Hard drive failure soon?

UnknownReverent · 12 May 2012

I've received a couple of BSOD's in the past, but never paid attention to them. (Just remembered the BSOD's were for faulty software when I got my new webcam recently. Fixed that issue.) Just recently my hard drive has made a few clicking noises, but I checked if it was plugged in correctly. After I took the SATA and power cable out and put them back in, it hasn't been doing that. It also didn't want to boot and I had to use the start up repair. It took forever to complete, but that could be due to actually having a few problems. Just recently I got HD Tune though to make sure everything was fine. I have a few errors in there and I'm not exactly sure if I should be worried or not. I'm about to buy new computer parts and I'm not sure if I should be worried to get a new hard drive or not.

Golden · 12 May 2012

Hi and Welcome to SevenForums,

Clicking noises from HDD's are usually indicative of a problem. The HDTune utility suggests as much, but I can't tell how serious it is. In this case, the best option is to suspect an imminent failure, and act accordingly.

The first thing to do, is to make sure you have an external backup of any critical files, if you haven't already done so. Next, lets run a few tests to see how critical the issue might be.

1. Click the Start Orb, and in the search box type cmd
2. Right-click on cmd.exe, and choose Run as administrator
3. In the cmd window that opens, type chkdsk and hit enter

Once it completes, copy and paste the contents of the window here. Depending on what chkdsk shows, we might have to run it again using a different switch to mark any damaged clusters as un-useable, but lets first see what a normal chkdsk reports.

Regards,
Golden

Pierre50 · 12 May 2012

So - What do the event logs say???

That's one of the first places to go look for system errors.

Take a look, and see if you have alot of HDD errors logging in the Event Logs.

Then let us know...

HTH

Patrick

UnknownReverent · 12 May 2012

This is what I got for the chkdsk.

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.

WARNING!  F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
  259072 file records processed.
File verification completed.
  1070 large file records processed.
  0 bad file records processed.
  2 EA records processed.
  44 reparse records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
  345442 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
  0 unindexed files scanned.
  0 unindexed files recovered.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
  259072 file SDs/SIDs processed.
Security descriptor verification completed.
  43186 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
  33704424 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

 625027071 KB total disk space.
  88649696 KB in 188490 files.
    115240 KB in 43187 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    379527 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
 535882608 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
 156256767 total allocation units on disk.
 133970652 allocation units available on disk.

C:\Windows\system32>

karlsnooks · 13 May 2012

chkdsk report is good.

Forget those super duper hard disk programs.

If you want to test your hard disk, THEN
use the hard disk test program from the mfg of your hard disk.

Your system specs are rather sparse.

Use this writeup AND use SPECCY to gather data.
Fill in your system specs.

Update your SevenForums System Specs
User CP (located on the top menu bar) |
Your Profile | Edit System Spec (left-hand column)

To gather info, use Speccy (my favorite) or SIW or System Info

Add the word laptop or desktop or netbook to the
“system manufacturer” block, for example,
Toshiba Satellite L305D notebook.

Provide full windows version info, for example:
MS Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit

Use the “Other Info” block for Optical Reader,
Mouse, touchpad, wifi adapter, speakers, monitor, etc

Scroll down and click on SAVE CHANGES.

===============================
thanks, karl

UnknownReverent · 13 May 2012

I have changed my system specs and downloaded SeaTools for my Seagate drive. It failed all of the scans except for the Smart Scan. It failed the short and long test. The long test popped up over 100 errors while the short test didn't even get a chance to begin. I'm still not sure if that means my hard drive is going to go soon or not. It also gives me the option to repair them, so I'm going to try to do that and see if I get anything out of that or not. I've already backed up my data so it's worth a try.

Edit: It seems to have fixed all the errors that were caught with SeaTools. I'm going to try reinstalling Windows to see if the problem with booting could have been messed up files. The clicking on the other hand, could be to it actually going out or possibly loose cables (not too sure if loose cables would actually do that or not, but I'm assuming if it gets less power it will still spin but have problems causing clicking.).

karlsnooks · 13 May 2012

a clicking drive should be replaced. You are only courting disaster.

UnknownReverent · 13 May 2012

karlsnooks said:

a clicking drive should be replaced. You are only courting disaster.

There could be two reasons for it clicking. I put in a pci wireless network card recently and I could have hit the wires and loosened them. Since I checked the wires and plugged them in firmly after I heard the clicking, it hasn't done so. That sounds like a reasonable explanation to me, but I could be wrong. Either that, or the hard drive is actually going out. That wouldn't explain why it stopped clicking after I fixed the wires though.

karlsnooks · 13 May 2012

leave the cover off of the computer so that you can hear the clicking.

Wishmaster · 13 May 2012

If you are certain it was the HD clicking Backup important DATA now, and get a new HD as soon as you can.

Once a HardDrive starts clicking, its the sign of certain failure.

Thing is, you may have just a few hours before complete failure, or it could even hang in there a couple months. Its impossible to predict.
But, given the best case scenario that it lives a month or so longer, DATA corruption and Repair Installs may become more frequent. Then again, it could just suddly and without warning die.

So either way, backup and replace ASAP.