I'm trying to sort out my OH's parents' PC which has been taking an age to load, starting with chkdsk errors & loading recovery options but failing to recover (Win Vista). I've backed up an image of the drive so nothing will be lost. CrystalDiskInfo brings up a 'Caution' message with regards C5 - Current Pending Sector Count (see image below). I'm in the process of running chkdsk on the drive from my PC and it was plodding along until about a minute ago where it seems to have stalled after processing 143839 files - I'm guessing that this means it's run into problems. I've read (somewhere) that a full format may sort things - I can't see how would this fix bad sectors however... Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! GK
Get yourself a copy of Seatools for DOS burnt to a disc and test the drive with that. Sounds like it is faulty though with that many issues. I wouldn't trust that image you've made either. Data read from a faulty drive could contain as many errors as the drive it's taken from. The best way is to just copy exactly what you want kept onto another drive.
Sometimes chkdsk does stop for a while, do you hear any noises like clicking/head movement or anything as if it's trying to re-read the same sectors? Can you complete a chkdsk scan if you leave it overnight? Usually a format will take bad sectors into account and mark them for the heads to avoid, but if your drive is on it's way out then more bad sectors would likely appear. I would definitely advise backing up any important files you have just in case
When you say "that many issues" how can you tell? I'm not experienced in reading smart data... or do you simply mean all the issues I've listed? One issue I'm facing is that they bought the pc from mesh about 4 or 5 years ago and don't appear to have been given many discs with it (like a copy of windows for a start...) - we do have their vista serial key at least... Edit: Ninja'd - I've not left chkdsk running but they had an issue where no matter how many times they ran it or how long they left it for it would freeze at exactly the same point every time... Not hopeful... GK
If you have the coa sticker on the case you can use any copy of vista media to restore. If you want a copy of vista media let me know and I can copy one and send it to you I would take a backup of everything you need. Did you use ghost to image the disc, i know it throws up errors if it encounters bad sectors. In my experience when you start getting errors it is time to replace the disc. Better to be safe than sorry. Copy drive to drive, then format the original drive, bung it in a caddy and use it as a backup drive. Sure it is not going to last long but as a backup it shouldn't matter.
What dancingbear said, if you're getting chkdsk errors, everything is slow to load, couple good signs of a failing drive. Formatting will not fix a faulty/dying HDD. Backup essentials files, and replace drive. I've replaced probably around 30 hard drives last year alone at the college & in my spare time.
I imaged it using EaseUs and it completed successfully - and it verifies the image fine too *crossed fingers* That's good to know regarding using whatever copy of vista to use - I may take you up on that offer depending on how things go... I'm thinking that a new disc is what's needed but I'll give the old one a chance first... Cheers again GK
use hard disk sentinel pro 4.. it usually gets it right on how many hours are left on a drive before it fails- pretty cool piece of software
Having formatted the drive (not a quick format) the errors now don't show using either HD Tune or CrystalDiskInfo - result! Reimaging the drive didn't solve the issues, but a reinstall of windows seems to be doing the trick *crosses fingers and toes*
Install acronis anyway and monitor it over some time. See if it detects anything, mines set to email me the details should it start to detect anything a little weird with my discs. It's free and doesnt bother you just sits there and monitors in the back ground
Just installed this on the problem computer (which seems to be ok btw) - excellent little program +rep so impressed I'm installing it on my own pc too
Cool aint it! I have it on all mine and its ace for helping identify dying disks. I put them in a caddy connect to the PC and boom it tells me right away if they are on the way out. Customers disk the other week was 6% healthy! Managed to get the stuff off pronto as it was dying a slow death.
6%! After a full format and a reinstall of windows the disk is now showing 100% health - even still I've set acronis to email me if it notices any issues with the disk
If your drive does die, I've found ddrescue on linux (just burn the latest Ubuntu to CD and boot from that) is pretty good for getting as much data off as possible. It will first try and copy everything normally, then go back and retry any sectors it had trouble with, and even try to read them in reverse order to get as much as possible off. Also, putting the disk in your freezer (in a sealed bag, with silica gel), can help get data off for the 5 mins until it warms up again.
