HARD DISK FAILURE

eldiablo696 · 6 Mar 2011 at 22:46

Hi All

When I booted up this morning I heard a grinding noise. It lasted ten seconds, then disappeared.

I have now been on the computer for over 10 hours and no problem and no grinding.

I did hear it for a few seconds when I ran:

chkdsk, defrag, disk clean, liveonecare and anti virus scanner.

I have backed up the 'system state data' and all personal files onto usb flash drives.

I have the registration key and recovery cd x 2.

I plan to run chkdsk /f to attempt recovery/fixing of bad sectors. Which is into 6 figures.

I have approx 59% free on my hard drive, as displayed in DEFRAG' screen.

I do not have a cd-r or cd-rw. I do not have an external back up device.

I do have another drive, about 28gb. But am not sure whether my pc will run with two hard drives.

Are there any other files that I will need to backup?

If, after chkdsk /f, all hell breaks loose and I can only boot from recovery cd, will I need to know which cd is linked to the product key.

I am looking for a storage device for back up and a new hard drive. But funds are scarce at the moment and my pc is more imprortant than any personal info currently held on it.

But am up ____ creek without a paddle.......

I am too scared to switch pc off, as grinding only happened at start up and given that it happens when the disk is being checked, I presume the boot part of the drive has all the bad sectors on, or this is where the damage is.

I should have posted this earlier, but all the research I have done has just led me round and round in circles......so far

d_brennen · 6 Mar 2011 at 22:49

Download the HDTune trial and have a look at the health status of your drive. Sounds like replacement time

eldiablo696 · 6 Mar 2011 at 23:09

Thanks

I will give it a go.

Just need to be sure I have everything covered with the back up.

I am trying to open the .bkf file to see what it has copied.

Should I leave it on over night?

Thanks for the info

Surveyor · 6 Mar 2011 at 23:12

eldiablo696 said:
Should I leave it on over night?

If the problem seems to be on startup it may be a good idea.

The next start may be its last.

HAz · 6 Mar 2011 at 23:34

definitely not something rubbing on the fan? or an old gpu fan on its last legs?

eldiablo696 · 7 Mar 2011 at 14:13

Thanks

I have managed to start the pc this morning with no grinding whatsoever.

I have checked the gpu and cpu fan. All is good here.

Given that my bad sectors are in the 6 or 7 figure category and have been for at least 6 months or so.

I will take this as a final warning to replace my Hard Drive and begin the 'trying to install a new hard drive' adventure.

If I am able to get onto the internet, I will no doubt have to call on the expertise of ocuk'ers to help me once again.......

I would like to ask for some assistance in the art of 'backing up'.

I do not have a cd-r or cd-rw or an external hard drive. I only have 10 or so floppies @1.44mb :mad:

What is the cheapest method of performing a safe back up. I managed to change one of my usb pen drives to ntfs. But it only holds 1gb.

Can i purchase a larger usb drive to boot from?

d_brennen · 7 Mar 2011 at 14:30

Flash is probably the best way. How much data do you have? OCUK sell 4GB pen drives for about a fiver. They are useful to have anyway

fullmetaltony · 7 Mar 2011 at 14:53

Cheap DVD rewriter and some blanks will only set you back £20 at the most.

But if you're going to get a new HDD anyway, why not get the new HDD, do a clean install and put the original HDD in as a second, copy the files straight over then.

eldiablo696 · 9 Mar 2011 at 11:25

I do actually have a cd-rw.

I must have disconected it, thinking it was just a player.

I have purchased a new hdd which is twice the size of original.

As we are talking about an old machine the hdd cost me £3.60 on ebay 80gb.

My old drive has 1941956 bad sectors, so if I install both can i copy over to new and then get rid of bad/old drive.

Is this the best way to do it. I will of course backup all files.

I have an old copy of nero 5 burn. It looks really complicated. Is there other software that is easier to use.

This is my first hd install and after extensive research all I am sure of, is that a problem will occur somewhere along the line.

Even though my pc is clean and no overclocking ever.

I tried calling manufacturer. Was sent to three different locations and then told I needed to pay 60p per minute for support. £60 per hour....

ouch

Jakus · 10 Mar 2011 at 12:52

I assume it's IDE ? You have 2 problems really, the first is if You don't have a windows or other software re-installation disk, and secondly, You will have trouble "imaging" the Disk with bad sectors.

Simple fix
get something like "hirens boot CD"
boot the PC from the cd with the old and new drives attached.
Partition and format the new drive (with one of the partition tools on the cd)
Reboot and use the mini windows XP on the boot CD and copy all files over.
remove old drive. Reboot and use a partition tool to set the windows "C" partition ACTIVE
Job done

I suggest about a 25GB partition for "C" and keep all your Data on a different partition. I'm sure You will need to do some Googling to get up to speed regarding partitions, primary,logical and active and the tools needed but it's all pretty simple.