Hard drive disk problem

SunFlowerSeeds · 29 May 2013

I couldn't really find the time of completion for the chkdsk on C (488gb) and E (443gb) but I have a 1tb drive and I have 2 partitions, 3 if the system reserve (99.9MB) is included. C is my OS disk.

SunFlowerSeeds · 29 May 2013

I ran Acronis Drive Monitor and my drive health is at 98% with a Soft Read Error Rate at orange. The status is degradation. Raw value is at 2 and Value is 99. Threshold is 0.

TVeblen · 29 May 2013

I would say that the diagnostic programs have reached a consensus.

SunFlowerSeeds · 29 May 2013

Is there any way I can repair this or perhaps isolate the section that's degrading?

pscowboy · 30 May 2013

98% drive health is fine, IF it stays there. Don't be frightened by the use of the word "degradation". This ONLY becomes bad if it does indeed degrade over time.

Give the drive a chance at life. Use it for a couple, three, four weeks. It may never get worse.

TVeblen · 30 May 2013

SunFlowerSeeds said:

Is there any way I can repair this or perhaps isolate the section that's degrading?

That is what chkdsk and seatools DOS for repairs is doing: finding the bad sectors and isolating them (marking them as unusable).

I have seen lots of anecdotal reports that wiping a drive (writing all zeros to every sector) will correct stubborn file system problems, but I doubt very much that this procedure will bring the dead (sector) to life. (Please note that a disk wipe destroys ALL of the data on the drive).

If you are going to continue to use this drive be sure to make backups of all your important files, and update it regularly. Some drives die slow and painful - they continue to lose blocks and cause more and more file problems as they go, some just die suddenly - no access to your files. There is no good way to tell which one yours will be.

SunFlowerSeeds · 30 May 2013

Acronis drive monitor recently dropped to 95% in health but then went back to 100% after I restarted computer. Also seatools for dos doesn't recognize my hdd after I booted from it.

Should I start looking for a new hdd anyways?

pscowboy · 31 May 2013

One should always have a spare hd on hand anyway to quickly get you back up and running in case of a disaster.

I would continue to use the hd in question until it starts showing consistent degradation. No need to run ADM every day.