Startup: Disk could have bad clusters on it

[Nyarlathotep]

Seems to me it says if you buy parts you get 1 year and if you'd buy a system you get 3 years. However, that's total bull. It shouldn't matter what you buy. Most parts, like harddrives have 3 year warrenty from the manufacturer, therefore the company you'd buy it from has no hassle. I know I'm right, as I do have my own company and know what I'm talking about.

Anyways, try contacting them and see what they say and keep me updated on it.

[number6]

We are forgetting that your disk must actually fail before you can worry about getting a replacement. Unless your system is constantly crashing and you have to run scandisk continually to repair the disk I don't think there is much you can do.

[Nyarlathotep]

Never the less, bad clusters would be a reason for me to change the drive for any of my customers :)

[number6]

Well that's what I call service! ;D

[IxianMace]

We are forgetting that your disk must actually fail before you can worry about getting a replacement. Unless your system is constantly crashing and you have to run scandisk continually to repair the disk I don't think there is much you can do.

"Bad clusters are a sign of impending hardware failure" (according to what the Scandisk dialogue box said at the end of the surface scan), so it would seem a bit silly for me to wait all that time, and then discover that the disk all of a sudden fails, when I could have got it replaced anyway, wouldn't it? :P If it is indeed under a 3 year warranty, then I should take advantage of that.

My computer has been acting up a little though. For some reason, when you start it up, it just doesn't load Windows 98. It reaches the splash screen where it says: "Microsoft Windows 98" with the little moving bar at the bottom, and then that's it. No disk activity for an extended period of time. ???

[number6]

Then by all means go ahead and pursue a warranty replacement.

[thylacine]

Hi,  A bit of info you may find helpful.

Your hdd may be faulty but there are issues you may need to consider.

thngs that can cause errors on your drive and give you these problems you are experiencing are also the following........

Ribbon cable.  minor power spikes can cause failure of these and of data transmitted.  =  inconsistent annoying errors in windows and on boot up.  Often telling you that the drive is not there or faults such as you describe.  replace the cable

Growth defects.  = something like rust spots on the disk platter that start as a miniscule spot and grow like lichen on a tree. = bad areas on a disk.  Nothing you can do except scandisk

I choose SCSI drives as they error check 8 times rather than the 4 times that IDE drive do.  Also SCSI Drives can be lowformatted by your card software to fix this.  Faster and more dependant access = faster stable games :)

The following solution to power plug issues, you do at your own risk and if you have no idea of electronics or electrocution injuries then get someone who does.  Do not attempt it if you are not careful and disconnect the power to the system completely.  Switch everything off and Remove the power plug from the wall.!  I do not want to be responsible for someone electrocuting themselves while tinkering with their computer.

A nasty and common problem is caused by loose power connectors that while they appear to be plugged into your drive, there is contact but it is in fact just sitting against the hdd terminals.

that is, it is a loose fit on the pins.  The cylinders are larger than the pins of the hdd.  to fix this...  First.. Turn the power off at the plug on the wall and remove it from the wall.....open your computer case and pull the power supply plug out of the back of the drive and crimp the power supply cylinders a little with a jewelers screwdriver or something small to close the loops JUST A LITTLE, (make sure they are still round or a little oval shaped otherwise you have squashed them and need to open them up again) of the power plug then plug it back into the drive.  Remember TURN THE THING OFF AT THE POWER POINT FIRST BEFOR YOU START!!!!  IN FACT UNPLUG IT.  I can't stress this enough as you may fry yourself if you try this with the power on.....  If not yourself then your power supply and maybe your motherboard as well.  I have seen this happen by others doing something similar.

Loose power connectors are a manufacturing "oversight" I believe.  They cause hdd to spin up and down and to do stupid things if a vibration is transmitted through the floor or the system moved in any way.  This is because they are basically connecting and disconnecting the power by bouncing around inside.  This is a serious problem, intermittent contacts also cause an increase of resistence and therefor heat and spiking within the power to your whole system.  I have found a lot of problems caused by this. tightening the connection can fix this.  Cars also have a similar problem asn the intermittent loose connections also cause power drops that result in 9V instead of 12 V travelling around the system.  Computer hdds running on 9v with a high current delivered by a bad connection is a nasty situation.

Another issue is..

Damage to your hdd can also come from the heads hitting the platters.  Too many people think the hdd's park their heads for protection but Windows constantly reads the hdd for swap file resizing.  so if you wobble the case, pick it up while it is running or move it  with your feet or a bouncy floor or hit the bench it sits on while frustrated with a game the heads may just contact the platter causing damage to some areas of your drive.  If it is the FAT area of the drive then its death is inevitable. Do not use you system as a footstool as so many people do and wonder why their drives  fail and windows constantly gets errors.

Hope this sheds some insight to prevent future probs to whoever reads this

regards

thylacine