New Hard Disk Failure

[SPOKES75]

Hi,

Windows 7 64bit has popped up saying it has detected a HDD problem, I need to back up my files immediately. I installed a new 2TB HDD (Samsung HD204UI) a couple of months ago, surely it shouldn't be failing already? This is my secondery disk. Is this by any chance a malware or virsus playing tricks on me?

Please help?

 

[fireberd]

Devices can fail at any time, although its not normal for one to fail that fast.

Is the error message actually for your secondary drive? or is it referring to your primary drive?

Run chkdsk on the secondary drive and see if anything shows up.

 

[patio]

Malware will not cause an error message like this...

Samsung HDD's carry a 2 Year replacement warranty i believe.

 

[johnnya]

Are you sure this is not Malware? There is a new piece of rogue malware making the rounds that spoofs you into thinking that you are about to have a hard disk failure. I have personal experience with this particular problem 2 weeks ago.
There was a thread posted on this forum titled "S.M.A.R.T. HDD Program: Who Are These Jokers ? (

1 2 3 ... Last Page)" Find this thread and read, see if it looks anything like you are experiencing.

Cheers
JohnnyA

 

[FliGi7]

Back up all of your files immediately, regardless of the legitimacy of this error message.

Yes, hard drives can and fail that early, especially Samsung's. I will never buy another Samsung for that reason. My Samsung 1TB storage drive failed within 2 months, causing a loss of a substantial portion of files. Through some kung fu, I was able to retrieve a decent portion of them, but many were lost. I'm talking failure to the point where it isn't recognized by any system in any shape or form. The actual controller on the drive failed preventing anything from accessing it.

However, I would first rule out the presence of malware causing a fake alert. Can you post a screenshot of the error? If it's really failing, I would RMA the drive and just try to get your money back. Cut your losses on Samsung and move to something less notorious for a few month lifespan.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
irrespective of WHATEVER the quality of your HDD you should ALWAYS have sufficient backups.

HDD's are fairly robust and they should rarely fail within the normal "lifetime" of the computer -- what I'd do in this case is backup your data (files etc) to other HDD's -- unlikely you'll have another 2 TB HDD to back up stuff to.

If necessary since these are files and not the OS even Windows explorer Cut and paste should work.

After you've backed up the data do a complete re-format / chkdisk operation on the 2 TB drive.

Then restore the files if the HDD seems OK.

Sometimes - especially if you are using external USB's and you are quick to remove them before Windows has REALLY finished reading / writing to them you can get an error "Windows delayed write" or things like that.

I suspect if you do this the Disk will be OK.

HDD's are actually incredibly robust -- In the whole time I've been using computer I think I've ever had only ONE fail several years ago - at least 8 or 9 and even then 90% of the data was fine .

Not saying it doesn't happen -- it does but much more rarely than you think. Primary cause is also user mal treatment rather than physical defects.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[F5ing]

I concur with doing your backups. The next thing you could do is try a restart of the machine, go in to the BIOS, and test the disk from there.

I tend to think that the times a disk will die (barring physical damage you might accidentally inflict) is either very early on (due to a defect that wasn't caught before shipping), maybe first few hundred hours of use, or many years later.

 

[SPOKES75]

Thanks for all the replies, I found the details in the event log, so there must be a fault! In the process of checking the disk out.

Thanks again gents