Windows Hard Disk Issues/CHKDSK

[Capn Bloggs]

Here's one for you experts. My video drive suddenly stopped being recognised by Windows. So I tried to do a CHKDSK on it, which failed because it couldn't be seen. Booted from a Win 7 DVD into Repair and ran CHKDSK /r from there; after what seemed like an age (12+ hours) it found numerous errors and made numerous corrections to the disk. After a restart it went well for a few hours but then stopped responding (to some video editing) so I ran CHKDSK again (this time from Windows), and it found some errors (not as many as before), fixed them and it has been going OK since (a couple of days).

Question: is this disk dying, or were those errors just accumulating to the point where CHKDSK was needed and now it will be OK? I don't have any experience with CHKDSK so am looking for thoughts/ideas.

And yes yes yes I'm backed up! :ok:

[le Pingouin]

Before you panic I'd check cabling - SATA cables aren't exactly tight fitting so can work lose over time. Something like a power glitch can cause this sort of thing as well.

I'd run a utility to check the SMART status of the drive - something like SpeedFan or HD Tune (free version). This will give some idea if the drive has problems - run an extended rather than a short test.

Treat the drive as untrustworthy and if you continue to get problems replace it.

[Saab Dastard]

You should read up about how to interpret SMART reports before jumping to erroneous conclusions about the health of your drive!

Drives are so cheap now it's better to replace before it gets worse, while you may still be able to get data off it if you need to - I know you've got backups, but often it's just easier to connect both drives to the system and copy data over.

SD

[boguing]

SD is on the money as usual.

If you have any doubts about a drive, copy it and throw it away. Or take it apart, the discs make excellent shaving mirrors.

[Capn Bloggs]

Thanks everyone. HD Tune and Speedfan (quick check) revealed nothing that looked bad (SD's comment about what to look for noted! ;)).

These are some of the error messages:

http://i521.photobucket.com/albums/w334/capnbloggs/20140823_091159_zps736e64b6.jpg (http://s521.photobucket.com/user/capnbloggs/media/20140823_091159_zps736e64b6.jpg.html)

I suppose the main issue is whether these have been caused by Windows or the drive itself.

It's a 3tb drive so I don't want to throw it away unnecessarily; they're not cheap.

[Saab Dastard]

How old is the drive?

It may still be under warranty - I've had 2 drives replaced FoC by Seagate and WD.

Get the drive serial number, go to their website and see what your warranty status is.

They usually request some SMART test result, or their drive tools to be run - again, you can get these FoC as a download.

Has the drive been over temp? That's one area where they can be a bit sticky on replacement.

SD

[le Pingouin]

If you can afford to sacrifice the contents (noting to check the backups first) try formatting it.

[Capn Bloggs]

Thanks Ping. I'll gather my thoughts and try that a little later. Moving 2.7tb of data back to a newly formatted drive will take a while (might wear it out too?:ouch:)

[Mac the Knife]

Here is an MS article that discusses the error (and some solutions).

NTFS Directory Corruption with Frequent File Creation (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/169404)

Never seen that particular error m'self.

I've had a couple of newish drives that have started hiccoughing at around the 6-month mark. If my diagnostics don't show anything stupidly obvious or there are SMART errors I copy any stuff over, bin 'em and get a new drive (I prefer WD).

Although I'm of a generation that viewed hard drives like pearls, they are now so (relatively) cheap that spending 21 hours on a surface scan (which usually isn't much help anyway) just isn't worth it.

Mac

[Capn Bloggs]

Thanks Mac, that article explains why a run of CHKDSK fixes the issue and things then go bad again over time. If it is Windows, changing the drive may not fix the issue. I add that I never encountered this with XP over many years of video editing, admittedly with drives being replaced every couple of years by bigger ones.

Running CHKDSK /R again now to fix more problems.

I'll shortly pull the drive out and get the SD details (and try to find the receipt! :{).

[Saab Dastard]

That MS article refers to Windows NT 3.51 and NT4, and was fixed (allegedly) with NT4 SP4 - that makes the problem about 15 years old!

Assuming that you aren't running NT4 SP3 or below, I suspect you should look elsewhere for the cause.

SD

[monviso]

Give a try to the CHKDSK /f option too. But as said by someone else give a check-up about your SATA cables. You can find online some services where computers technicians can fix your computer online.

[IBMJunkman]

I trust no HD test/fix program other than Spinrite by Gibson Research.
https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

It reads every sector. If it has a problem or detects a weakness it moves the data to a spare sector that all HD have for the purpose. It then marks the original sector bad so it is not used again.

If there are too many bad sectors that end up using all the spares you are screwed. Personally, if it finds more than 20 I trash the drive. Especially if they appear to be in a close cluster.

You can try a warranty replacement but you will most likely get a refurb unit as a replacement.

Amazon has a NAS rated 3 TB drive for 122 USD.
http://www.amazon.com/WD-Red-NAS-Hard-Drive/dp/B008JJLW4M/

[Biggles78]

Bloggs, receipt not necessary. If you need to log a warranty issue do it online. All you need is the HDD Model and Serial Number. If you need help finding the warranty page just post back here with the HDD manufacturer's name.

I have had your problem on a machine that was filled with spyware/malware. I would be inclined to scan the HDD for malware, virus, rootkit etc. Malwarebytes, Hitman Pro and fairly good for malware. Rootkit scan; look for Kaspersky's tdsskiller, Malwarebytes also have one or Google rootkit scanner . Anti virus can be done through some free online antivirus scans (Google again) but I wouldn't go past the first page of results.

Once you have run the scans, run chkdsk /r again and see if that clears the drive. Make sure you run it as an Administrator (Command Prompt, right click and Run as administrator ) even if you are logged on with an administrative account.

[Capn Bloggs]

Thanks Biggles, will look into all that. :ok:

The Rootscanner thingee: will that apply to the whole computer or just my suspect drive? I am in the process of doing a full format on it so am wondering if I need to do an anti-nasty stuff to it after that.

[Capn Bloggs]

After the full format and running Malwarebytes, suddenly Avast (been installed for some time) found a rootkit thingee. Maybe MWB shamed it into action...

Then tried to put all my video back no the drive and my sync program couldn't get going. I clicked on the drive in Windows Explorer and the green loading line went slowly across from left to right.

Drive removed from machine and replaced with new WD Black, which works well.

Removed/dead drive was is Seagate NAS drive. More tests on it on my external SATA dock before it goes back to the shop.

[Booglebox]

if you're looking for a replacement, WD have just released a 10TB helium-filled drive :}