Impending Drive Failure?

I've now seen this message with some regularity when restarting my computer. [quote4ff803b9f3]NOTICE The secondary IDE master hard drive SELF MONITORING SYSTEM has reported that a parameter has exceeded its normal operating range. Dell recommends that you back up your data regularly. A parameter out of range may or may not indicate a potential hard drive problem[/quote4ff803b9f3]

The HD in question, a (WD 2000JB 32FUA0) is a 200GB IDE drive that's about 4 years old. The drive contains irretrievable digital photos and music.

Are there any drive test programs that I can run to check on the status of the drive, or should I run out and buy something to replace the drive?

sounds like you should get all the data off the drive soon, then try reformatting.


from dell support site[=http//support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe420sc/en/it/y3141c20.htm]from dell support site [quote2b548211cb]When your system finishes booting, immediately back up your data and replace your hard drive. See "Hard Drives" in "Installing drives."

If no replacement hard drive is immediately available and the drive is not the only bootable drive, enter the System Setup program and change the appropriate drive setting to Off. See your User's Guide for details. Then remove the hard drive from the system.[/quote2b548211cb]

Try this one from WD

http//support.wdc.com/download/?cxml=n&pid=999&swid=3

It'll scan the HDD for bad sectors and can perform cable tests and stuff. There's also the Seagate tool.

http//www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=seatools-win-eula&vgnextoid=d0d51d4dad651110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD

I would backup everything important asap, and then test it. Better to be safe than sorry.

When you say 'irretrievable,' does that mean you can't access the data so that you can back everything up?

It's typically a Bad Thing(tm) when you start getting SMART errors, so you should heed the advice given and get the data off ASAP. I don't believe you should get SMART errors for ordinary bad sectors, that's something the drive controller should handle silently -- all HDD's have a reserved block of sectors that are doled out to compensate for any bad sectors. Data is moved there and the bad sectors marked against re-use, and you never even know.

Odds are you're either crossing a temp threshold, a higher-than-normal error count, or just a general hardware failure.

If the WD tools don't help, see if you can snag a copy of Spinrite 6 and run it on at least a mid-level scan (which could take hours or even days, depending on the depth of scan). Spinrite is IMO the best off-the-shelp drive recovery/repair tool, and it might at least give you more detail as to what is going on.

Thanks all. What I meant was 'irreplaceable,' heh, not 'irretrievable.'

Anyway, this isn't great news - Given the volume of data on the drive, I'll have to buy something new to use to backup this drive, which isn't really ideal at all. But, I guess, it's a good excuse to buy this 750GB Samsung HD753LJ SATA2 7200rpm 32MB Hard Drive[=http//www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=HD-750SA&c=fr&pid=90d69e92553eedaa10c50aae5a12ff1090f70a60098f588ba0cb4767c6afea9d]750GB Samsung HD753LJ SATA2 7200rpm 32MB Hard Drive for $108.

Those new 32MB cache Samsung drives are really nice, they've gotten great performance reviews lately. Maximum PC just reviewed the 1TB model and raved about it. The price is right too, I paid something like $140 for a 750GB Hitachi 32MB cache only 2-3 months ago -- Hitachi was the 7200RPM performance king until this line of Samsungs came along and mostly unseated them.

I second the recommendation of Spinrite, if nothing else run it on the drive before you trash it, it has worked wonders for me in the past

[quote7c3999dbb4="dmorris68"]Those new 32MB cache Samsung drives are really nice, they've gotten great performance reviews lately. Maximum PC just reviewed the 1TB model and raved about it. The price is right too, I paid something like $140 for a 750GB Hitachi 32MB cache only 2-3 months ago -- Hitachi was the 7200RPM performance king until this line of Samsungs came along and mostly unseated them.[/quote7c3999dbb4]
I've got the 32MB 7200RPM Cache 500GB one (Seagate) hooked up via eSATA and it works wonders. )

i bought spinrite last summer when my desktop hard drive was giving me a BSOD. best $90 i ever spent.

-dan

Hrm, time to find a copy of SpinRite then - you've all convinced me it's a great product.

Should I run SpinRite on the disk before backing it up, or afterwards?

[quote74ba65209d="doylnea"]Should I run SpinRite on the disk before backing it up, or afterwards?[/quote74ba65209d]
You don't install Spinrite, you burn a CD or create a boot floppy, and boot from that.

[b74ba65209d]EDIT[/b74ba65209d] nevermind, I'm stupid. I misread you as asking if you should install it on the disk before you run it. Duh.

That's your call then. I've never seen Spinrite trash a disk, and you can run scans that don't attempt to repair if you're really concerned. But given the problem, I'd be backing it up ASAP whether you run Spinrite or not, if that data is crucial you don't want to take any chances. The next boot could be your last. The whole point of SMART is to warn you of issues before the drive completely fails, so you'd be wise to heed its warnings.

If this is a significant SMART event and not one of bad sectors or data corruption, then Spinrite won't fix it -- but it will probably give you more info about what's wrong.

Gotcha. I should just cough up the cash for this new drive then. Yay, unexpected expenses. ;)

I ran SpinRite last night on the 200GB drive on Level 4 before I went to bed. When I woke up this morning, there was a message saying that the drive was operating at a temperature out of it's normal range, and that the activity had paused, about 50% of the way through. I tried to restart it, assuming that the temp should have gone down by that point, but 5 minutes into restarting, the same error came up having only scanned an additional 2%.

Looks like I should be looking into some more cooling for the case and the drives, right?

[quote188f44e1bf="dmorris68"][b188f44e1bf]Odds are you're either crossing a temp threshold,[/b188f44e1bf] a higher-than-normal error count, or just a general hardware failure.[/quote188f44e1bf]
Wow, am I good or what? P

I'd be concerned that the drive has already suffered irreversible damage. Most HDD's run extremely hot as it is, I've nearly burned my fingers handling exposed drives hooked up with a USB converter on the bench. If it gets so hot that it trips internal alarms, something is likely cooked or very close to it.

Even backing up the drive may be difficult now, because doing so will likely place the same thermal load on it. If you have or can get a cheap USB adapter, you might try using it with the drive out of your case and a fan blowing on it. That might get you through a backup. If you don't have good airflow through your case now, remove the side panel and see if that helps, maybe aiming a room fan at it. Most of the time removing the panel would actually hurt cooling, rather than help, if you've got proper airflow to begin with, since good airflow depends on proper pressurization. But if your case is packed and disorganized, with cables bunched up throughout and not enough fans, it'll probably help.

And yes, I'd ensure that you have good airflow through your case and around your drives to avoid the problem in the future.

Yeah, you are the man. That's interesting about airflow - I opened the case last night because I saw the temp creeping from 42li C to 44li and then left the case open. Perhaps I should close the case (it's a Dell Clamshell case) and run it again. I did notice more dust than usual, so I bought can of compressed air to clean out the case with.

I was able to pull off the most important data last night, so at this point, I'm interested trying to get the drive back in working order. There were quite a few errors fixed by Spinrite, 10-15 iirc, and 2 that were unrecovered, so there may be hope yet.

Thanks for the advice and help!

[quoteccc544c585="doylnea"]I was able to pull off the most important data last night, so at this point, I'm interested trying to get the drive back in working order.[/quoteccc544c585]
If I were you, I'd trash it, before you forgot it had issues and entrusted critical data to it again. It's hard to keep a drive around and not use it, and it's even harder to use a drive without storing something on it that's important. With drives as cheap as they are now, I just wouldn't trust myself to hold on to it unless I was sure I could afford to lose it at any time.

http//forum.freeipodguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=75041

-dan



[quote6b48917083="doylnea"]I ran SpinRite last night on the 200GB drive on Level 4 before I went to bed. When I woke up this morning, [b6b48917083]there was a message saying that the drive was operating at a temperature out of it's normal range[/b6b48917083], and that the activity had paused, about 50% of the way through. I tried to restart it, assuming that the temp should have gone down by that point, but 5 minutes into restarting, the same error came up having only scanned an additional 2%.

Looks like I should be looking into some more cooling for the case and the drives, right?[/quote6b48917083]

I lol'd.

That's not actually my computer - check the fine print ;)