Hard drive failure or ?

arc@css · 15 Jan 2011 at 15:52

Hi,

My drive (see sig) would seem to have failed. I cannot access Windows very often, when I do manage to I am not able to do anything other than click on 'Start' or move the mouse pointer around. I have swapped drives over to see if the problem is isolated to the drive (in sig) and it clearly is. The old Seagate drive I used boots into Windows without any issues whatsoever.

I have had very good system stability, no viruses or anything of that nature. Device manager has shown no immediate problems. I am atm using Windows safe mode + networking, and have downloaded HD Tune Pro, so far it has yielded no errors which is puzzling. I have put up a post in the Customer Services section.

Can anyone shed any light on this, any experience, or anything I haven't thought of?

Thanks.

arc@css · 15 Jan 2011 at 19:13

Now I can't even boot into Windows, up came a message saying there was a disk read error. I honestly don't know if Windows itself has become unreliable or whether the drive is screwed, even though no tests have come back positive. I have attempted to delete a partition but it wouldn't let me do that in safe mode.

rpstewart · 15 Jan 2011 at 19:14

Have you run WD's diagnostics on the drive?

arc@css · 15 Jan 2011 at 19:16

No, I used HD Tune Pro.

rpstewart · 15 Jan 2011 at 19:26

You're better off with proper diagnostics from the manufacturer. You'll be able to get a copy of Lifeguard from WD's site.

arc@css · 15 Jan 2011 at 19:27

Thanks, rpstewart, though atm I can't even boot into Windows so not possible. However, if I do manage to do this I'll do just that.

Jamiman · 15 Jan 2011 at 19:36

I think that you might as well give up on it tbh.

Get an f3 1TB, they really fast, and like £40ish now

arc@css · 15 Jan 2011 at 19:53

Jamiman said:
I think that you might as well give up on it tbh.

Get an f3 1TB, they really fast, and like £40ish now

Well, I need to ascertain whether or not I have a strong case for RMA, and before that I need to erase my two years of work data on there. Atm doing anything with the drive seems hopeless.

For the moment I'll just have to stick with my very old Seagate 120gb, had it about seven or eight years now.

Serraph · 15 Jan 2011 at 20:04

Might be windows that is corrupt? If you have another drive you can boot into Windows with, you might be able to access the files on your other drive and save them, and then, if that is possible, you might be able to format the drive and try a re-installation?

arc@css · 15 Jan 2011 at 20:09

^Thanks for the advice, Serraph, but I'm afraid I have no experience of anything like that.

rpstewart · 15 Jan 2011 at 20:18

arc@css said:
Thanks, rpstewart, though atm I can't even boot into Windows so not possible. However, if I do manage to do this I'll do just that.

Lifeguard runs from a bootable CD, you don't need to be able to access Windows to run it.

arc@css · 15 Jan 2011 at 20:23

rpstewart said:
Lifeguard runs from a bootable CD, you don't need to be able to access Windows to run it.

Ahh ok, might give that a whirl. Nice webby btw.

arc@css · 16 Jan 2011 at 01:43

Ironically the WD drive showed no problems when I ran HD Tune, though my old Seagate just has shown something, I guess it's just down to its age. Though if anyone knows what this means I'd appreciate any knowledge they can pass on :