Hard Drive Issue - Impending Failure?

[mbressman]

I have an IBM ThinkPad T43p that is several years old. I recently rebuilt it from scratch (restored from the restore partition on the 100 GB hard drive and then updated Windows XP and installed my apps and data). I have been using it for a few months in this manner, and have set up Norton Ghost 12 to back it up every night incrementally and every 2 or so weeks with a new full backup. Recently, the full backup failed with errors, which I was able to correct by running CHKDSK /r using the WinXP CD. This fixed the problem for a few weeks, and now the full backup is failing again. However, while CHKDSK /r is stating it has found and fixed errors, the Norton Ghost 12 full backup is still failing almost immediately after starting. The error that I receive when Norton Ghost 12's full backup fails is similar to the one below (except that the sectors # and the LBA # change slightly each time the backup fails and generates an error):

Error EC8F17B7: Cannot create recovery points for job: Drive Backup of IBM_PRELOAD (C:\). Error E7C3000F: Device \\.\SymantecSnapshot0 cannot read 8232 sectors starting at LBA 1785072. Error EBAB03F1: Data error (cyclic redundancy check).
Details: 0xE7C3000F
Source: Norton Ghost

I decided my best bet would be to get a replacement hard drive from IBM/Lenovo and then simply backup the entire disk and restore it onto the new hard drive. I chose Clonezilla to do this since it seemed it would be the easiest way to proceed, and decided to use an external 500 GB Western Digital USB hard drive to perform the back up on (normally I back up onto a 2 TB network drive). However, the first time I tried to run the Clonezilla disk image backup, I received the following error:

Checking NTFS integrity in /dev/sda1... The NTFS in this partition is corrupted: /dev/sda1
Two options for you now:
(1) Try to boot the template machine into MS Windows, and run 'chkdsk /f', or 'chkdsk /p /r' (for MS XP Recovery Console and others), then reboot it TWICE! Important, don't forget the /f or /p /r paramter(s)! This option is recommended
(2) Try to let Clonezilla to use ntfsfix to fix it then force to save it. //Note// ntfsfix only repairs some fundamental NTFS inconsistencies, resets the NTFS journal file and schedules an NTFS consistency check for the first boot into Windows. In short, ntfsfix is NOT a Linux version of chkdsk. This option is not recommended!

I followed the instructions in step 1, booted into the recovery console (using the WinXP CD), and ran CHKDSK C: /p /r (and then rebooted twice after it was finished). However, upon attempting to run Clonezilla again to image the entire disk, the same error appeared. I am now stuck, since my computer seems to run fine (I am typing on it from within Windows XP right now), but I can't perform any of the backups any longer which are critical since they serve as protection in case my hard drive should fail down the line.

Can anyone help me figure out what is wrong with my computer and/or hard drive currently, and how to resolve the problem or back everything up to be restored on to the new hard drive (if the issue is with my existing hard drive)? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

- Marc

[Brad]

Marc,

Sorry to hear that your well intended backup plan is failing.

My suggestion is to download the Lenovo hard drive quick test here.

Create the bootable media as instructed and run the test from your T43p's optical drive to determine if your hard drive is failing.

I recommend replacing a hard drive at a very minimum every three years if there is anything at all important on it. If it were me and I was at or near three years with a drive it would be relegated to a minimal amount of use in non-critical applications.

Depending on the test results you may qualify for a replacement drive under your T43p's warranty. If out of warranty there are other options for drive replacement.

Brad