Up grade from hell...

[Dan]

In short I've had xp home on a new WD80 GB SE hard drive
since Feb 2003. Had problems with the video drivers from
nVidia. Up graded video card in July 2003(ATI 9800 AIW),
created bigger problems. Up graded motherbord one week
later, and installed XP Pro... I erased all info on the
hard drive before format and installation with a WD
support disk. Preformed a fresh format and installation.
After complete I ran scan disc and disc check. Scan disc
reported nothing major, however disc check found over 200
bad clusters. I ran disc check 3 weeks later same
story... What's wrong? Is it the hard drive?

Dan

 

[bob]

Hey,
I can't really help you with most of the stuff.
Though I can give you some information about your HD.
Your HD is relatively new and shouldn't have any bad
clusters. Bad clusters can be caused by just bumping into
your computer and small stuff like that. But 200 of them,
that is when your hard drive acually had a problem and
starts to go, the bad clusters start multiplying like a
chain reaction. You are able to tell this because you had
more bad clusters 3 weeks later. If you didn't know,
Check Disk and error checking programs like that
don't/can't acually repair those clusters, all they do is
flag them and tell your computer to stay away from them.
I myself really don't think that a 7 month old hard drive
should have these problems. Here is the link to WD
Warranty page, http://support.wdc.com/warranty/index.asp.
I suggest you check if its still under warrenty and
contact WD and get it replaced. Hard Drive manufacturers
make their own diagnostics for the drive that you should
use before you call them. They can be found at this site,
http://support.wdc.com/download/. To try to answer your
question, it could be the HD, but the problem is you
really can't be sure unless you get a replacement/new
one. I myself happen to have an ATI AIW 9000 Pro which I
like and hasn't given me any problems yet. If you have
any further questions, feel free to reply to this post.
Good Luck

 

[Mike Mulligan]

Over 200 bad clusters? Yes, it's the hard disk.

Mike Mulligan

 

[Duncan McNutt]

IF you value you're data, buy Seagate Baracudda V's or later.

Silent, fast, reliable, nice package. Dont by WD Paperweights.