S.M.A.R.T. error

[Doug]

Help!
I just got a black screen with a S.M.A.R.T. error saying
to immediately back up my hard drive. Failure is
immenent. But I can't do anything. Seems like the screen
is frozen on this error but its telling me to back it up.
I have lots of family pics and favorite places that I
would love to save. Along with my computer Any help is
GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks,
Doug

 

[Richard Urban]

Try rebooting. If it still doesn't work, you may have had a catastrophic
failure. The S.M.A.R.T. monitoring will usually give a fair warning, but not
always. If the drive has failed you can send it to an organization called
Drive Savers. Google for them with another computer. It isn't inexpensive to
recover your data. Can cost hundreds to thousands.

P.S. That is why God invented backups!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[Jerry]

It's telling you your hard drive is going bad.

Better just get a new one a replace your existing.

 

[Joe727]

Your best option is to buy a new hard drive, and make that your primary hard
drive by installing the Operating System on it. Then make the drive that is
causing problems your slave drive and see if you can salvage what's on it.

If you can't pull the info off the faulty hard drive, try putting in the
freezer for a while. I'm not kidding. One of the PC magazines had an
article about it a while back. I can't find it now, but if you do a Google
search you'll find plenty of info about it such as these two articles
verify:

http://www.datarecoverypros.com/hard-drive-recovery-freeze.html

http://www.meetmyattorney.com/slink/mt-archives/000275.html

Like me, you are learning the hard way that every computer must have two
hard drives, one of which is dedicated to backups.

Joe

 

[Jim Slager]

Like me, you are learning the hard way that every computer must have
two hard drives, one of which is dedicated to backups.

Joe, I don't understand why every PC model doesn't have an option to have
two identical drives installed at the factory with them actually as mirrors
so that every write goes to both and reads come from the primary drive. If
the primary fails then the system automatically switches over to the
secondary and leaves a message that the owner should replace the bad disk.
This way the user wouldn't even have to fool around with backups since it
would be done automatically. The price of the second disk is not very high
nowadays.

 

[dmac]

thats what raid 1 is, mirrored disks.

Joe, I don't understand why every PC model doesn't have an option to have
two identical drives installed at the factory with them actually as mirrors
so that every write goes to both and reads come from the primary drive. If
the primary fails then the system automatically switches over to the
secondary and leaves a message that the owner should replace the bad disk.
This way the user wouldn't even have to fool around with backups since it
would be done automatically. The price of the second disk is not very high
nowadays.

 

[The Painter]

Just to tell you what I do . once a week I update all AV
etc. then scan system , clean out rubbish , defrag then
back up with GHOST then chop it up with Winrar then put
it on CDs .I have had to rescue with it and it worked OK .
I had to format then I installed raw
XP ,Ghost ,Winrar.then unloaded the CDs to another
partition and restored OS, back to normal in about an
Hour and a half which is better than a few days trying to
remember how to set up my system manually.
All other Data is held on other partitions and can be put
on CDs regularly.
I surpose this will work on a new HD as well.

 

[Joe727]

When you order a PC, have them install a RAID (Redundant Array of
Independent Disks) card and have it set to RAID 0 (zero). Also order a
second hard drive.

Just keep in mind that those two hard drives probably come from the same
manufacturing lot. I had two identical hard drives fail within a week of
each other. After that experience, each of the two hard drives in my PCs
are from different manufacturers. BTW - I build my own.

Joe

 

[no_one]

RAID 0 is striped (faster). RAID 1 is mirrored.

 

[Joe727]

Yes, you are correct about RAID 0 & RAID 1.

Thanks
Joe

 

[Al Dykes]

It's telling you your hard drive is going bad.

Better just get a new one a replace your existing.

How do you enable SMART monitoring on a PC ?

 

[Al Dykes]

When you order a PC, have them install a RAID (Redundant Array of
Independent Disks) card and have it set to RAID 0 (zero). Also order a
second hard drive.

On a laptop ?

Besides the point, part of a backup strategy is to get the data out of
the house, so to speak. Two internal drives is nice, I've done it,
but it's a complete backup.

 

[Joe727]

What are you talking about? The Original Poster didn't say he has a laptop.
What's your point?

What do you mean by this statement? "Two internal drives is nice, I've done
it, but it's a complete backup."

Joe

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Check your PC's manual or the motherboard manufacturer's web site
for specific instructions. Most modern motherboards and hard drives
have the capability and requisite circuitry, but each manufacturer is
apt to implement it in a slightly different manner.


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[Paul J. Hurley]

How do you enable SMART monitoring on a PC ?

You have to set it in your BIOS. The option should be under your
"standard" settings for your hard drive (probably "primary master"). Most
recent BIOS's have a S.M.A.R.T. setting. As well, you should google for
the "drive fitness test", a boot-from-floppy utility that can run some
tests of your hard drive and enable S.M.A.R.T. for the drive outside of the
BIOS. (I think you need to set both.) Note that there is no S.M.A.R.T.
for SCSI, or at least I haven't found the option.

Paul

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

Joe, I don't understand why every PC model doesn't have an option to
have two identical drives installed at the factory with them actually
as mirrors so that every write goes to both and reads come from the
primary drive. If the primary fails then the system automatically
switches over to the secondary and leaves a message that the owner
should replace the bad disk. This way the user wouldn't even have to
fool around with backups since it would be done automatically. The
price of the second disk is not very high nowadays.

Disk mirroring is a technique used in a situation where a high
degree of uptime is required. It permits the system to stay up if
the primary drive fails, by automatically switching to the
mirror.

However it is *not* at all a good substitute for a backup. It
protects you against a single occurence--failure of the hard
drive--but leaves you vulnerable to all the other common problems
that backups should be used for. These problems include severe
power glitches, lightning strikes, virus attacks, accidental
deletion of needed files, theft of the computer, etc.

Everybody uses his computer differently, and has different
amounts of pain if data is lost. Each person's backup scheme
should reflect that need. But if your data is important enough,
secure backup needs to be on removable media; this protects you
against events like those mentioned above. For *really* secure
backup (for example if the life of your business depends on the
data), there should be multiple generations of backup and at
least one of those generations should be stored off-site.

 

[Jim Slager]

Thanks to dmac, joe727, no_one, Al Dykes, and Ken Blake for your replies. I
didn't realize that RAID was available as an option in certain Desktop PCs
as I verified by checking Dell, Gateway, and IBM websites. I expect that
desktops are where you want to use raid since notebooks may not have room
for them and it adds weight and decreases battery life. Also, I suppose
that one of the significant risks with notebooks is losing it or having it
stolen which raid doesn't address.

Does anyone have an opinion on the following (which might be safer to leave
in the office and do backup jsut before you take your laptop on the road):
TheIBM Portable 40GB USB 2.0 Hard Drive with Rapid Restore T is IBM's
ultimate recovery and restore solution that you can take on the road. It is
a high-capacity, high-speed, portable storage and disaster recovery at the
touch of a button solution. Includes IBM Rapid RestoreTM software which
helps you increase uptime by creating a complete image back-up of up to 40GB
(data, applications and operating system) that is stored in a protected
portion of the hard drive. This hard drive is bootable which helps enable
system recovery in the event of a complete primary drive failure. (Bootable
on systems with appropriate system BIOS). Just plug in and use with systems
running Microsoftâ Windowsâ2000 or XP. No drivers, batteries, or external AC
power adapter required.

 

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

When you order a PC, have them install a RAID (Redundant Array of
Independent Disks) card and have it set to RAID 0 (zero). Also order a
second hard drive.

Er - RAID 0 isn't what you want, as that increases you risk of data
loss! In RAID 0, each HD holds half the data, so that both HDs work
as if they were one. Lose *either* HD, lose your data

RAID 1 is where the same data is on both HDs, so in theory you can
chop one up with an axe and the PC will keep on truckin'.

For example:
- 2 x 120G as RAID 0; as one uber-fast 240G HD
- 2 x 120G as RAID 1; as one slightly slower 120G HD

RAID 1 is very much all-bread-and-no-choclate. When "price hero"
builders use 40G instead of 120Gs because they are a few $$$ cheaper,
don't expect to be buying RAID 1 by accident.

Just keep in mind that those two hard drives probably come from the same
manufacturing lot. I had two identical hard drives fail within a week of
each other. After that experience, each of the two hard drives in my PCs
are from different manufacturers. BTW - I build my own.

More likely a common even killed both (HDs don't like rough power).

Nah, there are other solutions

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[Joe727]

If you read my other response you will see that I thanked another poster for
correcting my mistake about RAID 0 and RAID 1.

Joe

 

[Joe727]

You're welcome. You might want to take a look at the Maxtor OneTouch USB
hard drive backup. There have been great reviews about it.

http://www.maxtor.com/en/products/external/onetouch/onetouch_usb/index.htm

Joe