Thetownend.com

Hi all,

I think i know the answer to this but i wanted to check if there is anyway to find out for sure.

When i start up my PC I am getting the message 3rd Master Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T. Status Bad Error press F1 to resume.  As far as I know there is nothing plugged in there

When the pc does finally start windows it takes about 5 minutes for eveything to start up despite only having Windows 7 & Kaspersky Internet 2011 in my start up menu. 

Is there any programs i can run Windows or Dos wise that will test my Hard Drive for failure Model: SAMSUNG HD103SI 1 TB - 32 MB - 3.5" - SATA-300

If it is failure can anyone recommend a semi decent replacement not too expensive?

Current Set Up
Mobo: ASUSM4A78-E
Processor: AMD Phenom IIx4 955 Black Edition
Memory: 8GB (4x 2GB) OCZ Reaper DDR2 PC8500 Memory
OS: Windows 7 x64 (Home Edition)
Storage Device: Samsung HD103SI ATA 1TB
Storage Device: USB Flash Memory Device
Network Card: AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 PCI-E
GFX: Radeon HD4890 1GB

Many thanks

Run this: http://www.hdtune.com/download.html

And post up the errors it reports.

Have you hit it with a hammer?

Did you hand it to Phil Smith?

Don't do this. Some things like old CRT tellies can work with a good bash, but it doesn't apply to hard drives sadly.

Can you ban people who give out stupid advice please. It would be unfair if somebody lost expensive computer equipment because of it.

Has anyone tried hitting Nebuliser Malfunction with a hammer?

I love you x.

I love you too Ben.

Thanks for that results don't look good :-\

HD Tune Pro: SAMSUNG HD103SI Health

ID                                  Current  Worst    ThresholdData       Status   
(01) Raw Read Error Rate            1        1        51       33497      Failed   
(03) Spin Up Time                   82       82       11       6180       ok       
(04) Start/Stop Count               99       99       0        1429       ok       
(05) Reallocated Sector Count       100      100      10       0          ok       
(07) Seek Error Rate                100      100      51       0          ok       
(08) Seek Time Performance          100      100      15       0          ok       
(09) Power On Hours Count           99       99       0        4490       ok       
(0A) Spin Retry Count               100      100      51       0          ok       
(0B) Calibration Retry Count        100      100      0        0          ok       
(0C) Power Cycle Count              99       99       0        1425       ok       
(0D) Soft Read Error Rate           1        1        0        33331      ok       
(B7) (unknown attribute)            100      100      0        0          ok       
(B8) End To End Error Detection     100      100      0        0          ok       
(BB) Reported Uncorrectable Errors  100      100      0        34254      ok       
(BC) Command Timeout                100      100      0        0          ok       
(BE) Airflow Temperature            78       73       0        370343958  ok       
(C2) Temperature                    77       72       0        420675607  ok       
(C3) Hardware ECC Recovered         100      100      0        20390052   ok       
(C4) Reallocated Event Count        100      100      0        0          ok       
(C5) Current Pending Sector         99       99       0        26         warning 
(C6) Offline Uncorrectable          100      100      0        0          ok       
(C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count      100      100      0        1          warning 
(C8) Write Error Rate               100      100      0        0          ok       
(C9) Soft Read Error Rate           97       97       0        54         ok       

Health Status         : warning

Things you should do straight away:

Download and burn an Ubuntu cd or something so that when it inevitably goes tits up you've got something to boot off.

I'd go for copying all my data off the drive first. Fuck all point being able to boot a computer if you've lost all your data on it.

Cool thanks both, any recommendations for a cheap decent replacement HDD?

yeah and do that. do both. get a new drive, clone the contents of the one you've got, swap them over.

e: but do what I said in the mean time, because even if you get to the point where you can't boot off a drive it doesn't mean most the stuff off it is irrecoverable.

Not much between the different drive brands, just go for the cheapest that meets your needs. Get it from somewhere like dabs or ebuyer and check the reviews first - they're normally a good indicator. PC World are worth a look if you want it in a hurry.

I wouldn't clone the drive and swap it either - you could end up copying over corrupted data. I'd do a clean install to the new drive then add the old one as a secondary drive. But get anything important backed up asap in case the drive crashes.

Yeah ^^^^^^^^^^ That's a much better approach.

Cools thanks for the advice I'll try and pick up one of these in Maplins or PC World tomorrow

SEAGATE Barracuda Internal 3.5" SATA Hard Drive - 1TB 7200 rpm

Those stats don't necessarily mean the drive is failing. You only have read errors. It could be as simple as a dodgy SATA cable or it could be the SATA controller on the motherboard.

I've got exactly the same drive in my NAS and it showed very similar SMART errors. I backed up the drive, zero filled it and stuck it in another machine and it's fine now.

I always replace a drive the moment I hear that unmistakeable ticking of doom. It almost makes me paranoid because the moment I hear it I get jittery and don't do anything other than put it in the bin.

I remember on the IBM (pre-Hitachi) Deskstars (which I lost many of) they used to have a format utility that "repaired" damaged sectors and did what it called a low-level format. It made the drive work again for about a month then you either formatted/repaired again or bought a new one. It was painful and made me refuse to ever go near those drives again.

I'd love to move onto an SSD and I'm patiently waiting for the 480GB OCZ Vertex 3's to become cheaper than the price of a smallholding.

I used to have an IBM Deathstar. Lasted not too long..tick tick tick....bin

HDD Regenerator is a pretty handy tool for repairing damaged sectors. You can find it around version 10.00 of Hiren's Boot CD

Not a cure tho, look at replacing asap

Thanks all i replaced the Sata Cable but was still having problems so i bought a Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 7200RPM.  I'm going to Zero fill the Samsung HDD to see if i can fix it then use it as a secondary HDD if it does

Will sound stupid, but if you have a dodgy drive stick it in the fridge for 24 hours and then ghost it. It works 90% of the time.

I clicked on here by mistake. Mightly impressed with all the tech lingo, but surely you all just secretly turn it off at the plug and hope for the best like the rest of us?