HDD failure

[L33tz]

im getting paranoid about this happening...

i have a thing that says my hdd health is good, but i dont trust it cause it says i only have 88 hours on my hdd.

[Blux]

Backup your drive/important goodies to a spare drive.

One way to see if a drive is getting worse or if you could expect problems soon:

In the system logs under device manager you can look for HDD errors. If you are seeing more than 1 or 2 of these a day, like say a cluster of 10-20 of these errors everyday, then your drive is definitely on its way out.

If you have a desktop, then the best way to prolong the life of a drive is to buy a cooler for it, just one of the simple ones that is dual fan will help with the life of the drive.

Definitely recommend a UPS for anyone with a desktop, I almost lost my SSD thanks to my cat stepping on the power strip while my computer was on.

And if you really want to give the drive a thorough test, check the MFG's website to see if they have any specific testing tools. Seagate has Seatools, Western Digital has something, etc etc. Download one of those and it will give you the most accurate tests for your drive.

[HLC]

hard drives fail , like light bulbs fail
no mystery there
observe reality and deal with it, in this case by backing up info

[cronic5]

Yeah, keep your hard drive cool and it will last you a lot longer. My case is actually badass because it has two 120mm fans that are places directly in the front of the case, with the hard drives behind it. The fans are removable and powered directly from the case so no wires are needed.

This makes adding or swapping hard drives easy, as well as adding RAM or other simple components without removing the side of the case itself.

Anyway, if you are worried about your drive dying, get some type of driver cooler, even if it dies, you know the next one will last much longer.

Hard drives do die eventually, sometimes they last 3 years, sometimes 30 years. Take care of it, and generally it will take care of you.

[HampTheToker]

Something's very wrong with my computer because it decides to shut down at random while booted into windows even after two clean formats of the entire drive.

...but it works perfectly fine with Linux. No problems at all.

I can't tell if the problem is hardware or software. What causes a machine to perform differently in such a way under clean installs of otherwise fully functional OSes???

Edit: forgot to mention that I got all my info backed up to flash drives and one 8gb sd card lolol.

[Duke Zion]

Originally Posted by HLC

hard drives fail , like light bulbs fail
no mystery there
observe reality and deal with it, in this case by backing up info

I honestly never had this problem with any hard drive. I have a couple that still run that are over 4 years old

[STD]

I haven't had to worry about my HD failing since 2007....

just back it up noob

[cronic5]

Originally Posted by HampTheToker

Something's very wrong with my computer because it decides to shut down at random while booted into windows even after two clean formats of the entire drive.

...but it works perfectly fine with Linux. No problems at all.

I can't tell if the problem is hardware or software. What causes a machine to perform differently in such a way under clean installs of otherwise fully functional OSes???

Edit: forgot to mention that I got all my info backed up to flash drives and one 8gb sd card lolol.

It is an install from the same disc? If it is a burned copy, try to download a new one from a different source. If it only happens on your Windows partition, I'd have to assume it is an error in the original ISO file.

[HampTheToker]

Originally Posted by cronic5

It is an install from the same disc? If it is a burned copy, try to download a new one from a different source. If it only happens on your Windows partition, I'd have to assume it is an error in the original ISO file.

Yea, but the problem didn't start until my son started pressing the power button repeatedly while no one was looking and shutting it down abnormally and constantly. Took a couple weeks, I estimate, for the problem to present itself. Going to try installing xp on the windows partition to see if that fixes anything.

[Hi-Guy]

When you say it's been shutting down, is it just rebooting or is it really shutting down and staying off? Rebooting could indicate that it's actually bluescreening and auto-recovering (horrible feature imo).

Otherwise if you turn on the computer and disconnect the power button jumpers, does it still happen? if it doesn't your power button may be oddly broken.

You should run chkdsk /F on your C:.

[L33tz]

i can back it up.

is it a bad idea that my 2nd hdd is held in place by two tic tac boxes?

they fit perfectly(perfectly!) in there to hold it in place, better than the bracket and the impossible to insert screws

[STD]

Originally Posted by L33tz

i can back it up.

is it a bad idea that my 2nd hdd is held in place by two tic tac boxes?

they fit perfectly(perfectly!) in there to hold it in place, better than the bracket and the impossible to insert screws

lol. I once had a HD stuck in with blu-tack

[HampTheToker]

Runs perfectly normal with an xp broformance dual boot w/ Ubuntu 10.04 0_o

Maybe, I'll just have to live with it... I have been sidelined in an attempt to bring some small contributions to the HTC dev world with a custom Evo Design rom that isn't too shabby for a first try. My son just so happened to destroy Windows 7 in the middle of the process...

I haz pix 2 pruv it.

[cronic5]

Originally Posted by HampTheToker

Runs perfectly normal with an xp broformance dual boot w/ Ubuntu 10.04 0_o

Maybe, I'll just have to live with it... I have been sidelined in an attempt to bring some small contributions to the HTC dev world with a custom Evo Design rom that isn't too shabby for a first try. My son just so happened to destroy Windows 7 in the middle of the process...

I haz pix 2 pruv it.

You don't just "destroy" an operating system by turning it off incorrectly. If Windows XP works correctly, and a format/reinstall of Windows 7 doesn't, from the same disc...Then you need to try a different source for the ISO.

[HampTheToker]

Originally Posted by cronic5

You don't just "destroy" an operating system by turning it off incorrectly. If Windows XP works correctly, and a format/reinstall of Windows 7 doesn't, from the same disc...Then you need to try a different source for the ISO.

Tried three. XP is the only windows OS that sticks.

I could try windows ate

[cronic5]

Originally Posted by HampTheToker

Tried three. XP is the only windows OS that sticks.

I could try windows ate

That makes no sense. You downloaded from a different source, and burned a new copy, did a format and reinstall, and it still had the same errors?

If so, I would have to assume it is a hardware error, although I have to say that is stranger than anything in my experience. I'd have to think it is a memory problem, but that is truly strange if you have no problems under Linux, or XP, on the same hard drive.

[STD]

Never ever fucked up an OS by ripping out the power cord. Everything from Mac OS 7 to DOS. Doesn't happen unless you're a faggot.