I think my HD is self-destructing

erik · Posted 18 May 2002 2:03 am

I turned on my computer just before and got a DOS message saying i turned off my computer incorrectly(not true) and that i may have bad sectors on my HD so it will conduct a scan. It did the yellow bar thing and then went to a graphic showing 7 bad sectors, 5 in the unused portion. It bagan scanning, and at about 4% froze with my HD red light on. I had to reboot. I just skipped scan and here i am. So, what is the prognosis, anyone? I've never had problems before. Do i have a virus, maybe?

Mark Ardito · From: Chicago, IL, USA

erik,

I assume you are using Windows 98 or 95?

My suggestions is go to www.grc.com and purchase spinrite. To run spinrite will take some time, for my 40 GB harddrive it takes about 28 hours. However, I have had hard drives just like yours, Windows reports that it has "bad sectors" and it "can't read from it". I purchase spinrite and it fixes all of the bad sectors. I think the program is $60 or close to that.

It only works with FAT partitions not NTFS. In other words, usually will only work on Win 3.11, 95 or 98 Operating Systems.

Mark

Everett Cox · From: Marengo, OH, USA (deceased)

Eric-- I'm i bit confused by the symptoms you described. For whatever reason, it sounds like Scandisk was invokek at boot time and started 'doing its thing'. OK, that happens sometimes even when you think the system had been 'properly' shut down.

You say that you got a graphic displayed showing 7 bad sectors. But, except for known erors that were previously flagged, Scandisk would not be aware of any bad sectors untill it did the scan. Also, my version of Scandisk does not report a percentage of completion. What version of Windows are you using???

It may be possible that the errors involved files that Windows was trying to use and thus caused your system to 'freeze'. The errors that Scandisk found and displayed so quickly might indicate 'cross-linked' files which, again, could cause that problem.

I'd suggest you run Scandisk again but make sure it is NOT set to automatically 'fix' errors. That way, you get a better chance to see what it thinks is wrong and what files are involved. Replacing those files, then, might make everything OK. --Everett

erik · Posted 18 May 2002 7:19 pm

Thanks for the ideas, Everett. Since i installed Norton Internet Security, every time i shut down, the disk drive goes on(apparently searching for a boot) before turning off. Could this be causing the problem? I'm running 98se. Now, every time i boot up, i'm prompted about the bad sectors and scan disk kicks in. I have to exit twice to boot windows. Anyways, how can a person have bad sectors in an area of the HD that is not being used? My HD is 10gig and I never save anything, so i've only used about 10%. One of the bad sectors is located about 8%. Scan disk froze at 4% so i couldn't see what would happen when it got there. Keep in mind that the my system goes through the normal blue screen scan disk, but once that runs through it automatically switches to the graphic display and starts another scan counting off bytes like when you format. Are you familiar with this scan procedure? I've never seen the graphic before until this problem occured. Erik

[This message was edited by erik on 18 May 2002 at 08:21 PM.]

erik · Posted 19 May 2002 9:19 am

Now i can't boot windows at all. I'm using my webtv. I have more info if this might help. I checked my bios, please tell me if these settings are incorrect:

1st boot: IDE-0 32 bit (dis)
2nd boot: Floppy
try other boot: yes
S.M.A.R.T. (dis)

Maybe i messed up my HD because i have those two things disabled?

Jim Smith · From: Midlothian, TX, USA

Unless you're running SCSI hard drives, which I doubt that you are, you must have IDE enabled (1st boot) as that is your hard drive. As it appears in your settings, you can only boot from a floppy.

Sorry, I don't know what S.M.A.R.T. is, maybe some kind of disk translation setings for large drives. I'd try adding just enabling IDE for now and see if it will boot. If not, then add S.M.A.R.T.

Everett Cox · From: Marengo, OH, USA (deceased)

Eric-- Jim is 'right on' with his advise. The Norton app's may be doing a security check of some kind on all your drives prior to shut-down. If that includes the floppy drive without a disk in it, that might account for the 'improper shutdown' alerts. Someone using Norton may be more help.

Jim-- Great! I'd forgotten about S.M.A.R.T. since I don't use it. It is an acronym for 'Self MonitoringAnalysis and Reporting Technology'. That is software contained on both the hard drive and computer which monitors various conditions and attempts to predict failure befor it occurs. Most modern hard drives have this ability which is user activated with a BIOS setting. If Eric's machine is setup for it, S.M.A.R.T. may be how he got the bad sector alerts and why the machine began a Scandisk-like surface scan.

erik · Posted 19 May 2002 12:21 pm

Actually, i do have 1st boot as IDE-0. It's been that way since i last loaded windows. What i was asking is if 32 bit is supposed to be enabled?

I went through a scan/repair procedure. I got 11 bad sectors in only the first 8% of my drive. I gave up and bypassed it. Since things can only deteriorate from here, is there a way to disable scan disk so when i boot windows it just boots without all the system analysis?

Everett Cox · From: Marengo, OH, USA (deceased)

Eric-- I can't say about the 32 bit drive access. Depends on how the drive was setup. With only 10G, it might not be using 32 bit.

You can go to ControlPanel/Sysem/Performance and see what it says for 'File System'. But that might just reflect the BIOS setting.
--Everett

Mark Ardito · From: Chicago, IL, USA

erik,

Hey buddy! I would like you to put the floppy disk back to the number 1 position for boot in the BIOS. Then if you can find another Win98 machine I would like you to make a Win98 Boot disk. You can make this by going to the start menu, then going to settings and control panels. Double click 'Add/Remove Programs' and then go to the last tab which is "start up disk".

After you make the startup disk then leave it in the floppy drive and start the machine with the floppy drive set to boot first. Follow the prompts to boot off the Hard Disk and then start backing up all of your data.

Let me know!

Mark

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