Recurrent BSODs while imaging with Macrium, or just using new printer

Although you don't really have bad sectors that cannot be handled, I believe that there may be other issues with the drive(s) that cannot be identified as much as we'd like to. For this reason I recommend to replace at least the drive where the long test in SeaTools failed, the one where the short drive self test failed is up to you, all I see is an issue that the drive can easily handle.

Thank you for looking into that data, axe0. Let me throw in a few questions.

• Is there a particular concern associated with the deep dips in transfer rate shown by the Benchmark test of HD Tune, especially since they happen at different places on the disk each time the test is run ?

• Those dips happen on the system disk. They don't happen on the data disk, which you advise to change because it failed the Sea Tools DOS test. Is it unexpected they should not happen on the data disk, which is the one with a bad sector ? Or is it an unconnected phenomenon ?

• I use HD Disk Sentinel. Do you have any opinion on that program, especially compared to HD Tune ?

• HD Disk Sentinel has some repair options which could be applied to one, or both of the disks. One is destructive of data, the other possibly so. Do you think it might be worth trying them ?

• Given the state of the disks, how reliable are my Macrium Reflect images (which are always set to verify themselves) ? Is there a possibility that they carry over some defects to a new disk ?

• Is it possible that the failed printer installation has anything to do with the problem ? Or is it unconnected ?

Added info : both disks have been used daily since the beginning of 2011.

1. There's no concern in my opinion, a test can sometimes show deep dips when a drive has been used for some time. Typically this happens only once, and even though multiple tests has shown them it is still no concern.

2. Your disk can handle a large amount of bad/unstable sectors, over time your drive should have handled the sole unstable sector and should be able to carry on without problem. That a drive hasn't been able to pass the SeaTools long test is more a concern, that is typically a sign of hard drive failure.

3. I haven't yet looked at HD Disk Sentinel.

4. What kind of repair options?

5. So long as no data corruption or file system corruption is present, your images should be fine.

6. If it is indeed a drive problem, anything can be involved

Disk repair would be the option you want, but I don't see how it differs from a chkdsk /r command. Chkdsk /r does the exact same thing and much more....