NTFS drive repair

[Don Phillipson]

I suspect the hard drive of this (ancient) Toshiba Satellite laptop.
At any rate WinXP (SP3) will not complete: craps out at Phase 2.
Would some third-party tool provide either repair or information?

 

[philo]

I suspect the hard drive of this (ancient) Toshiba Satellite laptop.
At any rate WinXP (SP3) will not complete: craps out at Phase 2.
Would some third-party tool provide either repair or information?

First off, did you try the full format?


Go the the website of the HD's mfg and download the diagnostic utility.
If it says the drive is bad...believe it!

 

[Don Phillipson]

First off, did you try the full format?

No, since unwilling to lose both data and configuration (or else
spend the time to copy all to a portable drive, then back after
reformat.) The practical consideration is that the price of a
new and reliable drive for the Satellite would nowadays also
buy a newer (smaller, cuter, possibly faster) notebook PC.
I am just looking for an objective pointer to redirect spending
between repairing the Satellite or replacing it.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

No, since unwilling to lose both data and configuration (or else
spend the time to copy all to a portable drive, then back after
reformat.) The practical consideration is that the price of a
new and reliable drive for the Satellite would nowadays also
buy a newer (smaller, cuter, possibly faster) notebook PC.
I am just looking for an objective pointer to redirect spending
between repairing the Satellite or replacing it.

What kind of a hard disk do you have in the old laptop? Is it an IDE or
a SATA? If it's IDE, you can get a relatively cheap 160GB drive, that's
as big as they get on IDE. If it's a SATA, then the sky is the limit, so
far.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Twayne]

In

No, since unwilling to lose both data and configuration (or
else spend the time to copy all to a portable drive, then
back after reformat.) The practical consideration is that
the price of a new and reliable drive for the Satellite
would nowadays also buy a newer (smaller, cuter, possibly
faster) notebook PC. I am just looking for an objective pointer to
redirect
spending between repairing the Satellite or replacing it.

If you are unwilling to lose any data, then you had better get busy and at
least create one full backup of your important data. Anytimne you touch the
OS of any computer, it's a pre-requisite to back it up first. If you're
unwilling to back up, even to DVDs or the 'net, then you're an accident
looking for a place to happen IMO. Nothing can reliably protect it for you.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Don Phillipson]

.. . .
Go the the website of the HD's mfg and download the diagnostic utility.
If it says the drive is bad...believe it!

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287#toshiba says:
"Toshiba does not provide diagnostic tools for hard drives, currently."

YK pointed out new hard drives are cheap: but
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/27924-35-toshiba-satellite-hard-disk-replacement
points out newer or bigger drives are likely to run hotter, quite
probably exceeding the cooling capacity of the (year 2000) fan.

So I shall run Seagate or WD diagnostics in case they work . . .

 

[philo]

In

If you are unwilling to lose any data, then you had better get busy and at
least create one full backup of your important data. Anytimne you touch the
OS of any computer, it's a pre-requisite to back it up first. If you're
unwilling to back up, even to DVDs or the 'net, then you're an accident
looking for a place to happen IMO. Nothing can reliably protect it for you.

HTH,

Twayne`

amen!

 

[SC Tom]

I suspect the hard drive of this (ancient) Toshiba Satellite laptop.
At any rate WinXP (SP3) will not complete: craps out at Phase 2.
Would some third-party tool provide either repair or information?

You don't mention what model and CPU you have. I assume from "WinXP (SP3)
will not complete" that you are trying to install SP3? Do you have an AMD
processor? There's a known problem with some PC's (mainly HP, but others
also). Read this article:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207800691

I have a Seagate Momentus SATA drive in my Gateway that rarely gets above
100F, so that shouldn't be too warm for your old fan (if your Satellite
supports SATA).

 

[Peter Foldes]

Twayne

Well said and put

--
Peter
Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
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[Don Phillipson]

You don't mention what model and CPU you have. I assume from "WinXP (SP3)
will not complete" that you are trying to install SP3? Do you have an AMD
processor? There's a known problem with some PC's (mainly HP, but others
also). Read this article:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207800691

I have a Seagate Momentus SATA drive in my Gateway that rarely gets above
100F, so that shouldn't be too warm for your old fan (if your Satellite
supports SATA).

My error: WinXP (SP3) installed successfully: it is ScanDisk that will
not complete (i.e. craps out at Phase 2).

 

[SC Tom]

My error: WinXP (SP3) installed successfully: it is ScanDisk that will
not complete (i.e. craps out at Phase 2).

Open a Command Prompt window, and type in chkdsk /r and press enter. It will
tell you that it can't run now, do you want to run it on reboot. Type in y,
press enter, and reboot. If there are any drive errors, it will (should)
find them and take care of it.

 

[Peter Foldes]

Try and defragment before running chkdisk. Try you will like it

--
Peter
Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Don Phillipson]

Open a Command Prompt window, and type in chkdsk /r and press enter. It
will tell you that it can't run now, do you want to run it on reboot. Type
in y, press enter, and reboot. If there are any drive errors, it will
(should) find them and take care of it.

Bingo !
scandisk /f did the trick (repairing indices at end of phase 2).
(It's no good being a DR-DOS maven in 1990 if you forget in
2010 what you used to know . . . )

 

[SC Tom]

Bingo !
scandisk /f did the trick (repairing indices at end of phase 2).
(It's no good being a DR-DOS maven in 1990 if you forget in
2010 what you used to know . . . )

Good deal! Glad it's working now!

 

[Yousuf Khan]

YK pointed out new hard drives are cheap: but
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/27924-35-toshiba-satellite-hard-disk-replacement
points out newer or bigger drives are likely to run hotter, quite
probably exceeding the cooling capacity of the (year 2000) fan.

I doubt that, if anything newer hard drives would be more likely to run
cooler than the older ones. Besides, they've been designed to run under
some very unchanging maximum temperature conditions on laptops for years
now. Whereas desktops have soared in temperature, the laptops have had
to stay within the same temperature envelopes.

So I shall run Seagate or WD diagnostics in case they work . . .

Either is fine, and you don't have to limit yourself to them either.
There's plenty of good freeware and trialware utils out there, such Hard
Disk Sentinel or HD Scan. Both will read the SMART data off of your hard
drive and report it back to you. HDSentinel actually has a great
summarized rating system.

Yousuf Khan

 

[philo]

Good deal! Glad it's working now!

Not so fast

chkdsk /f (not scandisk) can fix logical errors on the drive

but it cannot repair a drive that's failing

 

[SC Tom]

Not so fast

chkdsk /f (not scandisk) can fix logical errors on the drive

but it cannot repair a drive that's failing

This is true. Actually, *nothing* can fix a drive that's failing, but it
will allow him (hopefully) to start his system and make a backup of it. Then
he can get a new drive, PC, or whatever he plans on doing.

(There is no 'scandisk' in XP.)

 

[philo]

This is true. Actually, *nothing* can fix a drive that's failing, but it
will allow him (hopefully) to start his system and make a backup of it.
Then he can get a new drive, PC, or whatever he plans on doing.

(There is no 'scandisk' in XP.)

I agree, even though sometimes the manufacturer's diagnostic
can re-assign bad clusters...I never really trust the drive after that...
though once the drive is replaced...I always keep the old one as an
emergency backup.

Some folks swear that the utility Spin Rite can actually recondition a
problematic drive.
Whether that's true or not...I don't know...
but since Spin Rite coats more than a new drive...
it's one experiment I will not be making!