How bad is this SATA hard drive?

J

Jack

Hello,
I have 500 GB Western Digital SATA drive which is about 1 year
old.
Recently, my Windows XP froze seveal times and finally Windows refused to
start at all (no error displayed whatsoever).
I installed the 2nd drive (IDE), installed new WinXP on it and now I am
trying to figure out where the problem is on the SATA drive.
1.
I have 3 partitions on that SATA drive: C (190GB), D(98 GB)& Z (172 GB).
Running chkdsk does not show any problems on D and Z partitions.
D partition holds Vista installation and it was used very, very seldom (only
to test some programs).
Z partition is where I keep My Documents, downloaded files and all the data
so it is accessed quite often, as often as drive C or even more often then
that.
2.
Running chkdsk /f reveals the significant number of bad clusters on C drive.
Interestingly, repeating chkdsk /f each time reveals more bad clusters (not
found previously)
3.
Tried to install new Windows on that C partition (the installation used CD
drive)
Installations fails soon after " Cannot read file so and so"
but using the same CD I was able to install Windows on the spare IDE hard
drive.
It looks like the installation could not read its own files after putting
them on the hard drive.
4.
Running chkdsk /r replaces a lot of bad clusters.
Please see below the log.

My questions are:
A.
Is that SATA drive completely unreliable and should I claim warranty?
B.
Why there are so many problems on partition C but none on partition Z?
(both partitions are accessed as often)
C.
What else can I do to check, test & eventually repair that SATA drive?

Thanks,
Jack
========= chkdsk /r log =========

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.


C:\Documents and Settings\j>chkdsk g: /r
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is HOST.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
Security descriptor verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 179
of name \WINDOWS\system32\kdcom.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 5522
of name \WINDOWS\system32\config\software.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 6654
of name \WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\Database\HCdata.edb.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 16212
of name \SYSTEM~1\_RESTO~1\RP424\A0048465.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 20180
of name \WINDOWS\Fonts\Elegance.TTF.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 26441
of name \WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33028
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\ntfs.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33048
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\mrxsmb.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33050
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\mountmgr.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33084
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\cdfs.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33106
of name \WINDOWS\system32\sysdm.cpl.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33756
of name \WINDOWS\system32\msutb.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33794
of name \WINDOWS\system32\msimsg.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 34683
of name \WINDOWS\system32\taskkill.exe.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 40165
of name \PROGRA~1\ESET\Install\mfc42.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 50753
of name \PROGRA~1\MOZILL~1\chrome\pippki.jar.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 50994
of name
\DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\APPLIC~1\Adobe\Updater5\Data\READER~1.AUM.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 51746
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\snapman.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 51752
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\timntr.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 52832
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\HSF_DPV.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 60495
of name \PROGRA~1\MOZILL~1\COMPON~1\NSCONT~2.JS.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 61962
of name \WINXP\DRIVER~1\i386\driver.cab.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 67799
of name \WINDOWS\system32\config\system.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 100532
of name \PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\Adobe\Updater5\ADOBEU~1.ES_.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 111489
of name \PROGRA~1\VSO\ConvertX\3\TEMPLA~1\thriller\INTRO2~2.AVI.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 119633
of name \DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\X452VYOO\F976C7~1.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 134233
of name \DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\WPMR27Y7\6537D1~1.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 136398
of name \SYSTEM~1\_RESTO~1\RP424\A0048391.exe.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 136401
of name \SYSTEM~1\_RESTO~1\RP424\A0048390.exe.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 138112
of name \WINDOWS\system32\LogFiles\PORTRE~1\PR55EA~1.LOG.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 138821
of name \DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\APPLIC~1\mjusbsp\Upgrade\install1.exe.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 139693
of name \PROGRA~1\TIGERJ~1\TjIpSys.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 141837
of name \PRParser\prpsetup.msi.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 141880
of name \PROGRA~1\Ahead\Nero\SHORTCUT.DLL.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 142208
of name \PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\Ahead\AUDIOP~1\VQFENC~1.DLL.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 147822
of name
\DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\KGTX41YL\QQETBV~1.JS.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 149957
of name \WINDOWS\REGIST~2\{A47B3~1\wmvadvd.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 150237
of name \WINDOWS\system32\wmvdmod.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 159796
of name \DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\XV5QP742\96D702~1.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 160456
of name \DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\TN1Q92E5\D2DDD5~1.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 160642
of name \DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\2V79V8EO\242F43~1.
99 percent completed.
 
L

Lem

Jack said:
Hello,
I have 500 GB Western Digital SATA drive which is about 1 year
old.
Recently, my Windows XP froze seveal times and finally Windows refused to
start at all (no error displayed whatsoever).
I installed the 2nd drive (IDE), installed new WinXP on it and now I am
trying to figure out where the problem is on the SATA drive.
1.
I have 3 partitions on that SATA drive: C (190GB), D(98 GB)& Z (172 GB).
Running chkdsk does not show any problems on D and Z partitions.
D partition holds Vista installation and it was used very, very seldom (only
to test some programs).
Z partition is where I keep My Documents, downloaded files and all the data
so it is accessed quite often, as often as drive C or even more often then
that.
2.
Running chkdsk /f reveals the significant number of bad clusters on C drive.
Interestingly, repeating chkdsk /f each time reveals more bad clusters (not
found previously)
3.
Tried to install new Windows on that C partition (the installation used CD
drive)
Installations fails soon after " Cannot read file so and so"
but using the same CD I was able to install Windows on the spare IDE hard
drive.
It looks like the installation could not read its own files after putting
them on the hard drive.
4.
Running chkdsk /r replaces a lot of bad clusters.
Please see below the log.

My questions are:
A.
Is that SATA drive completely unreliable and should I claim warranty?
B.
Why there are so many problems on partition C but none on partition Z?
(both partitions are accessed as often)
C.
What else can I do to check, test & eventually repair that SATA drive?

Thanks,
Jack
========= chkdsk /r log =========

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.


C:\Documents and Settings\j>chkdsk g: /r
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is HOST.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
Security descriptor verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 179
of name \WINDOWS\system32\kdcom.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 5522
of name \WINDOWS\system32\config\software.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 6654
of name \WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\Database\HCdata.edb.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 16212
of name \SYSTEM~1\_RESTO~1\RP424\A0048465.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 20180
of name \WINDOWS\Fonts\Elegance.TTF.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 26441
of name \WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33028
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\ntfs.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33048
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\mrxsmb.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33050
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\mountmgr.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33084
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\cdfs.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33106
of name \WINDOWS\system32\sysdm.cpl.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33756
of name \WINDOWS\system32\msutb.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 33794
of name \WINDOWS\system32\msimsg.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 34683
of name \WINDOWS\system32\taskkill.exe.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 40165
of name \PROGRA~1\ESET\Install\mfc42.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 50753
of name \PROGRA~1\MOZILL~1\chrome\pippki.jar.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 50994
of name
\DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\APPLIC~1\Adobe\Updater5\Data\READER~1.AUM.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 51746
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\snapman.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 51752
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\timntr.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 52832
of name \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\HSF_DPV.sys.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 60495
of name \PROGRA~1\MOZILL~1\COMPON~1\NSCONT~2.JS.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 61962
of name \WINXP\DRIVER~1\i386\driver.cab.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 67799
of name \WINDOWS\system32\config\system.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 100532
of name \PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\Adobe\Updater5\ADOBEU~1.ES_.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 111489
of name \PROGRA~1\VSO\ConvertX\3\TEMPLA~1\thriller\INTRO2~2.AVI.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 119633
of name \DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\X452VYOO\F976C7~1.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 134233
of name \DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\WPMR27Y7\6537D1~1.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 136398
of name \SYSTEM~1\_RESTO~1\RP424\A0048391.exe.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 136401
of name \SYSTEM~1\_RESTO~1\RP424\A0048390.exe.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 138112
of name \WINDOWS\system32\LogFiles\PORTRE~1\PR55EA~1.LOG.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 138821
of name \DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\APPLIC~1\mjusbsp\Upgrade\install1.exe.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 139693
of name \PROGRA~1\TIGERJ~1\TjIpSys.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 141837
of name \PRParser\prpsetup.msi.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 141880
of name \PROGRA~1\Ahead\Nero\SHORTCUT.DLL.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 142208
of name \PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\Ahead\AUDIOP~1\VQFENC~1.DLL.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 147822
of name
\DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\KGTX41YL\QQETBV~1.JS.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 149957
of name \WINDOWS\REGIST~2\{A47B3~1\wmvadvd.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 150237
of name \WINDOWS\system32\wmvdmod.dll.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 159796
of name \DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\XV5QP742\96D702~1.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 160456
of name \DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\TN1Q92E5\D2DDD5~1.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 160642
of name \DOCUME~1\JACEK_~1\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\2V79V8EO\242F43~1.
99 percent completed.
Click to expand...

1. Copy your data off the SATA drive
2. Download WD's Data Lifeguard Tools and run the diagnostic tests.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?level1=6&lang=en
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...TIuMjA2JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1

If the Data Lifeguard Tools test indicates a failed disk, you should be
covered by warranty. WD has pretty good warranty service, but you may
need to be a bit insistent.
 
B

BillW50

In Jack typed on Sat, 8 Aug 2009 15:35:05 -0400:
Hello,
I have 500 GB Western Digital SATA drive which is about 1
year old.
Recently, my Windows XP froze seveal times and finally Windows
refused to start at all (no error displayed whatsoever).
I installed the 2nd drive (IDE), installed new WinXP on it and now I
am trying to figure out where the problem is on the SATA drive.
1.
I have 3 partitions on that SATA drive: C (190GB), D(98 GB)& Z (172
GB). Running chkdsk does not show any problems on D and Z partitions.
D partition holds Vista installation and it was used very, very
seldom (only to test some programs).
Z partition is where I keep My Documents, downloaded files and all
the data so it is accessed quite often, as often as drive C or even
more often then that.
2.
Running chkdsk /f reveals the significant number of bad clusters on C
drive. Interestingly, repeating chkdsk /f each time reveals more bad
clusters (not found previously)
3.
Tried to install new Windows on that C partition (the installation
used CD drive)
Installations fails soon after " Cannot read file so and so"
but using the same CD I was able to install Windows on the spare IDE
hard drive.
It looks like the installation could not read its own files after
putting them on the hard drive.
4.
Running chkdsk /r replaces a lot of bad clusters.
Please see below the log.

My questions are:
A.
Is that SATA drive completely unreliable and should I claim warranty?
B.
Why there are so many problems on partition C but none on partition Z?
(both partitions are accessed as often)
C.
What else can I do to check, test & eventually repair that SATA drive?

Thanks,
Jack
========= chkdsk /r log =========
Click to expand...

Did you reformat the C drive yet, before trying to install? If so, did
you try to delete the C partition and tried to create it and reformatted
(don't use quick format)?
 
A

almostbob

Why there are so many problems on partition C but none on partition Z?
(both partitions are accessed as often)
Click to expand...

when the drive was damaged, be it by power surge, knock, bad build, or bad
luck, the heads were in place over that part of the drive that is
partitioned as volume C:
whatever damage is constrained to the part of the drive under access when
the damage occurred.
 
J

Jack

1. Copy your data off the SATA drive
2. Download WD's Data Lifeguard Tools and run the diagnostic tests.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?level1=6&lang=en
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...TIuMjA2JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1

If the Data Lifeguard Tools test indicates a failed disk, you should be
covered by warranty. WD has pretty good warranty service, but you may need
to be a bit insistent.
--
Lem -- MS-MVP

Apollo 11 - 40 years ago:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/index.html
Click to expand...

That will be the problem.
I have Z partition almost full (180 GB of data) and I have no place to move
all that data.
Jack
 
J

Jack

BillW50 said:
In Jack typed on Sat, 8 Aug 2009 15:35:05 -0400:
Click to expand...
Did you reformat the C drive yet, before trying to install? If so, did
you try to delete the C partition and tried to create it and reformatted
(don't use quick format)?
Click to expand...
No, I did not. I am still afraid to do anything on that drive before I save
all my data.
(I am afraid of loosing Z partition).

BTW, I am still waiting for chkdsk /r to complete its task.
The command window is stuck at 99 % already for almost an hour.
How long should I wait?
I' m afraid to force closing it and right now the SATA partition is not
accessible by Windows Explorer.
Jack
 
J

Jack

almostbob said:
when the drive was damaged, be it by power surge, knock, bad build, or bad
luck, the heads were in place over that part of the drive that is
partitioned as volume C:
whatever damage is constrained to the part of the drive under access when
the damage occurred.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. Thank you.
Jack
 
M

Mike Barnard

That will be the problem.
I have Z partition almost full (180 GB of data) and I have no place to move
all that data.
Jack
Click to expand...
Do what I did, buy a new HDD. I found a SATA 1Tb drive for peanuts at
Novatech.

WD-1TBBS CAVIAR BLACK 1TB 32MB 7200 SAT 1 £65.17 +vat.

Don't fiddle with the old drive until you have a backup system in
place.
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

That will be the problem.
I have Z partition almost full (180 GB of data) and I have no place to move
all that data.
Click to expand...



Then what you are saying is that you have 180GB of data that's
important to you, but you have no backup procedure in place.

It's not just your immediate problem; you're living with fire. Read
this article on backup I wrote: "Back Up Your Computer Regularly and
Reliably" at http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=314
 
J

Jack

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Barnard" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windows.file_system,microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Sent: Saturday, August 08, 2009 4:46 PM
Subject: Re: How bad is this SATA hard drive?

Do what I did, buy a new HDD. I found a SATA 1Tb drive for peanuts at
Novatech.

WD-1TBBS CAVIAR BLACK 1TB 32MB 7200 SAT 1 £65.17 +vat.

Don't fiddle with the old drive until you have a backup system in
place.
Click to expand...

I agree. Just checking drives in my computer store.
I am looking at:
Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB Hard Drive CAN $139.97 (a little pricy though)
or
Western Digital Elements WDE1UBK10000N External Hard Drive - 1TB, 3.5", USB
2.0 for CAN $119.
and remove it from the enclosure.
There is also:
Hitachi 7K1000.B Hard Drive - 1TB, 7200RPM, 16MB, SATA-300, OEM
for CAN $90.

Any comments on that?
Jack
 
B

BillW50

In Jack typed on Sat, 8 Aug 2009 16:31:38 -0400:
No, I did not. I am still afraid to do anything on that drive before
I save all my data.
(I am afraid of loosing Z partition).

BTW, I am still waiting for chkdsk /r to complete its task.
The command window is stuck at 99 % already for almost an hour.
How long should I wait?
I' m afraid to force closing it and right now the SATA partition is
not accessible by Windows Explorer.
Jack
Click to expand...

Oh Jack! If you are worried about that, CHKDSK can totally toast your
partition. Well with the f or r switches anyway. And CHKDSK will report
problems if your system is running from that drive. Well if Windows is
up and running anyway. As the disk is constantly being written to. Which
is a problem when running CHKDSK. But I won't stop it right now, as it
would only make things worse than it is right now.

I agree with others. You really need to backup that drive before
something really bad happens to it. This is the utmost importance.
 
J

Jack

Ken Blake said:
Then what you are saying is that you have 180GB of data that's
important to you, but you have no backup procedure in place.

It's not just your immediate problem; you're living with fire. Read
this article on backup I wrote: "Back Up Your Computer Regularly and
Reliably" at http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=314
Click to expand...

It is not as you think. I have up-to-date backup of my VERY important data
like for example my own programming,
The other data is just the accumulation over the years of various files,
which I access sometimes but I will not kill myself if all are lost.

Talking more about backup. I read your webpage.
I do have good backup program Acronis but I use it only for the restoration
of my virgin Windows installation including all the main programs I use.
What do you recommend for the backup storage?
Additional hard drive? External? Always plugged in and use the incremental
backups on it?
Thanks,
Jack
 
J

Jack

BillW50 said:
In Jack typed on Sat, 8 Aug 2009 16:31:38 -0400:

Oh Jack! If you are worried about that, CHKDSK can totally toast your
partition. Well with the f or r switches anyway. And CHKDSK will report
problems if your system is running from that drive. Well if Windows is
up and running anyway. As the disk is constantly being written to. Which
is a problem when running CHKDSK. But I won't stop it right now, as it
would only make things worse than it is right now.

I agree with others. You really need to backup that drive before
something really bad happens to it. This is the utmost importance.
Click to expand...

It is not the system drive.
It is the 2nd hard drive in my system now.
Since I wrote that, the chkdsk progressed from 99% to:
=== cut ===
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
65 percent completed.
=========
Now it's stucked in 65% for the last 30 minutes!
Jack
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

It is not as you think. I have up-to-date backup of my VERY important data
like for example my own programming,
The other data is just the accumulation over the years of various files,
which I access sometimes but I will not kill myself if all are lost.
Click to expand...


OK, it's your call of course on how important any of this is to you.
Glad to hear that I misunderstood you, and the situation isn't as bad
as I thought it was.

Talking more about backup. I read your webpage.
I do have good backup program Acronis
Click to expand...


Acronis True Image? Yes, it's an excellent backup program--perhaps the
best there is.

but I use it only for the restoration
of my virgin Windows installation including all the main programs I use.
What do you recommend for the backup storage?
Additional hard drive? External?
Click to expand...


Yes, I recommend it if it's external. No, I don't recommend it if it's
internal.

Always plugged in and use the incremental
backups on it?
Click to expand...


No. Keeping it always plugged in makes it just like an internal drive.
I don't recommend backup to a second permanently attached hard drive,
whether it's internal or external, because either way it leaves you
susceptible to simultaneous loss of the original and backup to many of
the most common dangers: severe power glitches, nearby lightning
strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the computer.
 
L

Lem

Jack said:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Barnard" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windows.file_system,microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Sent: Saturday, August 08, 2009 4:46 PM
Subject: Re: How bad is this SATA hard drive?



I agree. Just checking drives in my computer store.
I am looking at:
Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB Hard Drive CAN $139.97 (a little pricy though)
or
Western Digital Elements WDE1UBK10000N External Hard Drive - 1TB, 3.5", USB
2.0 for CAN $119.
and remove it from the enclosure.
There is also:
Hitachi 7K1000.B Hard Drive - 1TB, 7200RPM, 16MB, SATA-300, OEM
for CAN $90.

Any comments on that?
Jack
Click to expand...

In addition to all the other reasons why you should copy the data off of
this questionable disk is that even if the *only* part of the disk that
is damaged is the current C partition, when you send the entire disk
back to WD for warranty replacement, that will be the last you will see
of anything that remains on that disk.

You should be thinking of buying two disks. One to replace the internal
one in your computer and the second to use as a backup. For the latter,
the WD Elements -- kept in its enclosure -- *may* be an OK choice.
Transfer will be better if you have eSATA rather than USB2. In that
case, don't use the Elements as your backup.

NB: You should be aware that early model Elements drive come with a
notoriously failure-prone power supply. If the power supply connector is
a multi-pin mini-DIN plug rather than the usual barrel connector, do not
buy it unless you intend to throw the enclosure and its power supply away.
 
J

Jack

Bingo!
chkdsk finished its task.
The last screen looks like this:
======
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.
Adding 16103 bad clusters to the Bad Clusters File.
Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

204796588 KB total disk space.
137046648 KB in 149854 files.
54292 KB in 4232 indexes.
64456 KB in bad sectors.
237312 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
67393880 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
51199147 total allocation units on disk.
16848470 allocation units available on disk.
======

How that looks to you?

Thanks,
Jack
 
B

BillW50

In Jack typed on Sat, 8 Aug 2009 18:05:04 -0400:
Bingo!
chkdsk finished its task.
The last screen looks like this:
======
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.
Adding 16103 bad clusters to the Bad Clusters File.
Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

204796588 KB total disk space.
137046648 KB in 149854 files.
54292 KB in 4232 indexes.
64456 KB in bad sectors.
237312 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
67393880 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
51199147 total allocation units on disk.
16848470 allocation units available on disk.
======

How that looks to you?

Thanks,
Jack
Click to expand...

Sounds like 65MB worth of your files could have been lost to me.
Hopefully nothing very important.
 
J

Jack

Lem said:
In addition to all the other reasons why you should copy the data off of
this questionable disk is that even if the *only* part of the disk that is
damaged is the current C partition, when you send the entire disk back to
WD for warranty replacement, that will be the last you will see of
anything that remains on that disk.

You should be thinking of buying two disks. One to replace the internal
one in your computer and the second to use as a backup. For the latter,
the WD Elements -- kept in its enclosure -- *may* be an OK choice.
Transfer will be better if you have eSATA rather than USB2. In that case,
don't use the Elements as your backup.

NB: You should be aware that early model Elements drive come with a
notoriously failure-prone power supply. If the power supply connector is a
multi-pin mini-DIN plug rather than the usual barrel connector, do not buy
it unless you intend to throw the enclosure and its power supply away.

--
Lem -- MS-MVP

Apollo 11 - 40 years ago:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/index.html
Click to expand...

Thank you for your comments.
I have noticed one thing though. WD elements does not have any cache!

Hitachi comes with 16 MB buffer memory.
Isn't it better speed wise?
I am planning to use 1 TB as my primary drive, and existing WD (bad but I
hope it will be replaced) as my external drive.
I can buy enclosure for $26.
Thanks,
Jack
 
L

Lem

Jack said:
Thank you for your comments.
I have noticed one thing though. WD elements does not have any cache!

Hitachi comes with 16 MB buffer memory.
Isn't it better speed wise?
I am planning to use 1 TB as my primary drive, and existing WD (bad but I
hope it will be replaced) as my external drive.
I can buy enclosure for $26.
Thanks,
Jack
Click to expand...

That Hitachi drive is fine as well. According to Tom's Hardware, it
outperforms the corresponding WD Caviar Green drive (that was last
September, so things may have changed a bit).

Although you're correct that WD doesn't seem to include anything about
the disk cache in the specs for its Elements drives, what you actually
are getting is a WD Caviar Green SATA drive inside an enclosure with a
USB to SATA interface. The 1 TB Caviar Green drives come with either 16
MB or 32 MB cache. If I had to guess, I'd guess that the 1 TB Elements
is the one with the 16 MB cache.

One other minor point, the last couple of WD external drives I got came
pre-formatted FAT32. You'll probably want to re-format them as NTFS,
especially if you have any files > 4GB in size. Copy the WD help files,
etc. off the disk temporarily.
 

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