HDD & SSD Problems

fantoc1

fantoc1

fantoc1

Associate
Joined
26 Feb 2012
Posts
82
Hi guys,

I got a small (big) problem and I hope you can help me with it. I got a 500 SSS drive where I installed Win7 (this is a working disk). Then I have 2x 2TB disks also that I only use for storage. These 2 disks are split into two partition each has roughly 930GB. One of this partition is failing on me ( Im guessing the whole disk is failing then) When I open that disk I can see the folders however when I try and open further it freezes (ALWAYS - I tried numerous times and it does it every time). For better understanding let`s say that my SSD is drive A, my HDD 1 has 2 partitions = B and C, and HDD 2 has also 2 partitions = D and F - will use this as a reference. I run diskcheck fix and repair over night and it repaired a lot of indexes and there were lot of orphaned files etc however I did not fix the problem. The partition that is affected is partition B so I am trying to copy what I can into the other HDD 2 (that I believe is OK). I have copied almost all I could, then I powered down and disconnected that bad HDD 1 and restarted, but the system did not boot and I got that message that I need to select a correct boot drive (cant remember exactly what it was) and had to power down again. then I connected that HDD1 back up and disconnected HDD 2 and the system loaded up normally...? What the hell?? I am attaching a screen from disk management what it looks like - something weird happened to my drives. One of the partitions is showing 1.7GB free of 930 GB??? I need to put this back somehow and Im not sure what to do without damaging the date etc. I want to have the SSD with system bootable drive and the other disks just as a storage? Can anybody advice what to do and how to do it?

http://postimg.org/image/crujm7yg9/

Many thanks,
Tom
 
Have you set the disk boot order in the bios so that the SSD is the boot-up drive.
If you have removed a disk and it is asking for the correct boot drive at startup, the setting is wrong in the bios.
 
Hey man,

I thought of that and double checked it just now - no luck. SSD is set as BOOT 1 everything else is after it. I have even disabled everything else and tried it like that and the system DID NOT BOOT UP until I put it back to the way it was - it seems it only boots up when all disks (or at least HDD 2) is connected together otherwise the system does not boot up. How can I check if I am running RAID 0 or 1 or 2?? Anybody anything im sure this is something trivial that I am missing??
 
I did some testing just now:

1. When I disconnected physically both HDD`s in the tower the system does not boot up from the SSD that is connected (has win 7 and all on it) and this message comes up - @Reboot and select proper BOOT device or insert BOOT media in selected BOOT device and press a key.

2. When I disconnected ( H and F partitions = HDD 2) the system also does not boot up from the SSD that is connected and again I got the same message as example above.

3. When I disconnected ( D and E partitons = HDD1) the system does boot up normally - this is the only option when the system boots up or of course when all HDD`s are also connected.

Please give me an idea what I am missing and what to set up etc. I need to replace that failing HDD and can`t coz the system does not boot up???

Anybody anything??

I got sabertooth p67 MB if that helps??

Im desperate how to fix this,

Tom
 
I knew the dskmgmt looked weird - what would you suggest to do with this?? I had installed win7 on it and the HDD`s were connected..but had done it like this in the past without a problem???

Edit: Does that mean I need again re install win7, this time with all HDD`s disconnected and only SSD running??? After the install just connect the HDD`s and assign letter etc? Will i not lose any data?
 
Last edited:
It's not a problem I've had to fix before I'm afraid. On a 'clean' install, the boot disk normally has a 100MB system reserved partition which you don't have, so it might be a good opportunity for a full backup and a clean reinstall to the SSD.

From a quick search on how to move the system partition, this turned up which looks like a similar problem. No guarantees offered though :) Do make sure you've got a backup of everything on your SSD as you could end up being forced to do a reinstall.

http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/87790-moving-system-partition-files-another-hdd.html
 
Yes, just did a clean install of win7 to that SSD with all HDD`s disconnected and it`s all working fine now, booting up from SSD every time no matter what configuration I am running. That seemed to have fixed that issue - thanks for pointing me out that direction.

I was also able to recover most of the date from that failed HDD with Recuva, let`s say 98% of what I had stored I had now copied over to the other HDD, however I will need to purchase another HDD as I only have that one 2 TB left.

I always used WD green HDD`s, but I`m not sure if my next buy should be also WD after this one failed - but I had it for over 5 years now.

What is a good buy when buying a HDD only for storage - would buy even 4TB? What is the real difference between RED, BLACK, GREEN, BLUE WD`s??
 
Glad to hear you've got it sorted and managed to recover most of your data from the dodgy drive.

It's possible it's been a corrupted file system and that there's nothing physically wrong with the disk. You might want to run the WD diagnostics to do a full test of the disk, and also have a look at the SMART data using CrystalDiskInfo or similar.

For mass storage in a normal PC where the speed isn't that important I'd go for WD green. The green drives aren't really designed for 24/7 NAS-type duties though so red would be a better choice if you may want to use it in a NAS in future. Blue and black drives are quicker and don't spin-down as keenly (to save power) so less pauses while spinning up again.
 
Reallocated and/or pending sectors are the most likely sign of problems. Try posting the smart data from crystaldiskinfo.
If it's just a corrupted file system then a reformat is all you need. If you've got bad sectors appearing then they can be 'mapped out' with spares up to a point but I'd be cautious trusting it.
The wd data lifeguard full diagnostic scan is worth doing - if it fails the test then that's a bad sign!
 
Hi, it means there are 53 (35 hex) sectors detected as bad that are "pending" being remapped with spare sectors. If you do a full disk scan there could be many more found.
Wikipedia has a page explaining the individual smart parameters if you want to have a read.
If it was mine then I'd run WD data lifeguard full diagnostics test next. If it says "failed" then it's pretty much toast. If it passes but has reallocated sectors then it may keep working but I certainly wouldn't rely on it as there could be more bad sectors on the way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom