I/O Error on HDD

[Craig Coope]

Last night I tried to boot Windows XP (SP2) and just after it got into
Windows it gave me a blue screen and said it was shutting down to
protect itself. After that my boot would make it as far as the Windows
splash with progress bar and it would just sit there. Safemode doesn't
work either.

I managed to install Windows onto my 2nd HDD and then accessed my
"failing" drive from in there. I copied everything I needed off it. I
copied about 5 gigs worth. It worked pretty well but every so often
I'd get an I/O error message and would say it couldn't save data on
that drive. Obviously I'm assuming the drive is dying (It's nearly 5
years old). However after doing a bit of reading online someone has
stated the I/O error could be because the drive is too full. I have a
160Gig drive and recently I've stuck more on it and there is only
1.3Gig left. Is this a likely cause or is my drive just failing?

 

[nass]

Last night I tried to boot Windows XP (SP2) and just after it got into
Windows it gave me a blue screen and said it was shutting down to
protect itself. After that my boot would make it as far as the Windows
splash with progress bar and it would just sit there. Safemode doesn't
work either.

I managed to install Windows onto my 2nd HDD and then accessed my
"failing" drive from in there. I copied everything I needed off it. I
copied about 5 gigs worth. It worked pretty well but every so often
I'd get an I/O error message and would say it couldn't save data on
that drive. Obviously I'm assuming the drive is dying (It's nearly 5
years old). However after doing a bit of reading online someone has
stated the I/O error could be because the drive is too full. I have a
160Gig drive and recently I've stuck more on it and there is only
1.3Gig left. Is this a likely cause or is my drive just failing?

Sure 1.3 GB is way too small for your applications to maneuver about.
Best if you took your Data from it and Format that HDD.
HTH,
nass
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^ http://www.nasstec.co.uk ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Craig Coope]

Sure 1.3 GB is way too small for your applications to maneuver about.
Best if you took your Data from it and Format that HDD.
HTH,
nass
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^ http://www.nasstec.co.uk ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I can understand that if I was only running Windows from that drive
when I get the errors etc but it also happens when I access that drive
from my new Windows install on my 2nd drive which has about 10 gigs
left. Surely Windows will use the new drive for such maneuvering (ie
swapfile etc)?

If I'm missing something please explain.

Cheers.

 

[Craig Coope]

On Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:15:01 -0700, nass

I can understand that if I was only running Windows from that drive
when I get the errors etc but it also happens when I access that drive
from my new Windows install on my 2nd drive which has about 10 gigs
left. Surely Windows will use the new drive for such maneuvering (ie
swapfile etc)?

If I'm missing something please explain.

Cheers.

Actually just to add to what I've said...CHKDSK is finding a long
sequence of unreadable sectors when I boot (ie I left it for half an
hour and it was just going up in increments of 1) Sorry I should have
said this before. Now does it still seem likely?

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Last night I tried to boot Windows XP (SP2) and just after it got into
Windows it gave me a blue screen and said it was shutting down to
protect itself. After that my boot would make it as far as the Windows
splash with progress bar and it would just sit there. Safemode doesn't
work either.

I managed to install Windows onto my 2nd HDD and then accessed my
"failing" drive from in there. I copied everything I needed off it. I
copied about 5 gigs worth. It worked pretty well but every so often
I'd get an I/O error message and would say it couldn't save data on
that drive. Obviously I'm assuming the drive is dying (It's nearly 5
years old). However after doing a bit of reading online someone has
stated the I/O error could be because the drive is too full. I have a
160Gig drive and recently I've stuck more on it and there is only
1.3Gig left. Is this a likely cause or is my drive just failing?

As you say, your disk is probably dying. Being full or otherwise has nothing
to do with the error messages you see. The recommended course of action is
to download and run the diagnostic tool for the disk manufacturer's site.

By the way, you're playing a dangerous game, waiting with your backup until
your disk is failing. Next time you might not be so lucky. We get a lot of
the resulting sob stories in this newsgroup . . .

 

[Craig Coope]

As you say, your disk is probably dying. Being full or otherwise has nothing
to do with the error messages you see. The recommended course of action is
to download and run the diagnostic tool for the disk manufacturer's site.

By the way, you're playing a dangerous game, waiting with your backup until
your disk is failing. Next time you might not be so lucky. We get a lot of
the resulting sob stories in this newsgroup . . .

Haha...Thanks for the tip...I acutally had most of it backed up
already...that is what my 2nd drive was for...I just got lazy. Trust
me... I know all about losing ALL of my stuff....it will never happen
again.

I guess getting the diagnostic tool is a good idea as it could be my
SATA cable or something else....hmmm...

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Haha...Thanks for the tip...I acutally had most of it backed up
already...that is what my 2nd drive was for...I just got lazy. Trust
me... I know all about losing ALL of my stuff....it will never happen
again.

I get the impression that your second disk is an internal disk and/or is
connected to your PC for most of the time. If so then what would happen in
the following cases (I'm picking them from past newsgroup posts):
a) The PC gets stolen.
b) The PC suffers fire/water/lightning/power supply damage.
c) The hard disk gives up the ghost.
d) Some software malfunction corrupts all file systems.
e) Some malware/virus thrashes all partitions.
f) Someone presses the wrong button and deletes all users files, including
the backup files.

Case f) is actually the most common reason why people lose files.

Is your back-up scheme sufficiently robust to surve all of the above events?

 

[ramannanda991]

Last night I tried to boot Windows XP (SP2) and just after it got into
Windows it gave me a blue screen and said it was shutting down to
protect itself. After that my boot would make it as far as the Windows
splash with progress bar and it would just sit there. Safemode doesn't
work either.

I managed to install Windows onto my 2nd HDD and then accessed my
"failing" drive from in there. I copied everything I needed off it. I
copied about 5 gigs worth. It worked pretty well but every so often
I'd get an I/O error message and would say it couldn't save data on
that drive. Obviously I'm assuming the drive is dying (It's nearly 5
years old). However after doing a bit of reading online someone has
stated the I/O error could be because the drive is too full. I have a
160Gig drive and recently I've stuck more on it and there is only
1.3Gig left. Is this a likely cause or is my drive just failing?

Try this solution
According to me, when the problem is data-read errors, then you should
freeze the hard drive overnight. It makes the data more 'readable,'
but for a one-shot deal. If this data is critical, and you have a
replacement hard drive (which, if it's a drive failure, you probably
do), then you can hook up your frozen hard drive and immediately fetch
the data off before it warms up. this will give you the intended
backup.

Noteut the drive in a waterproof sealed bag.