HDD problems

Yeah, so like for the last 2 weeks, I've been having problems with my disk...s. One or two.

Every morning (and sometimes after 2-3pm, if I don't leave the PC turned on the previous day) I start the PC, it loads everything fine, until the Windows logo starts loading. It sometimes gets stuck there. If it doesn't, and loads farther, a black screen with a cursor appears and gets stuck for some more time.

Then if I get to the desktop, I usually have to wait a looong time before icons from my secondary disk load. Sometimes everything hangs up, then I have to reboot the PC twice or thrice before it works. Then, when everything loads up... nothing happens, no more problems.

Is this a hard drive problem? A cable? If a drive, which one - the system one or the one that keeps loading the files? It all started with low temperatures, and I noticed that it never works the first 5-10 minutes if it doesn't "heat up" from 15'C to at least 30-32'C while in BIOS. Then it might load after the second attempt.

I'd start by opening it up and make sure all cable connections are properly seated. You may find that some are obviously not fully inserted, but even just wiggling them a bit can sometimes overcome any oxidation or dirt that is hampering proper connection.

While your at it, blow the dust bunnies out.

A defrag may help too.

Could be an initialization failure. How are the drives connected? PATA? SATA? RAID? What is their relationship to each other Slave/Master or are they on separate channels?

Worst case scenario you go to the manufacturers website and download their diagnostic utility. These are usually done as an .iso CD image or a bootable floppy. That would give you a good overall idea of disk health if Windows chkdsk is returning nothing.

I always have my case open. I'll have to re-check cables, but after the disk loads, and I restart the PC, it works fine. And I defragged already, I wouldn't go on a forum before exhausting all of the basic options.

One is Slave, one Master, but the problem must be something younger than 2-3 weeks. I bought the drive in September or October and everything was fine until then. I'll try downloading the diag utility...

When you get it run the short and long DST tests to see if it passes. Also check the SMART status, if it's been tripped the drive could be on it's way out.

I checked everything, both disks passed the short DST tests and SMART capability, but only my older (master) drive passed the LDST. The new one, the one with problems, gets stuck at 13-15%.

Is it a hardware problem, or a cable problem? Cable would be better, since I don't remember where I put the "box" (heh...) with the disk.

It's a hardware problem, backup important data now...locking up on DST means it's getting read errors (since it tries to read literally everything). That probably means you have bad sectors on the drive. Every drive has a certain amount of backup sectors it will automatically reallocate but once this process starts it's inevitable that the drive will completely fail.

I can walk you through more complicated testing to be sure if you are interested but make sure the first thing you do is backup anything important.

Thanks for the help. Is it something fixable, or should I just buy a new drive/try to get it changed?

Backup before you try this, it can cause irrecoverable data loss. Leave the good drive disconnected so that the only drive on that channel is the suspect drive.

Download a bootable iso of Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) or a copy of the Ultimate Boot CD (contains DBAN as part of the wiping tools). DBAN writes multiple pass zeros and as a failsafe will refuse to work if it detects sector problems. It will prompt you to insert a floppy for a logfile, you don't need to, that's your cue that the drive is failing. You'd want to replace it in this case.

If by some chance it lets you zero fill then go ahead and do it just to see if it will complete (this takes a long time). When it's finished run the manufacturers CD again and prep the drive for use by repartitioning or you could use the Ultimate Boot CD's fdisk tools to do the same thing. If it manages to clear zero fill and repartitioning then DST was wrong and you probably just had a corrupt file system. Copy everything back and you should be good to go.

Thanks for the advice. I already deleted enough games from Steam or Direct2Drive to be able to back up the stuff on my sister's laptop and my other disk. Gotta try tomorrow this thing you said, but I'm already looking for a new drive... Not sure if I should try Seagate again, though.

I have an 80gig Maxtor (owned by Seagate) from a customer that had this same problem. Never had a problem with any Western Digital drive and I've been using those coming up on a decade now. I still have the first Caviar I ever bought and it works great.

Yeah, I'll go with Samsung next time. I think Seagate caught my attention only because it was cheap. Now I pay the price...

Check it for problems using HDtune. And next time, get a Western Digital.

You may also want this: http://wiki.lunarsoft.net/wiki/Data_Recovery

Thanks Tarun, HDTune revealed one sector reallocated, damaged. I'm already backing up some of the more important files on my working disk, since I have over 170GB free. Too bad it will take so long to back it up, even if I don't do it with every game or movie.

Btw, what do you think about this disk? Cheaper than the Seagate I have, and if everything works out, I'll tell them just to exchange the disks... Obviously I'll have to erase the old one, but meh.

WD Caviar Blue 500 GB WD5000AAKS 16MB cache SATA-II

I'd give you the store's site but it's not in English ;d

I have purchased that exact HDD (the WD Blue 500 GB etc.) and was quite pleased with it. I've had zero problems with WD hard drives, and they are my brand of choice. I also have done very well with HItachi hard drives. Seagate is a mixed bag and probably 4'th or 5'th on my list right now, due to a poor track record in recent years.

I've consulted my IT specialist, he told me to get it to the shop and they'll either exchange the disk or try to fix it by blocking the damaged sector. But yeah, he also told me that I can either buy the 500GB WD disk or save some money for a 1TB drive, also from WD, but a bit more expensive.

Too bad I'm stuck till Sunday, since his laptop's disk also went down and he needs his portable HD today.