View Full Version : Hard drive problem
Compass Call
12th Feb 2009, 20:51
On a couple of occasions after the computer has been on for several hours it locks up and it has to be switched off by pulling the plug. After 5 minutes, on trying to restart it I get the following message:-
"Disk read error, press CTRL, ALT, DEL to restart"
On trying this, the message repeats and I am unable to get the computer to start. It can be shut down by holding in the start switch. After about an hour it can be restarted and carries out a 3 stage disk check before loading Windows.
Am I correct in thinking that my hard drive is about to fail?
CC
frostbite
12th Feb 2009, 21:36
I would think that is pretty well guaranteed.
jimtherev
12th Feb 2009, 22:25
... but the good news is that 120 GB drives (ata and sata both) are available on Ebay for less than thirty quid inc postage. (Strewth - that cheap? I'll have three! :) )
gizmocat
13th Feb 2009, 08:55
Sounds more like an overheating problem.
Parapunter
13th Feb 2009, 10:06
...Or a carked drive that spins happily when cool and not when at normal temp.
Google says many reasons for your error, but as others point out, HDD's are so cheap now, may as well jump ship while you can and hitch a ride on a new one.
Yep - a heat-related failure, not uncommon. Hopefully, it can give you sufficient time to get your data off before it fails entirely.
Saab Dastard
13th Feb 2009, 12:38
Sounds more like an overheating problem.
There's a suspicion of that as a contributory factor - Give the case a good dusting & vacuuming when replacing the hard disk.
SD
Compass Call
13th Feb 2009, 18:37
Thanks for confirming my suspicions. New drive it is then:ok:
CC
Jofm5
17th Feb 2009, 07:48
Compass.....
If it is heat related the problem wont be fixed by a new drive (why would one drive be hotter than another and can you assure your new drive runs cooler ?)...
However it does sound like your disk is on the way out - to me it sounds like its having trouble maintaining rotation speed). However...
The good news is if your existing disk is not totally gone when you purchase your new disk we can copy over an image of what you have direct onto your new disk so there is no need for a fresh install.
If you want to do this PM me and I will let you know what freeware you need to download and how to do this it will save losing the OS/Applications/Data you already have.
Cheers
Jofm5
Saab Dastard
17th Feb 2009, 10:37
If you want to do this PM me and I will let you know what freeware you need to download and how to do this it will save losing the OS/Applications/Data you already have.
More informative for others to do so across the open forum.
Best to reserve PMs for private matters and off-topic discussions.
SD
Jofm5
17th Feb 2009, 11:03
Am fine with that also :ok:
Was not sure about site policy on mentioning urls, refs etc
Saab Dastard
17th Feb 2009, 11:58
Was not sure about site policy on mentioning urls, refs etc
See Computer / Internet Forum Guidelines (http://www.pprune.org/computer-internet-issues-troubleshooting/222937-computer-internet-forum-guidelines.html)
SD
Compass Call
17th Feb 2009, 18:43
Jofm5
Thanks for your offer of help. I agree with Saab Dastard that it would be best to post the info on this thread as it would certainly be of interest to others.
CC
Jofm5
17th Feb 2009, 19:20
OK here is what to do...
Download DriveimageXML (DriveImage XML - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com (http://www.download.com/DriveImage-XML/3000-2242_4-10443230.html)) on your current system.
Shutdown and plug in your replacement drive so both drives are connected.
Boot the computer off the original disk and select to run drive image.
Within drive image select the clone option, its best to clone physical disks rather than logical partitions as it will grab all partitons off of the source disk regardless of whether they are active or not.
Select your new disk as the destination (You do have the option of an image file but you dont need this).
Then leave it running.. it can take some time dependent upon disk size - I think my 120gb disk took around half an hour.
After its complete you may now take the old disk out and the system should boot off your new disk with everything looking exactly how it was.
If you are feeling brave you could in the bios change which disk is boot disk and reformat your old disk but if its on its way out its best not to store anything of use on it. Personally I put mine in a draw should I ever need to go back and re-image that disk.
If your still feeling unsure there are utube videos showing this being run which can be seen here YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTEnKA7tOXM)
Cheers
Jof
Jofm5
17th Feb 2009, 19:23
Forgot to say...
If you have bought a larger disk than orignally you can use the disk manager tool to expand an existing partition into this space (you cant do the primary partion C:) or you can create a logical partition in this space so you have an additional logical drive - if your unsure about this step let me know.
Cheers
Compass Call
18th Feb 2009, 18:56
Jofm5
Thank you for posting the info. Very useful:ok:
CC
All enthusiastic, I downloaded and installed DriveImage XML so that I could back up my "boot" drive that's getting old, in preparation to cloning it to a new SATA drive.
A slight problem arose! This PC has three internal hard drives (2 IDE, plus the new SATA), and a USB external. DriveImage only found the external. The other three are there, and known to the operating system.
Am I doing something wrong, or is that how it works?
Is there an alternative package that will allow me to clone the drive?
Bushfiva
21st Feb 2009, 00:57
EASUS Partition Manager.
Loose rivets
21st Feb 2009, 04:29
Keef, how is the SATA drive interfaced? Do you have dual type interface on the MB or a card in a slot?
Yes, there are two SATA connectors on the motherboard. It's plugged into SATA 1.
I haven't had much time to do anything else with it, but will take a look later today.
Saab Dastard
22nd Feb 2009, 15:13
How are you starting Drive Image? Boot CD? Has it got the SATA drivers?
SD
How are you starting Drive Image? Boot CD? Has it got the SATA drivers?
Starting it from one of the hard drives on the machine - the idea was to do a backup first to check it works.
SATA drivers: dunno! I just installed it and ran it. It didn't find the IDE drives, either.
Jofm5
22nd Feb 2009, 17:18
Windows XP is not knowledgeable by default about SATA drives, so there should be some drivers that came with the motherboard you will need to install first.
Well, DriveImage XML didn't want to play, but EASEUS Partition Manager did the business (thanks, Bushfiva) and the SATA drive is now partitioned and has a clone of the Win 7 boot drive on it. I've not sussed how to tell it to boot from that one, but that's for another day.
EASEUS is like the Partition Magic I used to use many moons ago. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough yet to use it to resize "live" partitions, but I think I'll give it a go once I've backed up the one that's getting a tad full.
The problem now is that I'm running out of alphabet for drives! I've even "recycled" X: which was the SCSI DVDROM drive that doesn't work because there are no Win7 SCSI drivers for the card. Some rationalisation may be called for.
Jofm5
23rd Feb 2009, 01:16
Congrats on that - good to see you managed to find a solution. Strange DriveImage XML did not work for you but then no two systems are the same.
You should be able to set you boot priority from your bios - so hit f2, esc, space or whatever it is to go in before you boot up
Cheers
There's no telling what'll work and what won't. I've had software work perfectly on one machine and refuse completely on the next.
I don't think just changing the boot setup in the BIOS will get it to boot the "new" Win 7 clone config. Win 7 doesn't seem to do it that way.
The boot drive under XP is the first partition on the first (IDE) hard drive. That's pretty standard, I guess.
The present boot drive under Win 7 is the 4th partition on the second (IDE) hard drive.
The clone Win 7 is the second partition on the third (SATA) hard drive.
I'll try later telling it to boot from the SATA and see if it can work out where to go.
Off out to a theological meeting now...
Jofm5
23rd Feb 2009, 20:05
It all depends on how you installed Windows 7 as to where your Master Boot Record is (MBR).
If you installed Windows 7 on to the 4th partition of your SATA disk whilst booting from your IDE then I would imagine when you boot up you get a choice of operating systems. However no MBR will exist on the SATA disk because it used the primary partion on your IDE when you installed it.
If however you booted up with your SATA as your primary disk and installed Windows 7 then an MBR will exist on the SATA disk so the bios switch will work.
If you did the first way, you may want to trash your windows 7 setup and go the bios route and re-install so you get an MBR and then you can use the bios for deciding which one to boot into - most modern bios have the facility to allow a pompt and boot to select boot device so may be easier to turn that on. You may be lucky and be able to do an upgrade/fix on the existing installation but usually those are not available in the beta products.
It's doing what I expected: the "installed" Win 7 on IDE2 Partition 4 boots OK, as does the XP installation on IDE1 Partition 1. The cloned Win7 on SATA1 Partition 2 wasn't "installed" and is almost certainly missing MBR.
There are Linux distros on IDE2 Partitions 1, 2 and 3 and they all boot fine - except that Win7 zapped the Grub configuration that I was using till then for multi-boot. I suspect that a Grub boot would be able to launch the Win 7 on SATA1 Partition 2. I'll dig out a Grub boot floppy some time and try that.
I don't want to zap the Win 7 clone: the whole point of the experiment was to see if I could clone a new, bootable disk easily, from scratch. If I install Win 7 fresh on the SATA drive, I'm sure the installer will tell me it's too late for that (the Beta test is closed to new entries), and also it'll disable one of the other boot options (either the Win 7 on IDE2, or the XP on IDE1).