Hard drive crash !

Wobbel · 04-26-2003, 11:40 AM

Yesterday evening i was downloading some simpsons episodes from the newsnet.My pc was just standing there,buzzing away and i was watching tv,at one moment i heard the discdrive starting to make some noise,like it was writing away something,i thought well,some data beeing transfered.But it kept going on and on,so i switched on the monitor and saw this screen,it said that windows didn't closed down properly,or that i had a power failure,press enter to restart.
So,pressed enter,same screen,tried to start in safe mode,same screen,then i realised i had a problem going on!
I insert my xp home disc and started "chkdsk/p" on c:, after a long time it stopped at 37% and said that there were some damaged maps and or files,i tried to repair them with "chkdsk/r", didn't work.
Well,since i did a clean install of my system last sunday i thought,nothing lost there,lets just reinstal the whole thing,so i deleted the partitions and tried to format the disc again,after 3 hours it got up to 4%,i realised then that my disc was probally damaged.
Today i bought a new disc,80gb, installed windows and everything seems to be working fine.

Now i'm wondering,what happend and how to prevent this in the future ?

The failure message i got was: "problem caused by spcmdcon.sys"-"page fault in non paged area".
It was a 40gb ibm disc and i had it split in 3 sections,1 for xp (4gb)
1 for prog. (10gb) and 1 for the rest (25gb)
The only thing i noticed prior to the crash is that it was a bit slow,
programs wouldn't open fast,took a few seconds for them to start.There where no other problems.

Motherboard=asus a7v266
Processor=amd xp1800
Memory=256 mb
Windows xp home edition/sp1+updates installed
ZApro firewall
Norton 2002 av
Liteon 32 speed writer
Liteon cdrom/dvd reader

It's a bit long,but i want to give as much info as possible,if there's anything more someone has to know to help me find out what caused this,please ask.

ps. i stil had guarantee on that 40gb disc,the man in the store told me,so i'm going back monday to collect a new one

forgot to mention this:
Could this have been caused by a virus or a trojan ? Last time i installed everything i had my internet connection (cable) open,maybe someone got into my pc ? After installing i ran trojanscan and norton,they found nothing.

**jrwap** · 04-26-2003, 03:40 PM

Sounds to me like it was physical damage... not the type that can be done by a virus. Keep in mind that your hard drive has a bunch of moving parts all crammed into that small area. These parts do fail after awhile.

A little while ago there was a class action lawsuit again IBM because their 75gb deskstar drives were failing way too much. That was a case of not being manufactured correctly.

So, it sounds like you had a bad drive that just died.

-JRW

rastagard · 04-26-2003, 06:44 PM

Well ya didn't say what make the failed HDD was, but I am on my third replacement Western Digital 80 gig.

I think they may be turning them out so quickly these days that there is going to be a certain number of failures.

The first one failed with significant data loss. I had a backup drive with a cloned copy, but it was 6 months old. Still, not too bad. The second drive failed with a bang. It started to make a racket,clunk, then everything would freeze. I had an up-to-date backup this time. Needless to say I now keep my backup as up to date as possible.

BTW, I don't really understand the reasoning behind keeping the program files and the OS on seperate partitions. Don't you still have to reinstall everything in the event of OS failure. I guess it might preserve any settings in your programs, is that why? In any event, I would suggest you take the 40 gig replacement, get yerself a copy of Norton Ghost, and clone your OS/Program file partitions as a handy backup. I have been running the same installation of XP Pro from Nov. 2001. I have had some serious failures and been able to recover quite nicely. *rasta furiously knocks wood*

**NUTNDUN** · 04-26-2003, 06:49 PM

Hey Wobbel,
Sounds like a hardware failure like jr said. How old was the drive? Could have been bearings getting old or too hot. Heat will kill a drive and is the number one reason for data loss. Make sure ya have proper case ventilation.

Wobbel · 04-26-2003, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by NUTNDUN
Hey Wobbel,
Sounds like a hardware failure like jr said. How old was the drive? Could have been bearings getting old or too hot. Heat will kill a drive and is the number one reason for data loss. Make sure ya have proper case ventilation.

I bought the whole system in august last year,so it's 8-9 months old.
I don't have a case fan at all !! just a processor cooler/fan,one on my graphics card,and a small one on my mb.
Maybe i should buy one

**NUTNDUN** · 04-26-2003, 09:31 PM

Ya that would be my gues as to why the drive went, ur lucky nothing else has gone bad, like the processor. Did someone build the system for you at like a local shop or something? Whoever built it shouldn't be in the business of building pcs although it is actually smart if they want return business for service and I am sure they offered no warranty on it. Even HP does better then that. Go get two case fans, one for intake and one for exhaust. Put the intake fan at the lower fron of the case and the exhaust below the power supply.

Diggindude · 08-23-2003, 11:04 AM

I'm on my third 80 gig maxtor since 7/02.
I can't tell from the error message exactly what went wrong with them, and maxtor techs won't give it up, but the second one that was just replaced this week, had a distinct "click" to it after running for approx. 20 minutes.
It would then randomly click while running, though sometimes not for hours.

deel1981 · 08-26-2003, 03:58 AM

Yes I'm shure that it have been a physical damage!!
You dad luck that you stil had guarantee on it
but if you had not the only way to go on using
such hard disk is very simple :
you should just make a small partition over
the damaged area and mark it like hidden ;-)

Dr. Avery · 08-26-2003, 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by rastagard
BTW, I don't really understand the reasoning behind keeping the program files and the OS on seperate partitions. Don't you still have to reinstall everything in the event of OS failure. I guess it might preserve any settings in your programs, is that why? *rasta furiously knocks wood*

I like to use 2 hard drives when possible. A large fast drive for programs, a small faster drive for the os (and a smallest fastest drive for the swap file

). The reason I do this, is because windows should be reformatted and reinstalled at least once every 6 months. You still have to reinstall the programs, but at least your irreplacable data is maintained without a pesky backup.

You are right, though - a lot of programs will look for components of previous installations and try to maintain the settings. This can be a bad thing in my opinion if the settings were causing the problems in the first place...

A little side note:

I have been messing with computers since before hard drives were a standard accessory. And in all these years, from all the computers I've ever owned, I have never once had a drive fail. I have drives from my 486 still running today. Never skipped a beat. What are you guys doing to these hard drives?!?

Guess I'm just lucky.

RipperRoo · 08-26-2003, 06:57 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by deel1981
Yes I'm shure that it have been a physical damage!!
You dad luck that you stil had guarantee on it
but if you had not the only way to go on using
such hard disk is very simple :
you should just make a small partition over
the damaged area and mark it like hidden ;-)

Welcome deel1981.
this is a very good way of preventing data loss, i have a section of the drive on my main machine that was trashed by a combination of large game updates, fast track, windows 98 and dialup (can you imaginge what happens to the drive if its writing only to one section of it for days on end and the pc continualy crashes)

a swift bit of choping when i upgraded to win2k and no more data loss!

inescapeableus · 12-14-2003, 02:25 AM

In order to save you data incase of a future hard drive failure I would enable S.M.A.R.T, this would allow you some time to save you documents and purchase a new hard drive. Also it maybe a good idea to run "powermax" once in a while, this will scan your hard drive for errors.

04-26-2003, 11:40 AM	#1 (permalink)
Wobbel PCTT's Gatherer Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: 2004 Posts: 2,861	Hard drive crash ! Yesterday evening i was downloading some simpsons episodes from the newsnet.My pc was just standing there,buzzing away and i was watching tv,at one moment i heard the discdrive starting to make some noise,like it was writing away something,i thought well,some data beeing transfered.But it kept going on and on,so i switched on the monitor and saw this screen,it said that windows didn't closed down properly,or that i had a power failure,press enter to restart. So,pressed enter,same screen,tried to start in safe mode,same screen,then i realised i had a problem going on! I insert my xp home disc and started "chkdsk/p" on c:, after a long time it stopped at 37% and said that there were some damaged maps and or files,i tried to repair them with "chkdsk/r", didn't work. Well,since i did a clean install of my system last sunday i thought,nothing lost there,lets just reinstal the whole thing,so i deleted the partitions and tried to format the disc again,after 3 hours it got up to 4%,i realised then that my disc was probally damaged. Today i bought a new disc,80gb, installed windows and everything seems to be working fine. Now i'm wondering,what happend and how to prevent this in the future ? The failure message i got was: "problem caused by spcmdcon.sys"-"page fault in non paged area". It was a 40gb ibm disc and i had it split in 3 sections,1 for xp (4gb) 1 for prog. (10gb) and 1 for the rest (25gb) The only thing i noticed prior to the crash is that it was a bit slow, programs wouldn't open fast,took a few seconds for them to start.There where no other problems. Motherboard=asus a7v266 Processor=amd xp1800 Memory=256 mb Windows xp home edition/sp1+updates installed ZApro firewall Norton 2002 av Liteon 32 speed writer Liteon cdrom/dvd reader It's a bit long,but i want to give as much info as possible,if there's anything more someone has to know to help me find out what caused this,please ask. ps. i stil had guarantee on that 40gb disc,the man in the store told me,so i'm going back monday to collect a new one forgot to mention this: Could this have been caused by a virus or a trojan ? Last time i installed everything i had my internet connection (cable) open,maybe someone got into my pc ? After installing i ran trojanscan and norton,they found nothing. Last edited by Wobbel; 04-26-2003 at 12:25 PM.

04-26-2003, 06:49 PM	#4 (permalink)
NUTNDUN Registered Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: PA Posts: 1,465	Hey Wobbel, Sounds like a hardware failure like jr said. How old was the drive? Could have been bearings getting old or too hot. Heat will kill a drive and is the number one reason for data loss. Make sure ya have proper case ventilation. __________________

04-26-2003, 09:31 PM	#6 (permalink)
NUTNDUN Registered Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: PA Posts: 1,465	Ya that would be my gues as to why the drive went, ur lucky nothing else has gone bad, like the processor. Did someone build the system for you at like a local shop or something? Whoever built it shouldn't be in the business of building pcs although it is actually smart if they want return business for service and I am sure they offered no warranty on it. Even HP does better then that. Go get two case fans, one for intake and one for exhaust. Put the intake fan at the lower fron of the case and the exhaust below the power supply. __________________

08-23-2003, 11:04 AM	#7 (permalink)
Diggindude Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Wa Posts: 3	I'm on my third 80 gig maxtor since 7/02. I can't tell from the error message exactly what went wrong with them, and maxtor techs won't give it up, but the second one that was just replaced this week, had a distinct "click" to it after running for approx. 20 minutes. It would then randomly click while running, though sometimes not for hours. __________________ I Keep Tryin' To Think, But Nuthin' Happens

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04-26-2003, 03:40 PM	#2 (permalink)
jrwap Admin Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Gorham Me Posts: 242	Sounds to me like it was physical damage... not the type that can be done by a virus. Keep in mind that your hard drive has a bunch of moving parts all crammed into that small area. These parts do fail after awhile. A little while ago there was a class action lawsuit again IBM because their 75gb deskstar drives were failing way too much. That was a case of not being manufactured correctly. So, it sounds like you had a bad drive that just died. -JRW

04-26-2003, 06:44 PM	#3 (permalink)
rastagard Humble Idiot Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Florida Posts: 2,271	Well ya didn't say what make the failed HDD was, but I am on my third replacement Western Digital 80 gig. I think they may be turning them out so quickly these days that there is going to be a certain number of failures. The first one failed with significant data loss. I had a backup drive with a cloned copy, but it was 6 months old. Still, not too bad. The second drive failed with a bang. It started to make a racket,clunk, then everything would freeze. I had an up-to-date backup this time. Needless to say I now keep my backup as up to date as possible. BTW, I don't really understand the reasoning behind keeping the program files and the OS on seperate partitions. Don't you still have to reinstall everything in the event of OS failure. I guess it might preserve any settings in your programs, is that why? In any event, I would suggest you take the 40 gig replacement, get yerself a copy of Norton Ghost, and clone your OS/Program file partitions as a handy backup. I have been running the same installation of XP Pro from Nov. 2001. I have had some serious failures and been able to recover quite nicely. rasta furiously knocks wood

08-26-2003, 03:58 AM	#8 (permalink)
deel1981 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Bulgaria Posts: 82	Yes I'm shure that it have been a physical damage!! You dad luck that you stil had guarantee on it but if you had not the only way to go on using such hard disk is very simple : you should just make a small partition over the damaged area and mark it like hidden ;-)

12-14-2003, 02:25 AM	#11 (permalink)
inescapeableus Registered User Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 35	In order to save you data incase of a future hard drive failure I would enable S.M.A.R.T, this would allow you some time to save you documents and purchase a new hard drive. Also it maybe a good idea to run "powermax" once in a while, this will scan your hard drive for errors.