Data corruption on HDD - should I still use it?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Smith
  • Start date Start date
J

John Smith

Hi, I recently began experiencing data corruption errors on my OS SATA HDD
(I am using XP Pro sp3). I performed CHKDSK /F and it seemed to have fixed
the issue. Then a few days later I couldnt boot into my OS at all. There was
an error telling me that C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\system was corrupt or
missing. I tried a few things but in the end I just restored my OS image
onto a PATA drive instead and all was well again.

While I was reconfiguring my system I decided to use the SATA drive as a
data drive instead. I performed a quick format on that SATA drive from
within XP and copied across a few files onto that SATA drive. I then noticed
those data files turned corrupt on that drive.I then performed a CHKDSK /F
on it and it was trying to fix the errors for over 15min. I then gave up and
stopped the CHKDSK process and did a normal reformat of the SATA drive. Then
I did another CHKDSK /F on the drive and all was well.

I am a bit sceptical about this drive now and don't know if i should use it
anymore due to the issues I had with it. What can I do to test whether this
drive actually has something wrong with it or not?

Any help appreciated.

Cheers,
JS
 
John Smith said:
Hi, I recently began experiencing data corruption errors on my OS SATA HDD
(I am using XP Pro sp3). I performed CHKDSK /F and it seemed to have fixed
the issue. Then a few days later I couldnt boot into my OS at all. There
was an error telling me that C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\system was corrupt
or missing. I tried a few things but in the end I just restored my OS
image onto a PATA drive instead and all was well again.

While I was reconfiguring my system I decided to use the SATA drive as a
data drive instead. I performed a quick format on that SATA drive from
within XP and copied across a few files onto that SATA drive. I then
noticed those data files turned corrupt on that drive.I then performed a
CHKDSK /F on it and it was trying to fix the errors for over 15min. I then
gave up and stopped the CHKDSK process and did a normal reformat of the
SATA drive. Then I did another CHKDSK /F on the drive and all was well.

I am a bit sceptical about this drive now and don't know if i should use
it anymore due to the issues I had with it. What can I do to test whether
this drive actually has something wrong with it or not?

Any help appreciated.

Cheers,
JS
Click to expand...

Go to the drive manufacturer's website, download and run their diagnostics
program. Most of them have them. If not, you can try HD Tune
http://www.hdtune.com/.

I would definitely be making an image, moving anything of importance off
that drive, and at least taking it out of service until you can get a new
one if the diagnostics show a problem, no matter how slight. As cheap as
drives are now (relatively speaking), it's not worth the aggravation or risk
to keep it in service.
 
Go to the drive manufacturer's website, download and run their diagnostics
program. Most of them have them. If not, you can try HD Tune
http://www.hdtune.com/.

I would definitely be making an image, moving anything of importance off
that drive, and at least taking it out of service until you can get a new
one if the diagnostics show a problem, no matter how slight. As cheap as
drives are now (relatively speaking), it's not worth the aggravation or
risk to keep it in service.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply Tom. Yes i think you're right. Not worth the
aggravation. This one is going out of service.

Cheers, JS
 
John said:
Thanks for the reply Tom. Yes i think you're right. Not worth the
aggravation. This one is going out of service.

Cheers, JS
Click to expand...

You can also change the SATA cable, or the SATA port used, and retest.
Just in case there is something wrong with the high speed communications,
rather than the disk itself.

Paul
 
In
John Smith said:
Hi, I recently began experiencing data corruption errors on
my OS SATA HDD (I am using XP Pro sp3). I performed CHKDSK
/F and it seemed to have fixed the issue. Then a few days
later I couldnt boot into my OS at all. There was an error
telling me that C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\system was
corrupt or missing. I tried a few things but in the end I
just restored my OS image onto a PATA drive instead and all
was well again.
While I was reconfiguring my system I decided to use the
SATA drive as a data drive instead. I performed a quick
format on that SATA drive from within XP and copied across
a few files onto that SATA drive. I then noticed those data
files turned corrupt on that drive.I then performed a
CHKDSK /F on it and it was trying to fix the errors for
over 15min. I then gave up and stopped the CHKDSK process
and did a normal reformat of the SATA drive. Then I did
another CHKDSK /F on the drive and all was well.
I am a bit sceptical about this drive now and don't know if
i should use it anymore due to the issues I had with it.
What can I do to test whether this drive actually has
something wrong with it or not?
Any help appreciated.

Cheers,
JS
Click to expand...

Have you tried the manufacturer's test program? Free and should be easy to
download if they're any good at all. At least one of your failures could
have been the quickl format you did; nothing gets fixed that way; just the
tables get refreshed (cleared).
If you have bad sectors and the number of them changes from time to time,
that drive is done for; replace it. But if it's a stable, unchanging number,
the drive might last for years yet - hard to say for sure.

HTH,

Twayne`
 
Have you tried the manufacturer's test program? Free and should be easy to
download if they're any good at all. At least one of your failures could
have been the quickl format you did; nothing gets fixed that way; just the
tables get refreshed (cleared).
If you have bad sectors and the number of them changes from time to
time, that drive is done for; replace it. But if it's a stable, unchanging
number, the drive might last for years yet - hard to say for sure.

HTH,

Twayne`
Click to expand...

I'll give the manufacturer's programs a shot and see how that goes. Thanks
for that!

Cheers, JS
 
You can also change the SATA cable, or the SATA port used, and retest.
Just in case there is something wrong with the high speed communications,
rather than the disk itself.

Paul
Click to expand...

I'll give that a try also. Cheers, for that.

JS.
 
Back
Top