John P
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| posted on 16/11/11 at 04:36 PM |
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Testing / Repairing a Hard Drive - Advice Please
I've been having problems with my fairly old Compaq desktop for some while and I had a feeling it was caused by a hard drive problem so I
downloaded SeaTools for Windows (by Segate) and ran the basic SMART test which it failed!!!
Accoring to the test report this is likely to be caused by "possibly caused by problem sectors which are difficult to read" and they
suggest running SeaTools for DOS as this may be able to fix the problems.
It looks rather daunting to run as it seems to involve downloading the software and then buring an image to a CD and booting from this. (I'm
OK with computers but certainly no expert).
Is ther an alternative which may be easier to use?
I ran chkdsk but it doesn't give any sort of report so I don't know if there were any faults found. I also notice you can't run
with a /f parameter as you used to to get it to fix faults.
Any help would be appreciated.
John.
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britishtrident
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| posted on 16/11/11 at 04:54 PM |
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When a hard drive starts showing errors bin it unless you need to recover data from it.
Hard drives have a finite life not just in terms of hours running or read/writes but age.
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russbost
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| posted on 16/11/11 at 05:10 PM |
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I would strongly agree with the above comment, once they start to go wrong & get bad sectors etc. a total fail is usually just around the
corner.
My advice would be to back up any data you want from it & replace.
If it's an old machine, you might be better to replace with a new tower, they are so cheap now, & run the old hard drive as a slave in the
new system so you can access any data you need from it
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NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
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jossey
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| posted on 16/11/11 at 05:35 PM |
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+1 for above. You can check the sectors but sometimes they test ok then you h.d packs up and you lose it all. Bin it. It costs less than £50 for 1tb
that's cheaper than discs........
Thanks
David Johnson
Building my tiger avon slowly but surely.
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John P
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| posted on 16/11/11 at 05:55 PM |
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Right, so if I buy a new drive and configure the existing drive as a slave I should be able to copy my files onto the new drive before the old one
fails (hopefully).
Only real concern is that the computer came from Compaq with Windows XP pre-installed and with no disks.
I presume the operating system would have to be on the new (naster) drive so could I move it and if so how?
John.
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PhilCross66
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| posted on 16/11/11 at 07:16 PM |
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It could be worth waiting or getting a 2nd hand drive, the price of new drives has gone through the roof since the floods in Thailand took out some of
the places manufacturing them
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stevebubs
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| posted on 16/11/11 at 07:17 PM |
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You can get the Media easily enough...so long as you have a Windows key printed on the machine....
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jossey
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| posted on 16/11/11 at 07:26 PM |
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Hard drives are still cheap en after the issue I'm thailand.
Try cclonline.com
Thanks
David Johnson
Building my tiger avon slowly but surely.
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PhilCross66
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| posted on 16/11/11 at 07:37 PM |
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Well I dont call £100 for 1TB and £160 for 2TB cheap. The stuff CCL have relatively cheap is old and small
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rgrs
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| posted on 16/11/11 at 09:53 PM |
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You may be able to use seagate drive tools to isolate any bad areas on the drive
It may be a nasty shock when you try to get a drive at the moment, there is a world shortage due to two of the main manufacturers factories are
underwater.
Both western digital and seagate are not expecting to be back in full production until march 2012
Roger
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HowardB
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| posted on 16/11/11 at 10:19 PM |
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for hardware, I use ebuyer,...ebuyer
seem good, and can be very cost effective
hth
Howard
Fisher Fury was 2000 Zetec - now a 1600 (it Lives again  and goes zoom)
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Ninehigh
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| posted on 17/11/11 at 04:12 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by PhilCross66
Well I dont call £100 for 1TB and £160 for 2TB cheap. The stuff CCL have relatively cheap is old and small
Less than a decade ago £160 got me two 80gb drives. Yeah that's cheap!
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