Hard Disk Problem

[piterdevries]

So as I'm typing this I'm waiting for my Nvidia driver to finish downloading because I've just formatted my hard disk. It's a Western Digital 320gb SATA hard disk, and I've partitioned it to 280gb for my files and 17.8gb for the OS (the remaining GB's are nowhere, friend says that's normal for hard disks to have missing GB's).

Everything went on smoothly until one day as I was playing Heroes of Newerth, pc crashed and a BSOD popped up. I restarted but then I can't boot back to XP, its just stuck on the bootscreen, the blue bar moving nonstop. Cant even boot through safe mode, it hangs up while loading.

So first I popped in my XP cd-rom and did a chkdsk /p /r (cant remember the command) and after that everything went to normal again... Until tonight while I was typing and listening to music the sound suddenly went to a loop before flashing a "delayed write failed" balloon on the status bar then another BSOD before automatically restarting.THen again I can't boot again...

SO i reformatted the PC and now am installing drivers... I'm stumped, I dunno what's wrong with this disk. Trying to rule out the causes: 1.) bad partition? 2.) overheating? (it reached 51 degrees this afternoon and the heat waves are terrible here)

Help  :(

[Dragoon Knight]

Go here and scroll down to Drive Fitness Test.  You'll need a floppy drive and a spare floppy disk for this, so if you don't have an internal one, find a USB FDD and hunt through drawers until you find a couple of old floppies.

What that tool does is create a bootable floppy disk, which analyses and tests your hard drive for any problems.  Since your drive is a Western Digital, it won't be able to give you an exact cause, but it will explain the general failure (SMART failure, bad sectors, etc.) and attempt to correct it.

Pop the floppy in under Windows and run the executable (on another machine, which I assume you have access to).  It'll try to make the disk - I've found it to be a bit picky when it comes to which floppies it likes, so you might not luck out on your first try.  But once it's made, and you've chosen the language options, you'll be asked to restart.  Postpone this, and remove the floppy.  You'll now need to boot up the failing PC and make sure your BIOS is set to boot from USB device / Floppy (depending on which you're using).  Make sure the floppy is connected to the failing PC and boot it up.

When you're in the first menu, choose ATA Support Only, then let it load.  Make sure it detects your hard drive, then run an Advanced Scan.  Depending on the size, and how obvious the error is, this can take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours.  But at the end, it will give you an error code.  0x00 means your drive is fine, either because there were no errors detected, or the tool fixed them.  Anything else usually means there's an error.  Post the code here and I'll look up what it means.

[piterdevries]

sadly i don't have a floppy drive nor spare floppies anymore, they're a thing of the past here, long forgotten  :(

very nervous because the thought of "if the error strikes again" still lingers on my head

[gryphon]

I doubt it's the harddisk (if it is a new disk that it)

You are aware of the conversions of bit to byte?

Next to that after a clean Windows installation a part of the harddisk will be used for it. IF memory serves Windows XP it's 8MB. I recently installed Windows7 on my MacBook (250GB WD disk) and noticed 100MB reserved at the start.

If your computers gives you a BSOD screen have a look at the event viewer to see the cause of it.

[Dragoon Knight]

From the description of the error, it does sound like the hard drive to me.  "Delayed write failed" seems to indicate that there's something wrong with the reading / writing to disc.  If you can't use HDFT, then you might want to try SeaTools, which is inferior but can be burned to and booted from CD.

gryphon is right - check the Crash Dump file.  Alternatively, take a note of what the BSOD says.  You can set it to not automatically restart by going to Control Panel, System, the Advanced tab.  Then under Startup and Recovery, go to Settings, and un-tick "Automatically restart".  This will give you time to photo or write down the error codes.  You can either Google these or post them here.

[piterdevries]

I forgot to say that the first time this hard disk went gaga, I used my other hard disk, a 3-year old 80gb IDE Seagate and it still has an OS installed. I popped both hard disks in and what I saw in explorer is that the 280gb partition of my other hard disk is still there and the files are still okay but the other partition, the 17gb (the OS) vanished. Then when I remove the IDE hard disk it just hangs up in the windows boot screen...

So in case this thing goes haywire again, can I still use the 280gb partition as storage?

Used the SeaTools but the windows version not the DOS one,, it fails on the short and long drive self test and the long generic as well. It passes on the other tests save the advanced one because I didn't have it take that one

ARGHH I JUST BOUGHT THIS HARD DISK LAST FEBRUARY 24  >:( >:( >:(

EDIT: I restarted then I was greeted by the message NTLDR (cant remember correctly) is missing press CTRL+ALT+DEL

Got frustrated so I formatted the OS partition, merged it with the other one, then used the 80gb HD as my OS and the 290GB as storage

[Dragoon Knight]

I'd say that the drive is on the way out.  I wouldn't put anything that you can't get again on there.

It's not such a big deal nowadays, of course, since a new Internal 500GB SATA 3.5" is only going to set you back about

[piterdevries]

So far so good with the hard disk's new duty as data storage... Just asking, what's the "dangerous" temperature of a hard disk? I'm keeping track of my temp with HDD Health and it spikes up to 51 degrees Celsius on afternoons (we have a heat wave here) and 48 at night. Thinking of actually placing a desk fan next to the open case of my PC to cool things up

[GhostHunter]

It depends on drive, manufacturer, etc.

The link posted about was for drive fitness test (DFT), which is a Hitachi test for Hitachi drives, not Western Digital.

Here is the link for the WD test for in-Windows:

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&sid=3〈=en

[Dragoon Knight]

Oh hey Ghosthunter.  Haven't seen you around in, what... a year and a bit?

The WD tool is likely to give a more detailed report, but that's only if it works at all.  I recommended HDFT because it's the best of the lot.  Other tools tend to run under Windows, which can lead to inaccurate results, especially if another process is accessing the drive at the time.  Not to mention the speed decrease that running under Windows entails.

A S.M.A.R.T. failure of any type is a sign that your drive is on the way out, and it's time to get it replaced.

[piterdevries]

once again, it's another HD problem... I threw away the old one and bought a new one last week. It's a Seagate 160gb and at first it's okay until these past few days where you can hear it turn on (you know that sound hard disks make when you boot up the pc like a low whistle or something)... Did scandisk and any other diagnostics and they're all fine, so I'm thinking can the problem be directed to the MOBO itself? Come on, I'm having problems with newly bought SATA hard disks yet that four year old IDE hard disk is not even whining a little bit.

[gryphon]

What exactly is the problem with that disk?

[piterdevries]

I was just reading an article on the net then suddenly I heard that low whistling sound I said in the last post. Then I checked Event Viewer and these errors came up:

An error was detected on device DeviceHarddisk1D during a paging operation.

The device, DeviceIdeIdePort2, did not respond within the timeout period.

An error was detected on device DeviceHarddisk1D during a paging operation.

And after that this guy ALWAYS comes next

The ring buffer that stores incoming mouse data has overflowed (buffer size is configurable via the PS/2 mouse properties in device manager).

The same also happened with my earlier WD hard disk so it can't be the disk's problem, like wow I got lucky with two newly-bought-already-defective disks.

[gryphon]

You can try to disable the 'enable command queuing' option.

[athanasios]

99.99% the HDDs are OK. Try your disks with a different cable and/or on another mobo. One of the two is failing.

[piterdevries]

will try to disable the enable queuing option in a moment... Tried the disk with a different cable and it's still having problems. Haven't got an extra mobo or a nearby friend to try it on...

I was wondering if something good will happen if i try to update my bios? I haven't done that yet ever since I bought this mobo

EDIT: updated my bios, so far so good... as for the queuing option, I don't have that option in my device manager when i click properties on any of those controllers...

EDIT #2: so yeah, while surfing the net my pc suddenly turned itself off. As in off, everything off. I turned it back on, then after the XP bootscreen it died again, and again. Now I got lucky and got past the bootscreen but I don't know when will it die again... And I tested the hard disk on my cousin's mobo and it was fine... He told me that it might be a faulty power supply since my PSU is now like 3 to 4 years old.

EDIT #3: Okay now the turning off thinggy is starting to become really problematic. I can't even last 30 minutes in front of the pc without having it turn off automatically...  >:( >:( >:( >:(

[athanasios]

If it is a faulty power supply you will be lucky. It is of the cheapest parts to replace. OK, if you buy one with many Watts it will be expensive, but you can always buy 2 of lower wattage, for much less money, and use both.

[piterdevries]

can it be possible that it is because of my bios upgrade? the turning off is becoming really really frequent now

EDIT: okay the problem stopped. I formatted my OS drive and installed windows 7... the technician said that the turning off shenanigan is caused by a virus.

[athanasios]

Then how did the HDD work properly on another PC? Or you didn't boot from it on the other PC?

[piterdevries]

surprisingly it didn't turn off automatically on the other pc.

i removed my old psu and changed it to my spare one... everything was going fine until this afternoon the pc won't turn on. then it eminated some weird stench, obviously the scent of something burnt.

went back to the techie. whenever the IDE hard disk is plugged in the PC won't open, but when it's not plugged in the pc boots just fine. problem is my OS is in that hard disk.

so he was kind enough to let me borrow his disk. my IDE is now dead, after years of service, and the port where you jack in the power smells like... that burnt scent.

[Gruntlord6]

surprisingly it didn't turn off automatically on the other pc.

i removed my old psu and changed it to my spare one... everything was going fine until this afternoon the pc won't turn on. then it eminated some weird stench, obviously the scent of something burnt.

went back to the techie. whenever the IDE hard disk is plugged in the PC won't open, but when it's not plugged in the pc boots just fine. problem is my OS is in that hard disk.

so he was kind enough to let me borrow his disk. my IDE is now dead, after years of service, and the port where you jack in the power smells like... that burnt scent.

as the guy from "Will It Blend" would say: "Don`t Breath This!" its mostly toxic chemicals and burnt metal, though im not sure why it started burning, and upgrade from IDE will bring you higher capacity and performance.

[piterdevries]

i will upgrade it within this month, it's just a temporary fix because i really need to finish my project...

does anyone have an idea on why did that hard disk go nuts like that? some of my pals here said it's because of the heat (does heat still pose a risk to parts even if the pc is turned off?)

[athanasios]

How can it be heated if PC is off?

In case you have files you need into that HDD, you will need a same HDD* and use its board (only 4 screws hold it) to salvage them (provided the damage is on the board only). Techie didn't tell you that? If not he is a noob or he doesn't care because he doesn't have one.

*same model, same size.

[piterdevries]

i really don't have anything i need in that HD so i happily threw it from the third floor of our building.  ;)

and about that heat, that was just a question, considering how hot it can be in my place during summer.

[athanasios]

That's an issue when running the PC. It is very hot here too on summer.