Windows detected a hard disk problem. help!

[rossy87]

Have been on my PC for a few hours today and i got a windows message saying 'windows detected a hard disk problem'.

I am in the process of backing up my hard drive now.

Do i need to replace my hard drive straight away or do i have a while to gather funds?

Also this is my hard drive with Windows Vista on.

If i were to change the hard drive, can i go ahead and put the disk image onto the new hard drive and just boot up vista again? Or will vista be lost forever?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

Rossy87

 

[SIW2]

Hi Rossy,

You would need to clone Vista to the new HD. The program you used to make the backup image will probably have a clone/disk copy feature.

If you don' have the new hd yet, you can clone it to whatever hd you are currently backing up to, then clone it to the new hd when you get it - takes space, obviously.

After you have done that:
try running checkdisk:

Rt click the drive>Properties>Tools>Check Now>find and fix errors - it will need you to reboot.



Also many drive mfrs have a bootable .iso you can d/l free and it will check and attempt to fix hd errors.

Here's one for Seagate/Maxtor :

SeaTools Desktop Usage Instructions | Seagate

 

[torrentg]

Spinrite is excellent and will repair the drive, but it is not free.


GRC | Hard drive data recovery software  

 

[rossy87]

Ok. I have got a new hard drive on its way because i would rather replace it. Plus its on the girlfriends credit card so .

I have created a back up using the Windows 7 backup utility which has created a file where i can restore all my files from the old hard drive.

Does this mean i can just copy the files over to the new hard drive and go ahead and boot up vista or are there hidden things that i am not taking into consideration?

Again any help is greatly appreciated.

Rossy87.

 

[SIW2]

You can transfer you files to the new hd, but if you want to boot windows, you will either have to install it from the proper install dvd, or clone the existing hd to the new one - just putting the backup image on the new drive won't work.

You need an app. that will clone it for you. What make of hd is your existing and new one?

 

[rossy87]

Ok thanks for the quick reply.

My existing hdd is a 200gd Western Digital and the new one on its way is a 500gb Western Digital.

And what sort off apps would clone the hdd for me?

Sorry but this is the first time i have had to do this and i really dont want to loose any data or re-install vista.

Many thanks.

 

[bearhawk]

... And what sort off apps would clone the hdd for me? ...

I have had good luck with ping.

PING (Partimage Is Not Ghost)

And I love the price !

 

[MichaelHalladay]

Hard disk problem after Windows 7 install

I have a good hard disk, been working great under Vista Ultimate, now Windows 7 says I have an error. This is not any of my hard drives that I use a lot. So I used CHKDSK - says it's fine. Copied the few files I used off it and did a complete format. Left it empty and Windows 7 still says I have a hard disk problem. I turned off the message, but not sure why it thinks it's bad. I have 3 SATA drives and one EIDE - it's the EIDE one it says I have a problem on. Any ideas? It's now sitting there empty and Windows 7 says it's got a problem. Or is it Windows 7 that has the problem?

 

[EgyptianAcid]

I received this warning also, on my 1Tb storage drive (not the drive Win7 is running on).

This drive 'clicks' a lot and I've always been suspicious of it. Having said that, haven't had an issue so far per se (though watching movies off it sometimes 'skipped' as it read/buffered).

I'm thinking I'll just replace it with a 1Tb Spinpoint F3 to be safe..

 

[MichaelHalladay]

I actually replaced an EIDE drive with the SATA 320 gig that's now giving the error. It's the 2nd device on the string - the 1st - another SATA 320 where the 'c' drive is ok. I also have a 1.5tb drive on a separate channel. I think I'll completely low-level format the drive and see what happens.

 

[estlov5464]

"Windows detect a hard disk problem windows 7", this is what keep popping up after I upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate. Now, I know that I do not have problem with my Hdisk because it worked fine with Xp and Vista. I addition, other people are having the same problem with Win7 please is there someone who can help me with this annoying pop up.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Go to Windows Explorer. Right click your drive.

Choose properties and then the tools tab.

Under "error-checking" click check now.


Your system may reboot and will then run the error checking program (checkdisk).

Let it finish. It could take hours.

When it finishes, reboot and see if you still have the problem.

 

[estlov5464]

I ran chdk and still I get Windows Detected A Hard Disk Problem I am going to go back to Vista or Xp.

 

[MichaelHalladay]

Windows detected a hard disk problem

Sorry, I should have posted this earlier. I went to Tech Support Forums for help. Go there, join up for free, and see the answers I got. I'm still on Windows 7 and I don't have the error. Here's what I started with and followed the directions. The techie there was of great help.
"The message you are seeing is due to a SMART parameter being out of normal specs. SMART values can indicate some pretty minor problems, or some pretty major problems. SMART analyzes the physical drive and has nothing to do with the windows file system, so chkdsk and formatting will not correct the kind of errors SMART is designed to detect. SMART is designed to give you enough warning to get your data safe. So yes a completely blank disk can have the physical errors that are being reported. Download MHDD or hddscan from HDDGURU: Laptop and Desktop Hard Disk Drives, Tests, Software, Firmware, Tools, Data Recovery, HDD Repair and post the results of the smart test and we'll see what you have." http://www.techsupportforum.com/har...97189-windows-detected-hard-disk-problem.html
You'll be ok.
...Michael

 

[terreaultguy]

problems with HDs in Win 7...

Hi,
I have been having problems with my second and third Hard Drives
Since I have windows 7 At first all was well and 2 days ago I started having
wright and read errors and when i booted after a blue screen crash.
At boot win 7 had to repair lost sectors, somme time just viewing filles
in explorer made the OS crash. I finally remouved all the extra drives but the C:
and It did not crash any more.

So I taught that these 2 drives were faulty. Wrong

I google all over to get info and got all kinds of solution like by a new pc to
change the cmos baterie or a mother board problem. All Wrong.

It may be to premature tu say that I have found the problem, I will be shure in a couple of days.

So here is what I did
I went and baught a externat HD 1.5 TB and backed up every thing. I was lucky did not loose any important files.

I disconnected all drives.
And One at a time I Installed Win 7, and tested it with what I was doing to make it crash.

All Drives worked fine solo but when I added a second then I got OS to crash.
I have read so many things that I do not remember where I got this.

It seems that Windows 7 has a problem with drives from other operating systems
you know data protection!

So my last attempt seemed to work.

I connected all my drives. And with The Installation setup of windows 7, I deleted all the partitions. I created new ones on all drives and formated them and installed
the OS on the C: first drive.

tested again 3 drives 2 partition each. Now they do not have any more problems ans Win 7 does not crash any more.

So If any body has an realistic explanation I would like to know?

Now all I have to do is install all my apps again and hope that every thing is ok.

Bye, hope that I can help some other guy.

Thanks, Guy

 

[dnavarrojr]

Sounds like you have SMART checking enabled on your motherboard and Windows is reading an SMART error. Happened to me too.

I downloaded DiskCheckup from PassMark Software - PC Benchmark and Test Software and it showed the SMART error. Rather than take a chance, I backed up the drive, reformatted it and shipped it to the MFG for a replacement.

 

[terreaultguy]

Hi,
Thanks dnavarrojr, for the DiskCheckup I like It.
It reports that my 3 drives are Status:OK

Like I said time will tell. It's been 24 houres since I have recreated all partitions and formated with
the windows 7 installation. I have been installing all my applications,all is ok for now.

Before I did this clean install, those 3 drives had benn used with XP, Vista, Ubuntu.
I had upgraded the Vista ultimate to Windows 7 Beta, then Win 7 RC, then Win 7 retail.

Who knows how Win 7 deals with all these upgrades.

The question is: If I had two PCs with Win 7 installed and I decided to move one HD to the other PC.
This new PC hould have now 2 HD, Disk 0, with OS and Disk 1 as second drive.
On that HD would start to have problems write and read problems and eventually crash system.

But If I would just switch the drives they would work just fine.

Any way, I will be testing my new setup. And will report in a few days.

Thanks, Guy

 

[terreaultguy]

Hi,
Thanks dnavarrojr I think you were wright. I used DiskCheckup to monitor my 3 drives and the
Status:All drives OK - It stayed that was for a long time until I waqs copying 10 Gb of files to my third drive
Then the OS crashed.

DiskCheckup reported at that time thar drive 2 and 3 had failed the tempreture treshold.
Checkdisk fixed the bad writes again at reboot.

Even thought most recommend not to do this I did go in BIOS Setup and disable SMART monitoring.
Since that DiskCheckup has detected the same overheating faults on the 2 drives.
But Windows 7 did not crash.

I guess that I have the same problem you had.

Now, I have comparer the temperatures I find tht my seagates drives run 5 to 10 degres hier than my
Western Digital drives. Same for my 2 new external drives. A 1.5 TB Seagate and a Western Digital 1 TB.
But they do not crash OS.

I will give them a week to see if OS does not crash any more.

Thanks, Guy

 

[terreaultguy]

Hi,
Update on drives crashing Windows 7.

It did not last a week.

To isolate the problem I remouved the second and third hard drives.
and installed as second drive my new 1 TB western digital that worked fine as an external USB drive.

So I cleaned it up by backing it up to an other external HD.
After a couple of days I was almost shure that now all was ok.

But on the third day I was copying a music folder of 600 MB and it toke 30 mins.
and crashed the OS.

So I deleted all partitions on that drive and reformated. Seems ok now will see in a week.

Hope I got It now, Guy

 

[SWLD]

Sounds like you have SMART checking enabled on your motherboard and Windows is reading an SMART error. Happened to me too.

I downloaded DiskCheckup from PassMark Software - PC Benchmark and Test Software and it showed the SMART error. Rather than take a chance, I backed up the drive, reformatted it and shipped it to the MFG for a replacement.

I have a new 2TB Hitachi Deskstar and it's producing the same error as others are getting - i.e. the "Windows detected a hard disk problem" dialog.

PassMark's DiskCheckup shows a fail for the SPIN RETRY COUNT**. Does anybody know what this means - i.e. is the drive actually faulty?

** HDDscan from HDDGURU: Laptop and Desktop Hard Disk Drives, Tests, Software, Firmware, Tools, Data Recovery, HDD Repair also shows the same fail.