sounds like "wrrrrrrmmmmm" when my PC powered up?

5.I get a weird thing before I realized that I had Bad Blocks in my HD.
It was like this:
a.I mean to copy a folder to my DVD to backup, but I accidentally using
cut
operation. It worked fine.
b.I copy back the folder to my HD that now has Bad Blocks, it still worked
fine.
c.I try copy that folder to my External HD, it gave me CRC error in the
middle of process.

How could this happened? I though an OS (Windows) is supposed to marked a
Bad Blocks so it's not used anymore because I've run CHKDSK /f /r on the
HD
that now has Bad Blocks problem.

Thanks for all your reply. Now I really want to know whether using
torrents
to download could make my HD failed sooner than the other two or not aside
the other questions.

I usually don't reply when the OP changes the original information, see your
original post. Apparently, you decided to change that information. This is
the only reply you are getting.

 

[Melina]

I usually don't reply when the OP changes the original information, see your
original post. Apparently, you decided to change that information. This is
the only reply you are getting.

What do you mean I change my original information? In my first post, I'm
only write there is only on HD that has Bad Blocks and you said all my HD has
this problem. In my previous post,I'm only asking new questions even though
maybe you think there is "new" informations, I'm only wondering about these
things also have relation to the Bad Blocks problem. And the title of this
thread is Hard Disk Problem not just "Bad Blocks Problem".

Sorry if I offend you.

 

[Jason]

Melina

A hard drive goes bad by excessive read writes to the disk. Check disk isnt
always going to fix bad blocks on disks. Bad blocks means what it states
blocks on the hard disk are bad and can't be read or writen to. Also if you
are seeing bad block errors in event viewer that means that it has had a
problem for some time. Bad blocks ( I could be wrong but i dont think i am )
registered by even viewer means that there has been at least 10 of them.
Meaning the disk has at least 10 bad blocks before the event viewer shows
this. It is just best to retrieve your info off the drive and get rid of the
bad drive. if you want to increase drive life then try cutting down on the
read write jobs to your hard drives.

I hope this helps

Jason

 

[w_tom]

First, the power supply voltages must be measured with a multimeter
- a device so simple as to be sold even in Kmart - and sold at a
better price in Wal-Mart. Power up the system and access all
peripherals simultaneously. Play complex graphics (a movie), while
downloading a file from the Internet, while searching for a file on
some hard drive, while playing sound on the sound card, while reading
a CD, etc. Now measure voltages on any one of orange, red, purple,
and yellow wires. A 30 second task that is also summarized in a two
minute procedure in the newsgroup alt.windows-xp at:
http://tinyurl.com/yvf9vh
Connector chart to locate each color:
http://www.hardwarebook.net/connector/power/atxpower.html

Those numbers must exceed 3.23, 4.87, and 11.7 DC volts. If so,
then power supply is definitively good - move on and never look back.
Only answer that is final (definitive) means you have numbers to post
here. Anything without numbers is mostly a request for speculation.

Second, other questions about too much activity are irrelevant. But
that is why responsible computer manufacturers provide comprehensive
hardware diagnostics. If your's is not so responsible, then download
disk drive diagnostics from the disk manufacturer. A useful
diagnostics loads and executes without Windows. No disk drive can be
made to 'work too hard'.

Third, if reading or writing to a disk corrupts that disk, then the
'disk' or 'disk filesystem' is defective. Turn off power when disk is
in the middle of writing. That must not even corrupt a disk.
Corruption was a problem that existed with FAT filesystems and that
does not exist if using NTFS filesystems. Which filesystem was your
hard drive formatted in? Find and execute Disk Manager to answer that
'disk filesystem' question. Comprehensive hardware diagnostic answers
the 'disk' question.

Cannot answer question 4 and after since I don't know what creates
"wrrrrrmmm" and other questions are about problems found or made
irrelevant in the above answers.