Is my hard disk in danger?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mr Anderson
  • Start date Start date
The problem doesn't seem to be "his skepticism of the warning message", it
seems to be that his English (he admits that he is not a native speaker of
English and that he's having problems with it) doesn't seem to be up to the
task of following the discussion. So I gave him an example that any
Italian schoolboy should be able to follow.

When a drive has used up all its sparing, then it's got a serious problem.
That's the bottom line and continuing to dink with it is just going to
result in data loss.

--
Click to expand...
As I have understood I cannot create new sparings in any way, right?
 
I wouldn't take the risk unless this is just a play machine that you
don't use for anything important.
Click to expand...
I swear you, I have no games installed on my pc! Is a low-level format so
risky? I know it is just a very deep format.....
 
I would burn all your personal files to CD-R immediately.

I have already done that...
 
terry_b17 said:
hi ,
i would download and run maxtors diagnostic utility to verify the
condition of the drive . i would back up asap if it gives any
indication of problem .
hope this helps ,
terry
Click to expand...
I have executed all possible tests and my hard disk passed them all with no
remarks
 
When you talk on the phone, and another caller is trying to reach you, you
can hear "beep" in the line, and if you press "Flash", you can switch to
that line.

During data connection, the modem also monitors the line for that "beep" and
if it's detected, the host software tells you that there is a call waiting.
This is how "there is a possibility that the modem could know whether or not
there is a call to my number". V.92 protocol allows you to temporarily
disconnect data connection (without losing PPP session and IP address), pick
up the voice call, and after you voice call is completed, switch back to the
data connection.
 
Alexander said:
When you talk on the phone, and another caller is trying to reach you, you
can hear "beep" in the line, and if you press "Flash", you can switch to
that line.
Click to expand...

That is called "call waiting" and it is an extra-cost service in most areas.
He said that he does not have call waiting and so this would not occur.
 
Mr said:
I swear you, I have no games installed on my pc! Is a low-level format so
risky? I know it is just a very deep format.....
Click to expand...
I don't think recent IDE drives allow a low-level format as that term
was used in the past. A regular Windows format won't have any effect,
AFAIK, since the S.M.A.R.T. status is being generated at the drive
level.

I see in another post that you've backed up your files. Given that,
try whatever you like, and if you achieve any results that contradict
what you've heard here, be sure to let us know.

Personally, I think you'll be disappointed, and find that the best
course is to replace the drive (perhaps via a warranty claim).
 
Mr Anderson said:
one more question: what can have caused this problem? I am used to execute
windowsXP's defrag utility very often....
Click to expand...
can this have caused such a big problem?
Click to expand...

Nope, not by itself, but it may have hastened it considerably.
If an increasingly slow computer caused you to start the defrags to begin
with, then you may have experienced the candidate bad blocks as being the
cause to that and the frequent defragging will have been aiding in the fast
consumption of free spares, especially when the defrags were unattended
and the slowness that it no doubt must have suffered from went unnoticed.
 
Joep said:
It's useless anyway, the SMART threshold is exceeded.
Click to expand...

According to Ariolic.
Active SMART also says that my Seagates are much too hot.
Yeah, right! They don't even have temperature sensors.
The manufacturer set
the threshold for this attribute at 63, so whenever this value gets worse
the maufacturer decided that something had to be seriously wrong. Assuming
it started counting down from 100 you're way below threshold. The whole
meaning of SMART is to warn BEFORE the disaster happens, so you have
time to backup your data.
Click to expand...

That's the idea. But one should have noticed massive delays at lots of
times for the drive to get to the state that it now supposedly is to be in.
If that hasn't happened then the measured value is highly questionable.
 
J. Clarke said:
So what? This is not a message from the operating system. Do you have an
alternative explanation for a disk drive reporting when queried that it has
used up all of its sparing?


So what? Again this is not an operating system message. Are you saying
that the drive is deluded about how many sectors it has reallocated?
Click to expand...

You are saying that there is no possiblity that he could receive the
message that he did unless the hard drive was as stated? No virus
could influence receiving this message, no code fault could result in
receiving this message?
 
Whoa. I don't pay for call waiting. I don't believe that you hear
anything and you certainly can't switch to another call if your phone
doesn't have call waiting. I've never had call waiting and there is
no possibility of knowing another person is trying to call you when
your line is open. You think that you get call waiting for free
without the phone company doing anything, which they won't do until
you pay for call waiting. Anyway, this is a know glitch (a modem
software glitch) for this particular modem. The message of a call
awaiting, has nothing to do with the truth.
 
Mr said:
I have executed all possible tests and my hard disk passed them all with no
remarks
Click to expand...

Then it is most likely that the hard drive is ok and the message you
recieved is not correct. Heck it might be a virus or a trojan horse,
who knows. If it worries you get another disk and keep that one until
later, or wipe it and see if it works on another system.
 
It means your harddrive is running out of emergency sectors to replace
developing bad sectors. Here is how it works, on most hds there is a little
extra space put aside to replace bad sectors. The value depends on the hd,
some of them from 255 sectors others 100 sectors. Everytime the hd detects a
bad sector it replaces it with one from the emergency sector and reduces the
count by one. So 255 becomes 254 and 253 and so on until it reaches the
threshold. At 63, it gives you a warning and a chance to backup your data.
In your case you are down to only 3 left. When it runs out, you'll start
seeing your system freeze up and your data corrupted.

The warning is perfectly reasonable, your data is still good but it won't be
if you don't replace the hd
 
George said:
Then it is most likely that the hard drive is ok and the message you
recieved is not correct. Heck it might be a virus or a trojan horse,
who knows. If it worries you get another disk and keep that one until
later, or wipe it and see if it works on another system.
Click to expand...

The drive is reporting that it has used up most of its sparing. There is no
"test" that will show a problem with the drive until it uses up _all_ of
its sparing.
 
George said:
You are saying that there is no possiblity that he could receive the
message that he did unless the hard drive was as stated? No virus
could influence receiving this message, no code fault could result in
receiving this message?
Click to expand...

I am saying that that possibility is exceedingly remote while the
probability that his drive is going to use up the rest of its sparing is
exceedingly high.

Why is it so important to you that he ignore a warning message?
 
George said:
Whoa. I don't pay for call waiting. I don't believe that you hear
anything and you certainly can't switch to another call if your phone
doesn't have call waiting. I've never had call waiting and there is
no possibility of knowing another person is trying to call you when
your line is open. You think that you get call waiting for free
without the phone company doing anything, which they won't do until
you pay for call waiting. Anyway, this is a know glitch (a modem
software glitch) for this particular modem. The message of a call
awaiting, has nothing to do with the truth.
Click to expand...

So is there a "known glitch" for any brand or model of hard disk that
results in its claiming to have used up most of its sparing when in fact it
has not?
 
Clueless. A modern hard drive has around one spare per thousand. That's
100,000 for a 50GB drive.

If you have that many many reallocations, you will certainly have 100s of bad
sectors, and frequent system stalls as read retries occur.
 
I am saying that that possibility is exceedingly remote while the
probability that his drive is going to use up the rest of its sparing is
exceedingly high.

Why is it so important to you that he ignore a warning message?
Click to expand...

Sorry, ignoring the warning was not my intent; I did say he should
back up. What I am saying is that false comments are possible,
whether from the main operating system, test programs, or other.
Folkert, pointed out, a high temperature warning without a sensor.
 
J. Clarke said:
So is there a "known glitch" for any brand or model of hard disk that
results in its claiming to have used up most of its sparing when in fact it
has not?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't know but I'll bet there is, or if not at present, there
will be.
 
Back
Top