A dying hard drive?

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DavidNZ · #1 Post by **DavidNZ** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:28 pm

So I'm having a few 'problems' with the 1.8 Hitachi drive in my X40. Not really problems, but odd behaviour.

I did a defrag last weekend. Since then, every now and than (it really is random), when accessing a file or opening an app, the HDD will make a rythmic sound as it is accessing. I mean, normally, a HDD will make noise as it accesses something, but there very little repetitive pattern to that noise. In this case, there is a definite pattern. In 'words', it would be:

dot-d-dot-dot [slight pause] dot-d-dot-dot [slight pause] dot-d-dot-dot... and then it would proceed to open the file with no problem.

I run a chkdsk. Boot volume has problems, but from what I read on the net, that's common on NTFS and it's a feature of running chkdsk with Windows running. Run chkdsk /f on boot up, fixes a few files. Run chkdsk again, and a few file record segments are unreadable.

Run full HDD test in PC-Doctor 2.0 through windows. Fails surface test.

Run chkdsk /f again on bootup. Run Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test. Test is 0x00, which means drive is fine.

Leave it for a few days. Sounds are still present, but no pattern to when they appear (i.e., not based on app, and has happened on startup).

Today, I boot into R&R and initiate the HDD test. All fine, but when a full 'read' scan of the HDD was done, it doesn't finish because it says I interupted, which I didn't.

Then a full HDD re-scan from PC-Doctor in windows and it passes everything.

So basically what I have are intermittent errors that do not affect operations, but am left wondering if I've got the early signs of a drive on its last legs. Anyone have any ideas?

pphilipko · #2 Post by **pphilipko** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 12:05 am

When there is a repetitive sound that you described, the hard disk is having some problems reading the disk and keeps re-reading it until successful. It's the VERY early signs of a hard drive failure, and you probably should back up your info (if you haven't done so already), and have a new hard drive handy for replacement.

You're describing the same symptoms that my iSeries 1300 experienced before the hard drive crashed. That time, I lost ALL of my files as I thought a backup would be a waste of time...

DavidNZ · #3 Post by **DavidNZ** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 12:13 am

Hmmm...that's what I was afraid of. Not good. May ring IBM Australia and see if I can get it sorted now rather than wait while I'm overseas or something.

I have three backups on-site and one back-up off-site of critical data. I don't image per se as I have all software installation discs readily available, but I do know what you mean by making sure everything is securely backed up.

DavidNZ · #4 Post by **DavidNZ** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 12:49 am

Just got off the phone with IBM Australia, and was once again reminded why we all buy these things.

Basically, I'm getting a new HDD couriered, but seeing as they don't have any in stock it may take 5-20 days, which is fine.

I think this is what i'll do:

1. Old drive out, new drive in.
2. Boot from set of Product/Recovery CDs that I got with the machine (I think something like 6 or 7 CDs) and basically set up the new HDD with XP.
3. Verifiy that it works / no problems.
4. New drive out, old drive back in.
5. use Hitachi Drive Fitness Test (which I have on a CD) to wipe old drive.
6. Old drive out, new drive back in.
7. Ship old drive back out to IBM.

bhtooefr · #5 Post by **bhtooefr** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 5:40 am

Hmm... if there's some adaptor to get the drives into a desktop, I'd image the new HDD with whatever was on the old HDD.

DavidNZ · #6 Post by **DavidNZ** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 6:04 am

Yeah, I thought of that, but this might be an opportunity to just start from scratch. Plus, I want to try the recovery process just once so I kind of know how it works.

beq · #7 Post by **beq** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 3:16 am

David, since you're already going to take your X40 HDD out, would you mind letting us know if it's the standard Hitachi 1.8" model with the normal laptop IDE connector, or if it's a model made for IBM with ZIF connector, or if it's some proprietary model with proprietary connector made just for IBM (as I'd heard some people speculate)?

I'd bought the Hitachi 60GB 1.8" drive (the version with normal laptop IDE connector) from NewEgg.com a couple of months ago to use in a USB enclosure and I really like it. When Hitachi releases the 80GB 1.8" model I may upgrade one of our X-series notebooks, if it's technically possible...

DavidNZ · #8 Post by **DavidNZ** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 5:22 am

Yup. I'll take some pictures and post them in this thread. Why not just take your hard drive out and have a look? From the movies on the IBM/Lenovo site, looks to be rather easy.

alant · #9 Post by **alant** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 4:50 am

David, I used R&R recently for a full recovery under a similar situation to that you describe. Before taking out the faulty disk, I copied the backup to both a network location and to many CDs. I then replaced the disk drive.

I booted from the R&R boot CD and attempted to recover from the CDs. I couldn't get it to work. I recovered from the network location, which required that I know the IP address of the server and it worked perfectly.

However, there are two reasons why I'm not sure you can use much from my experience. First, there is a major new upgrade to R&R. Version 3 seems to contain much re-engineering of the code. Second, I did not spend much time trying to get the restore to work from the CDs. I had a readily accessible network source for the restore. The network location also offered convenience in that I did not need to feed CDs into the Thinkpad.

I was using an X41 with an X4 dock and R&R V2.

Regards - Alan (from Oz)

DavidNZ · #10 Post by **DavidNZ** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 5:46 am

Thanks, Alan. It is useful to read how others have 'recovered', so to speak. I've got R&R 3 installed now (on the old drive) but haven't done a backup. There's nothing on my Thinkpad that would be lost if, for example, the HDD were to crap out in, say, 5 minutes time. All critical documents, etc are backed up to three USB HDDs, and then mirrored off-site once a week.

I think I've resigned to basically starting over from scratch once the new HDD arrives. I don't keep many programmes installed anyway, so in theory the re-build may not take that much time.

If you ever have to deal with AUS support, they're wonderful!

Cheers, mate - sorry about the Tri-Nations (and the Bledisloe, while we're at it!)

David

DavidNZ · #11 Post by **DavidNZ** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 1:48 am

OK, an update. Just spent 7.5 hours re-installing everything on the new HDD. The restore onto the new HDD worked flawlessly, but took about 2.5 hours. I purchased Outback Plus 5, which transfers over Outlook and Firefox (and IE) settings, which saved a huge amount of time. Best NZ$60 i've spent in ages.

Just checking things out now. May post an update later.

DavidNZ · #12 Post by **DavidNZ** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 1:09 pm

Right, bit more of an update:

1. I find Access Connections 3.71 a little more 'odd' in behaviour than the old version I was using (3.30). For example, up boot up, it's loading up my WAN profile (and connecting) even before I've entered my windows login password. I found that strange.

2. I installed, believe it or not, SP1 for XPP. Actually, the recovery CDs had SP1 slippedstreamed. Why not SP2? I'm behind a hardware firewall pretty much everywhere and haven't been infected in years. I wasn't ready to fiddle with SP2.

3. The hard drive is slightly quieter than the previous one. Doubt it's a new design, though. It exhibits the same 'tung'/parking sound as the other one.

David

A dying hard drive?

A dying hard drive?

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