Hrad Drive problem

[Hu]

I first got a warning from my own computer and I then installed a
freeeware program named HDD Health, which attempts to predict the life
of your hard drive on regular use.

I have a Seagate [ST380021A] 80 GB and, according to HDD Health
it will "expire" on 1/24/04. Since my computer has only one year old,
I am not planning to change it. But I am planning to do something with
the hard drive, if possible. Obviously, I will need a new one.

Questions:

1) Is there any way to copy ALL the information in the new hard drive,
disconnect the old one and make the new one bootable? [I honestly will
hate to install everything again]

2) If 1) is possible, is there any manual, website, and/or programs,
with precise instructions of how to do it?

3) Do you have any suggestion on what type of hard drive should I get?

Thanks a million!

 

[Rod Speed]

I first got a warning from my own computer and I then
installed a freeeware program named HDD Health, which
attempts to predict the life of your hard drive on regular use.

But HDD Health has been known to cry wolf in the past.

I have a Seagate [ST380021A] 80 GB and, according to HDD Health
it will "expire" on 1/24/04. Since my computer has only one year old,
I am not planning to change it. But I am planning to do something with
the hard drive, if possible. Obviously, I will need a new one.

Or maybe not. You certainly need to backup whats on the drive,
but it remains to be seen if it really is about to die any time soon.

Try http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm
and see what it says about the drive.

Questions:

1) Is there any way to copy ALL the information in the new hard
drive, disconnect the old one and make the new one bootable?

Yep, quite a few quite decent utes that will do that. Some free.

[I honestly will hate to install everything again]

2) If 1) is possible, is there any manual, website, and/or
programs, with precise instructions of how to do it?

Yep, but it depends on what OS you are using and you dont say.

3) Do you have any suggestion on what type of hard drive should I get?

I like Samsungs currently. Full 3 year warranty on all their drives.

 

[Hu]

Hey Rod,

Thanks for your reply. I've read other postings confirming that HDD
Health is unreliable.

I've followed up with your advise and used diskcheckup with the
following results:

Drive 0 SMART enabled

IDE REGISTERS:

Features: 0x0 Sector Count: 0x1 Sector Number: 0x1

Cylinder Low: 0x0 Cylinder High: 0x0 Drive Head: 0xA0

Command: 0xEC

DRIVE INFORMATION:
Serial Number: 3HV0AVV3
FirmWare Rev: 3.10
Model Number: ST380021A

Cylinders: 16383 Heads: 16 Sectors per track: 63
Cur Cyls: 16383 Cur Heads: 16 Cur Sectors/Track: 63
Bytes per track: NA Bytes per sector: NA
Gen Config: 3162 Buffer Type: 0 Buffer Size: 4096
Vendor Unique: 0 0 0 More Vendor Unique: 0x8010

ECC Size: 4 Double Word IO: 0 Capabilities: 12032

PIO Timing: 512 DMA Timing: 512 BS: 7

Current Sector Capacity: 16514064 Total Addressable Sectors:
156301488

Mult. Sector Stuff: 264 Single Word DMA: 0 Multi Word
DMA: 7

SMART ATTRIBUTES:

ID Description Raw Value Status Value Worst
Threshold

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Raw Read Error Rate 30278848 OK 70 60
34

3 Spin Up Time 0ms OK 73
70 0

4 Start/Stop Count 9 OK 100
100 20

5 Reallocated Sector Count 36 OK 100
100 36

7 Seek Error Rate 96820761 OK 79
60 30

9 Power On Hours Count 2959 OK 97 97
0

A Spin Retry Count 0 OK 100
100 97

C Power Cycle Count 1812 OK 99 99
20

C2 Temperature 28 C OK 28
52 0

C3 (Unknown attribute) 30278848 OK 70 60
0

C5 Current Pending Sector Count 1 OK 100 100
0

C6 Offline Scan Incorrect. Sector Count 1 OK 100
100 0

C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Count 0 OK 200
200 0

C8 Write Error Count 0 OK 100
253 0

CA (Unknown attribute) 35 OK 65
218 0

Now, according to HHD Health the spin rate is exactly similar to
above, i.e., 73 70 0. To them, this is an indicator of hard drive
failure in the near future.

What do you think?

I am using Windows XP.

Do you suggest buying a Samsung? But again, how do you transfer the
info from the old to the new HD?

Thanks again for your help.

HHu

I first got a warning from my own computer and I then
installed a freeeware program named HDD Health, which
attempts to predict the life of your hard drive on regular use.

But HDD Health has been known to cry wolf in the past.

I have a Seagate [ST380021A] 80 GB and, according to HDD Health
it will "expire" on 1/24/04. Since my computer has only one year old,
I am not planning to change it. But I am planning to do something with
the hard drive, if possible. Obviously, I will need a new one.

Or maybe not. You certainly need to backup whats on the drive,
but it remains to be seen if it really is about to die any time soon.

Try http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm
and see what it says about the drive.

Questions:

1) Is there any way to copy ALL the information in the new hard
drive, disconnect the old one and make the new one bootable?

Yep, quite a few quite decent utes that will do that. Some free.

[I honestly will hate to install everything again]

2) If 1) is possible, is there any manual, website, and/or
programs, with precise instructions of how to do it?

Yep, but it depends on what OS you are using and you dont say.

3) Do you have any suggestion on what type of hard drive should I get?

I like Samsungs currently. Full 3 year warranty on all their drives.

 

[Rod Speed]

Hey Rod,

Thanks for your reply. I've read other postings confirming that HDD
Health is unreliable.

I've followed up with your advise and used diskcheckup with the
following results:

Drive 0 SMART enabled

IDE REGISTERS:

Features: 0x0 Sector Count: 0x1 Sector Number: 0x1

Cylinder Low: 0x0 Cylinder High: 0x0 Drive Head: 0xA0

Command: 0xEC

DRIVE INFORMATION:
Serial Number: 3HV0AVV3
FirmWare Rev: 3.10
Model Number: ST380021A

Cylinders: 16383 Heads: 16 Sectors per track: 63
Cur Cyls: 16383 Cur Heads: 16 Cur Sectors/Track: 63
Bytes per track: NA Bytes per sector: NA
Gen Config: 3162 Buffer Type: 0 Buffer Size: 4096
Vendor Unique: 0 0 0 More Vendor Unique: 0x8010

ECC Size: 4 Double Word IO: 0 Capabilities: 12032

PIO Timing: 512 DMA Timing: 512 BS: 7

Current Sector Capacity: 16514064 Total Addressable Sectors:
156301488

Mult. Sector Stuff: 264 Single Word DMA: 0 Multi Word
DMA: 7

SMART ATTRIBUTES:

ID Description Raw Value Status Value Worst
Threshold

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Raw Read Error Rate 30278848 OK 70 60
34

3 Spin Up Time 0ms OK 73
70 0

4 Start/Stop Count 9 OK 100
100 20

5 Reallocated Sector Count 36 OK 100
100 36

7 Seek Error Rate 96820761 OK 79
60 30

9 Power On Hours Count 2959 OK 97 97
0

A Spin Retry Count 0 OK 100
100 97

C Power Cycle Count 1812 OK 99 99
20

C2 Temperature 28 C OK 28
52 0

C3 (Unknown attribute) 30278848 OK 70 60
0

C5 Current Pending Sector Count 1 OK 100 100
0

C6 Offline Scan Incorrect. Sector Count 1 OK 100
100 0

C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Count 0 OK 200
200 0

C8 Write Error Count 0 OK 100
253 0

CA (Unknown attribute) 35 OK 65
218 0

Now, according to HHD Health the spin rate is exactly similar to
above, i.e., 73 70 0. To them, this is an indicator of hard drive
failure in the near future.

What do you think?

Looks like that drive isnt bothering to keep that value in the SMART
data and thats fooling HDD Health into predicting that its about to die.
A raw value of 0ms is clearly just plain missing data.

I'd backup the data that is irreplaceable to CDs,
but you should be doing that anyway.

I am using Windows XP.

Do you suggest buying a Samsung?

I wouldnt at this stage, it looks like HDD Health is
just having a massive brain fart about a drive that
isnt recording the spinup time in the SMART data.

But again, how do you transfer the
info from the old to the new HD?

Using XP limits your options somewhat.

I personally prefer to use Ghost or Drive Image, mainly because
the user interface is very simple and obvious, but they arent free.
Ghost is very cheap if you buy SystemWorks Pro 2003 off ebay etc.

The main trick with both of those is to ensure that you
dont let the first boot of XP after doing the copy to the
new drive see both the original and the copy. Just unplug
the original drive before that boot, let it boot up on the
new drive, and you can then plug the original drive back
in again if you say want to use it for data that doesnt matter.

There is also www.xxclone.com now which will do
what you want. Havent tried it yet myself tho. Its free.

Thanks again for your help.

No problem, thats what these technical newsgroups are for.

I first got a warning from my own computer and I then
installed a freeeware program named HDD Health, which
attempts to predict the life of your hard drive on regular use.

But HDD Health has been known to cry wolf in the past.

I have a Seagate [ST380021A] 80 GB and, according to HDD Health
it will "expire" on 1/24/04. Since my computer has only one year old,
I am not planning to change it. But I am planning to do something with
the hard drive, if possible. Obviously, I will need a new one.

Or maybe not. You certainly need to backup whats on the drive,
but it remains to be seen if it really is about to die any time soon.

Try http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm
and see what it says about the drive.

Questions:

1) Is there any way to copy ALL the information in the new hard
drive, disconnect the old one and make the new one bootable?

Yep, quite a few quite decent utes that will do that. Some free.

[I honestly will hate to install everything again]

2) If 1) is possible, is there any manual, website, and/or
programs, with precise instructions of how to do it?

Yep, but it depends on what OS you are using and you dont say.

3) Do you have any suggestion on what type of hard drive should I get?

I like Samsungs currently. Full 3 year warranty on all their drives.