Thetownend.com

Windows is showing a Hard Disk Problem and tells me to back up and then print instructions. I've copied the disk to my Synology box (all bar a couple of temp files that wouldn't copy as they were in use). When I look at the instructions that it says to print it says:

Disk name: ST31000340NS ATA Device
Volume: C:\

Nowt else!

What should I do oh wonderful TEF?

Next message says:

Replace or repair the hard disk

You should probably replace or repair the hard disk

You got a screenshot of the error?

Tried running a chkdsk to fix any errors?

how far does the HDD boot?

Im on Windows 7 (How do you run chkdsk ?)
I get a red circle with a white X in it.
I can boot right the way into Windows - Im using the pc with the hard disk problem. When I power up, it detects a problem straight away and takes me into Bios settings. I just exit out without change and it takes me to all the way in to Windows

Tried to run chkdsk (Found the Run command) but it won't run. Once you hit ok, the Run command line disappears, a dark blue box pops up for less than a second and disappears.

Have you tried hitting it with a hammer?

That is how he got the problem in the first place.

Try running the Seagate Tools for Windows - http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/.

See what it says, might be SMART errors predicting an imminent failure. Or something like that.

To run chkdsk, right click on the drive, select properties then tools. Run it from there with the fix all shit that is wrong option. It should prompt you saying it can't run as the drive is in use, accept for it to run at boot. Then restart.

Ran chkdsk to run at boot with both repair and fix options ticked. It took most of last evening to run. Left it overnight and found that it had rebooted and got stuck with a prompt saying something like:
S.M.A.R.T status bad. Backup and replace

Can you post the SMART report? The drive's probably full of bad sectors, but the report will confirm.

Check the warranty status of the drive here: http://support.seagate.com/customer/en-GB/warranty_validation.jsp?form=0

I ended up having to drop back to seatools for DOS to fix sector errors on my laptop, the Windows version wouldn't do it

http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/item/seatools-dos-master/

however your issue sounds more severe
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I've gone down the SSD route in my laptop. Bios pass->windows desktop boot now takes ~15 seconds (takes a bit longer for Windows to settle)! Marvellous. Its not even a good spec laptop.

If SMART is saying the drive is toast and needs replacing, then it is toast and needs replacing. There are various checks and statistics that SMART monitors at the drive level, idea being it warns you a drive is about to fail before it does. You could look at what it's reporting and try and resolve but it's not worth it, just replace the drive.

So you'll need to get another drive. Then either image the existing drive to it, or install Windows to the new drive then copy everything over that you need from the old drive. Good chance the old faulty drive is covered by a warranty, so make sure you do check this as they'll replace the drive for free if it is.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you all to say thanks, but I've got a few computer problems! :-)

Ran Seatools last night. It came back and said 'FAILED' when I ran SMART check.

It then recommended running Seatools for DOS. So I ran a long test. Upon doing so, it came up with a message saying that SMART test had tripped. I continued to run it, which tool several hours (as per chkdsk). At the end it said that it failed!

I then checked the warranty checker, which came back with a nice message telling me it was out of warranty (as I expected).

The Seatools log shows the following:
16/04/2014 20:10:33
Model: ST31000340NS
Serial Number: 9QJ60YXE
Firmware Revision: SN06
SMART - FAIL 16/04/2014 20:10:33
SeaTools Test Code: 9EE9E349
SMART - FAIL 17/04/2014 08:23:54
SeaTools Test Code: 9EE9E349

So, I think that I'm 'toast'. I can't find anywhere that tells me what 9EE9E349 actually means though.

Well googling didn't help. But even if you could find the meaning of the error I'm not sure how you would resolve it. Better to back everything up that you need and replace.

Any recommendations for new hard drives?

I already have 2 of these in a Synology NAS:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-7200RPM-Cache-SATA3-Drive/dp/B004KRLWBK/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1397741330&sr=1-3&keywords=Seagate+ST1000DM003

Should I go for another to replace the broken internal HD? Or should I go for an SSD like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BQ4F9ZA/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers

And then add an old smaller SATA from an old XP machine as a slave to save the odd file or two?

An SSD will drastically improve the speed of your PC. If you don't need massive storage for your 'main' drive (which with a NAS, you probably don't) SSD would be the way to go.

Plus no mechanical parts, so less likelihood of the SSD going wrong in the future whereas a standard HDD is always susceptible to mechanical failure.