HDD errors

[ICIT2LOL]

Have been having problems with my Toshiba laptop -Sat L550 - HDD is a Toshiba MK5055GSX - since June, and keep coming up with Device\Harddisk1-2-3-5\DR1-2-3-5 has bad blocks and controller malfunctions.

My dealer (also Toshiba trained techs) keep telling me that there is nothing worng with it andit is something I ahve downloaded or mucked around with in autoruns / reg. Now I have done a factory default - a real pain as had to reinstall the security and do all the udate for that and Windows. Now I am finding that after only doing those items and setting the email - doing chkdsk for all the small external HDD's I had for backup then chkdsk the internal drive the errors have flooded back too many to count but reckon must be around 500! I cannot figure out what all the diferent numbers are those readouts and the device manager check in windows is tellingme that the internal HDD #0 is working normally.

Anyone got ant suggestions as most of my comptuing time is being taken up with trying to find an answer and fix!!

Any suggestions - gratefully appreciated.

 

[seekermeister]

I've never owned a Toshiba hard drive, but using a tester, such as HD Tune, or one by Toshiba...

Software Utilities

should tell the story.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Toshy HDD test

Thanks seeker downloaded that toll but it come as ?run \ enter \needs admin \enter then nothing unless it's going on in the background. Probably have to get onto Toshiba here in Oz and find out as this problem is - seriously driving me mad.
Ruddy machines only tem months old and since June has been a nightmare especially when the dealer is inferring that I am some sort of idiot or have nothing else better to do.

Anyway mate thanks for trying!!

 

[seekermeister]

Which is giving you problems...HD Tune or the Toshiba Tester?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Both

Both of them seeker I have now run the Windows 7 diag and it comes up clean. The Toshiba diag I am not an expert but looks pretty damn ordinary.

Anway in the meantime I have probably and hopefully found the HDD error problem - the external HDD's I was using for backups - bad blocks. now as I have 4 of them 1 1Tb and 3 350Gb I have a fair bit of money invested in them. The 1Tera is being ditched as I think it is really the worst offender, a Verbatim 350 has just shown up errors galore after test transferring backup files to the C: drive so it's going. Now left with 1 WD and 1 HP so am going to try a format of both and see what happens.

Any ideas on a decent brand I don't care re the cost so much as long as I get a drive that isn't going to cause me 3 months of nightmarish problems, and spoil the only little bit of pleasure I manage to get these days. *slumps back in chair*

 

[seekermeister]

I have just ordered the third one of these:

*Deleted*

I have not been using them long enough to vouch for them, but I like their capacity, performance and the fact that they have a 5 year warranty. In the past, I didn't have very good luck with WDC drives, but from what I have been told, these are good. Anything is better than the Seagate 7200.11s that I'm replacing.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

HDD

Thanks seeker I'll have a look for one of these out here - generally fairly close behind you blokes with the new stuff, but if I can't find it I can always get it there eh?

 

[seekermeister]

After posting, I realized that what I linked was my invoice, rather than just the ad, so I deleted it and found this on eBay:

WD 1TB WD1002FAEX SATA 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB OEM - eBay (item 400132063898 end time Nov-24-10 09:22:42 PST)

I have no idea of availability down under, nor the situation for ordering it from here.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

HDD's

Hiyya seeker I have just bought a Seagate Expansion portable drive - 500Gb and before I even used it ran a Kaspersky scan and then a ckdsk to make sure everything was tickateeboo and it came up no probs. The part number should you like to have a look is 9SD2A4-500.

I have ID'ed a possible culprit for some of the disk errors a WD My Passport -
WD8AAA3200ABK which would not only dismount / disable but made some fairly odd noises when operating. Ended up having to just unplug the damn thing and it's gone.

Now my original problem is still with me - now with my new desktop - disk controller errors - not many but my problem is ID'ing the drive involving the errors namely the ref to Device\Harddisk1\DR1 and my primary C: (internal HDD) is listed as Drive 0!
This has become a real mystery to me as searching for an answer even the microsoft support site http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...kb;EN-US;159865
however correct the info that it gives still gives me my primary drive as 0 and this wierd reference to Drive 1 in the eventvwr is to say the least bizarre!
I did a chkdsk on the internal (?main HDD) last night without anything plugged in - storage wise - just the monitor, wireless mouse/keyboard, printer, and audio system (small Logitec), and still come up with that ref to Drive 1.

So don't know where to go to next - at a loss to find the cause of the error entries.

 

[seekermeister]

I'm having a problem resyncing my mind to your problem/question. It is normal with multiple drives that they be listed numerically starting at 0, the second drive would be listed as 1. Is this what you are asking about, or am I off track?

EDIT: I have never owned an external Seagate drive, but I do remember a year or two ago, complaints that Seagate externals were not compatible with XP x64. I have no idea if that remains true with W7 x64 or not. However that incompatibility was in regards to their software backup system, not the drive itself.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

OK

seeker sorry my friend - perhaps I am a bit overly expanantory (get carried away a bit!)

Problem - eventvwr showing disk errors for Device\Harddisk1\DR1

Finding \Harddisk1\ =
Cont Pan / Admin tools / computer management / storage / disk management = window showing my internal storages - C; drive (only HDD in the machine being listed as number 0 (zero) - healthy
Optical drive listed as CD-ROM 0 (zero) - no media

The disk errors occurred last night during a chkdsk scan on the internal C: drive there were NO other drives / storage devices of whatever sort plugged in at the time.

As mentioned before only other items plugged in are those I listed last reply, even to me the clueless have no bearing on hard disk numbers as storage - unless say the printer has some form of storage / memory that shows up as an error for disk in eventvwr. However even though still being the clueless one I cannot even imagine in my wildest dreams that this could be a possible scenario.

Hey I am only keeping on about this as I have been plagued by this "phantom" Disk 1 for months especially on the laptop but now on my new desktop, and I cannot find an answer for it anywhere. I have sent Event Log Online, done Googles, searched MS data bases, etc ad nauseum/infinitum, and got nowhere.

 

[seekermeister]

Okay, I'll do some speculating and guessing. Is it possible that the problem mentioned in the event viewer is dated to a time that your external drive was connected? Even though it really isn't related, the registry frequently retains keys that point to a location that may no longer exist, due to a partition change, or a drive disconnection. Do you ever run a registry cleaner?

When you say "disk errors", to me that means bad sectors on a hard drive, not some problem with the OS's identification. For clarity, please provide a screenshot of the event viewer error in question.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok

seeker no the scan was done after removing the external so that the only drive being scanned was the internal C: drive. Yes I have CCleaner but in the past have deleted stuff that have caused me problems so am extremely wary of using it for anything other than temp files empty recycle etc.

As for the partition bit as I am the clueless do not know how to access the partitions to find out about changes. I can see what you mean by the reg retaining info re what has been on the machine but again I wouldn't know what I was looking for. Plus I have to own up to not being aware until recently that plug in drives have to be safely removed and have just unplugged them not using that functon.

The errors on the desktop at the moment are confined to controller problems and not bad blocks as was sometimes the case on the laptop. The bad blocks have since not ocurred on that machine and I think it was due to one of the externals anyway, as they were always Harddisk#1#2#3#5#6 etc not 0 - my internal HDD.

Now for the screen shot you will have to give me a little time to work out how to do this as I haven't done this before, but will get one of as soon as I can.

At the moment seeker it's time for the workhouse so I will have to try tomorrow - sorry the mortgage people don't see my computer problems as a priority! - as you probably know yourself lol!!



Still I must thank you for being so patient and understanding I sincerely appreciate your help.

regards
John aka ICit2

 

[seekermeister]

For future reference, open the event viewer (or any other window that you may wish to record) and while it is showing pertinent data, press Alt + Print Screen on the keyboard. This will then record an image of only that window, not your entire desktop. Next, open Paint, and select Paste. The image recorded then should appear in Paint. Now, select Save As, and then select PNG. Title the save in whatever fashion that you choose, and save it to a convenient location.

When posting the screenshot, press the Go Advance button at the bottom of the thread, and below the posting window that appears, select Manage Attachments. In the window that then appears, select one of the browse buttons and navigate to you saved file and select it, then press the Upload button and wait until you see it listed in the attachments section of your original posting window. Enter whatever text that you choose to post and when you do so, the screenshot will appear below the text.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Screen shot

Hello seeker hope this works as it is the first time anyone has ever helped out with this feature that has been in plain straight forward language ( for the clueless).
The three error messages one of which I highlighted are all the same message for the same drive - the internal C: drive which in the computer management / storage window is listed as 0. This scan was started soon after the time (within a minute) of completing a chkdsk on the external HDD and ejecting it plus unplugging it to avoid any possibility of cross contamination.

The error messages are similar to the rest that I have been getting for months on both machines, and which I can find no explanation from anywhere as to the identity of the Harddisk1#2#3#5 & so on. Most have as I said been controller but there have been bad blocks - but not lately.

Sorrry for the late reply my friend as I have only just got up - late shift yesterday.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Done!!!!

Seeker thank you so much as I said no one has been able to explain this feature like you have before - REALLY APPRECIATED!!!!

I am so SOOOO glad I found this site it is fantastic!!!!

 

[David Ben Yosef]

I haven't read the entire thread, but wanted the OP to know that you don't have to trash a HDD for having some bad sectors. They can be repaired. Try this: Ultimate Boot CD - Download the UBCD

Boot from CD/DVD and go to the hard disk tools. Hope this helps.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

David

Ok David will try that but am waiting on reply from seeker at the moment, and I have to tell you that I am extremely para with downloads these days re my HDD problems may have come from some that I have tried in he past.


Anyway nice to hear from you that's what's nice about this particular forum you get to meet some really helpful people.

Hey and I just really like your gold satr thingy at the top of your page!! wish I could get something special like that on mine!!

Shalom be with you (hope thats spelt right lol!!)

 

[David Ben Yosef]

Ok David will try that but am waiting on reply from seeker at the moment, and I have to tell you that I am extremely para with downloads these days re my HDD problems may have come from some that I have tried in he past.

I can understand that, but I assure you that I would NEVER provide a viral link...NEVER. I loathe those who partake of such things.

Hey and I just really like your gold satr thingy at the top of your page!! wish I could get something special like that on mine!!

Shalom be with you (hope thats spelt right lol!!)

My ex-girlfriend made the avatar for me. She's a pretty talented GFX artist.

Shabbat Shalom [you spelled it right...LOL]

 

[seekermeister]

I did a bit of Googling, and you are not alone with this problem, but I did not find a clear precise answer. However, this comment:

I contacted HP about this and they said that Microsoft is aware of this problem and is working on a fix. They also said it is not dangerous and not to worry (how do you not worry about a disk problem error message?)! I had searched Microsoft website about this but anything I have found makes it sound like a hardware or cable issue. I asked HP about this and they said that this problem is in their "Hidden" internal error reports and not available to the general public.

Which I found in one thread, makes it sound as if the problem MAY not be something to be concerned about. BTW, even though you said that the external drive was disconnected, could you have had something like a flash drive, or memory reader connected?