Windows 7 HDD Failure Error Message

Occasionally I get this pop up error message on my laptop screen. It shows up in the mornings after the system has been idle overnight; I do not normally turn off my laptop.

Each time this happens, I do a bootup CHKDSK /R. This takes several hours but does not find any errors to fix. I do check my Wininit file afterwards. It is a 1TB HGST HDD, the model number is shown in the picture. Op sys is Windows 7 Pro. It happens maybe two or three time a month. I have been collecting differential images on an external 2 TB Seagate drive, and have a spare empty identical HGST HDD available just in case the HDD does crash and burn. I also back up my data onto a networked desktop.

Other than a possible HDD error or failure, is there anything else that could cause the error message to pop up? Also are there any other events in event viewer that I should look at?

Peter B.

Mellon Head said:

A thought, since the HDD is checking out OK with chkdsk /r is that the HDD controller might be starting to go bad.

Something I would do to rule out the hard disk is to do a fresh image and put the identical hard disk in the laptop and restore the image. Run like that for a while and see if you get the error message anymore. If you do, it's likely the controller. If not, it was the drive.

It happened again yesterday. I found the error messsage on the screen when I checked in the morning. So I scheduled another chkdsk /r. Here is the result:

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
380928 file records processed. File verification completed.
3637 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 2 EA records processed.
40 reparse records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
465904 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
380928 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 48 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 48 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 48 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
42489 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
35372072 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
380912 files processed. File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
127970017 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

976657407 KB total disk space.
464067168 KB in 295675 files.
195128 KB in 42490 indexes.
428 KB in bad sectors.
514615 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
511880068 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
244164351 total allocation units on disk.
127970017 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 d0 05 00 fe 28 05 00 95 78 08 00 00 00 00 00 .....(...x......
d1 19 01 00 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....(...........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

*****************************************

It did not find any errors. Notice the 428 KB in bad sectors near the bottom of the report. I am still creating two daily differential images on an external drive, one with Macrium Reflect and the other with EaseUs Backup.

Peter B.

Update:

I have not had any drive errors in a while and am continuing to create differential image files. I have also created a Windows PE USB Flash Drive. Soon I will undertake the arduous task of replacing the hard drive; it requires what can be best described as major surgery on this Laptop, unlike my Dells which only require the removal of two screws.

Wish me luck on this.