Bad Hard Drive warning

[Aperture]

I'm getting a bad hard drive warning.
Should I get a new hard drive?
If so is there a way for me to move everything exactly as it is over to a new hard drive, I mean drivers, programs and all.
I use my computer for recording in Pro Tools HD and it's very sensitive to any kind of modifications.
Is there a way to migrate to a new hard drive and for it to be 100% exactly the same?

Thanks

 

[Sven1458]

Make an image of the drive and then install the new drive and restore it.
I recommend Macrium , it is free and reliable.
good luck
Sven

 

[Arc]

Is there a way to migrate to a new hard drive and for it to be 100% exactly the same?

Thanks

The Method Two of http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html will do. It is what Sven1458 posted, in an elaborated form.

At the same time, you may want to test the existing HDD. Seatools will be a good tool to use.

 

[Aperture]

Thanks a lot for your suggestions.

Just one more thing instead of starting a new post:

Now when I start up the computer I get this black screen that says
"CHKDSK is verifying indexes (state 2 of 5)..."

This take FOREVER to finish. It's been two hours already and it just started stage 5 of 5.

I was wondering if this is also an indication that my hard drive is going bad?

What can I do?

Thanks

 

[Arc]

Use the Seatools test as suggested in post #3 in order to have a confirmation. It will say you the actual situation.

Take both the Short Generic test and Long Generic test.

 

[alphaniner]

This take FOREVER to finish. It's been two hours already and it just started stage 5 of 5.

...

What can I do?

I believe the convential wisdom is to let chkdsk run to completion, no matter how long it takes.

 

[Aperture]

I just ran both the Short and Long Generic tests from the Seagate program
and I got a Pass on both of them.
Also as to the CHKDSK that the computer did this morning it said it found no errors.

At the same time I'm getting error messages from Windows urging me to back up my hard drive and install a new hard drive because this one is about to go bad.

Do you have any suggestions as to what's going on?

 

[alphaniner]

The warnings make me think a SMART attribute is near or below threshold, but I would have thought the Seagate utility would not pass such a drive. Anyway, I'd suggest running CrystalDiskInfo and sharing a screenshot as in this post. CDI is just a suggestion, there are other utilities that can access SMART data. For example, I'm pretty sure Intel SSD Toolbox can access SMART data of any brand of SSD or HDD.

 

[RolandJS]

Either clone that HD to another HD today, or, make at least one if not two full images of your OS and data partition onto at least one if not two external HDs using something like Macrium Reflect [free or pay-for] or Image for Windows [I think still free, for sure pay-for] or Acronis True Image [for sure pay-for] today. And, going forward, please begin making weekly or bi-monthly full image backups.

 

[Aperture]

OK, so I guess it's time to buy a new hard drive.
Just went on Amazon and I saw that there's
SATA then there's SATA II and also SATA III, there's PATA, SAS, SCSI as well.

My computer is an HP Z800 workstation from November of 2009.
I remember because I bought it a month after Win 7 was released.

Does that help telling what connection my OS hard drive is.
I have three hard drives 1tb each, was the largest at the time and I use this computer for recordings.

Thanks for your help....it's been amazing. Hope to get this behind me asap.

 

[alphaniner]

SATA II was introduced in 2004, so it's unlikely your system is SATA I. PATA (Parallel ATA) is just a retroactive name for ATA/IDE supposedly to avoid confusion with SATA (Serial ATA).

In a very simplistic sense, SCSI was the enterprise/high-end alternative to ATA. Similarly, SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) is the enterprise alternative to SATA. But unlike with PATA & SCSI, SATA devices can be connected to SAS controllers.

Now I'll put my inner storage geek away and share something that may actually be relevant to your interests: until recently, SATA controllers defaulted to Compatible mode (aka Legacy mode, IDE mode, etc) for OS support reasons. SATA native mode is called AHCI, and you want your controller in AHCI mode if at all possible. In particular, SATA features like hot-plugging, NCQ (improves HDD performance), and TRIM (extends SSD life) don't work in Compatible mode.

 

[Aperture]

I got a screen shot.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Aperture]

Any advice on the screen shot?

I hope it came through.

 

[Arc]

Replace the disk as soon as possible.
If the indicator is yellow, you have a time to deal with; but now you dont have.

 

[Aperture]

Thanks all for your help.

I Downloaded the Macrium and did the cloning. Macrium 6, the latest, does not offer cloning, only copying files. So I got that and put everything on a 1T WD hard drive.
Computer seems to be doing just fine.
Ran all the tests and everything is fine.

I haven't tried to launch Pro Tools 8, don't have the guts to see a potential error message...lol
Will do so tomorrow. Just don't want to have to dig up a RAID driver from 2009.....lol

Thanks again fellas for saving my a** on this one.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks all for your help.

I Downloaded the Macrium and did the cloning. Macrium 6, the latest, does not offer cloning, only copying files. So I got that and put everything on a 1T WD hard drive.
Computer seems to be doing just fine.
Ran all the tests and everything is fine.

I haven't tried to launch Pro Tools 8, don't have the guts to see a potential error message...lol
Will do so tomorrow. Just don't want to have to dig up a RAID driver from 2009.....lol

Thanks again fellas for saving my a** on this one.

Macrium Reflect 6 free does support cloning however, it's possible that disk errors on your old drive may have blocked cloning. If that is that case, you should make an image of your drive for restoration to your new drive. You will need to make a restoration CD or USB stick to restore an image (that can be done with Macrium Reflect).

If there were any System files (OS and/or programs) on the bad drive, just copying them over to another drive won't work. You have to either clone or image and restore them.

 

[Arc]

Better to not copy/clone the OS from a failing disk. Start afresh with a new disk.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html