Hard Drive Issue - Notificiation

[MitchellEve]

Hi Guys,

I've been a little inactive on the forum lately due to the fact I've been superbusy but I've got a question for all of you today. I went home for Christmas and my Dad turned his computer on this morning and Windows 7 gave him a notification saying the hard drive was about to fail so it would be a wise idea to backup etc..

I've backed up everything that I could think of on his computer and now I need your ideas. There is probably a small chance that the drive is alright and Windows is just warning me due to a recent event. However, can anyone give me some advice on what to do?

Usually I never have to deal with a drive that is "hanging on" so some advice would be good.

For exmaple, are there any good hard drive tools you would recommend I try that will show me the health of the drive, should I format it?

Thanks in advance guys.


Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays!

 

[SledgeDG]

If your drives are S.M.A.R.T. compatible you could try this program (probably the portable version since it works without installation) to gain more insight into that drive's actual standing

Download Center - Crystal Disk Info

which should give you something like this



I would wait with the format until you're 100% sure all your data has been saved . Just don't expect a format to heal a physically damaged harddrive.
-DG

 

[MitchellEve]

Yeah Hard Drive is bad, looks like I'll be re-installing Windows.

 

[SledgeDG]

Sorry to hear that...thankfully hard drives are cheap as they've never been before.
At least you had a fair warning and were able to save your data

-DG

 

[MitchellEve]

Yeah no kidding, I think the hard drive went because the power switch on the computer doesn't actually work. So the computer is just turned off by flicking the power switch on the back of the PSU.

Do you think that could be the issue and why it died?

 

[SledgeDG]

That depends on the quality of said PSU (if it lets through power spikes (or inductive loads) during the switch process. I know a few people who use the switch on a power strip to start/shut down all their equipment at once for years without problems.
But normally you should be able to shut down the computer from within windows.

-DG

 

[Apotter]

My PSU claims to have all protections and everything - it was quite expensive too - but only once i shut it down by mistake from that switch and it enabled a power-on protection for 24 hrs... Turning off a PC directly from the switch CAN and WILL cause data loss at some point, which will lead to more severe problems if not taken care of.

 

[SledgeDG]

I agree with Apotter...it's generally not a good idea to switch of the computer without shutting down windows first.Worst case scenario: the comp is just writing critical info to the harddrive that might even render your installation unbootable or leaves your registry in a defective unusable state. At best you will have to deal with additional start screens or disk checks during start up. Those guys who shut down from the power strip did that after Windows was shut down properly (mainly to avoid having to flick switches at the Monitor, Printer, external Speakers and what not else.)I still don't recommend such behavior because of those "inductive loads" mentioned earlier. Better be on the safe side.
-DG