Failing Hard Drive??

[RJack]

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

[Samdy Gray]

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

And post up the errors it reports.

[Doore]

Have you hit it with a hammer?

[chalkies_shorts]

Did you hand it to Phil Smith?

[flammableBen]

Have you hit it with a hammer?

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.

[Doore]

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?

[flammableBen]

Has anyone tried hitting Nebuliser Malfunction with a hammer?

I love you x.

[Doore]

I love you x.

I love you too Ben.

[RJack]

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

And post up the errors it reports.

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

[flammableBen]

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.

[jonny72]

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.

[RJack]

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

[flammableBen]

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.

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.

[jonny72]

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.

[flammableBen]

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