What determines harddisk health?

[zoossh]

no matter how i reformat the new HDD via computer management in XP, it remains as such.

what else can i do?

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[yanyewkay]

S.M.A.R.T. parameters. it is a predefined set of parameters which monitors your harddisk. The temperature, the number of spins, etc.. when it reachs certain criteria, it will report that the harddisk, based on research from the manufacturer, is at risk of failure.

 

[zoossh]

S.M.A.R.T. parameters. it is a predefined set of parameters which monitors your harddisk. The temperature, the number of spins, etc.. when it reachs certain criteria, it will report that the harddisk, based on research from the manufacturer, is at risk of failure.

i attaches that as an external HDD, so dunno if smart is accurate.

 

[tribal.snake]

err actually the smart system is kinda bullshit. the factors as mentioned, are calculated as a best estimate, which is somehow always optismistic.

plug in as external hd is not 100% accurate, as not all parameters are available to the OS, and the windows OS has a bad implementation of this.

 

[jmmtn4aj]

SMART also isn't standardised. All the different companies have different parameters.

 

[dEthANGeL]

:think:

Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Logs

Look through your event logs if you see any weird errors pertaining to disk failure. eg. Disk I/O Error - which is one of them.

You can start planning to get a new HDD already.

Kinda scary, you format the whole partition as NTFS. Should anything go wrong :sweat: entire partition is lost.

 

[yanyewkay]

SMART also isn't standardised. All the different companies have different parameters.

the smart parameters are standardised. the values aren't. if the values are standardised then it won't be accurate anymore. The smart parameters describes what variables that can cause a HD to die. eg: xxx hours of operation or yyy number of spins etc.. we are not trying to put a stndard fixed number to ALL the harddisks.

 

[jmmtn4aj]

the smart parameters are standardised. the values aren't. if the values are standardised then it won't be accurate anymore. The smart parameters describes what variables that can cause a HD to die. eg: xxx hours of operation or yyy number of spins etc.. we are not trying to put a stndard fixed number to ALL the harddisks.

No. The parameters aren't standardised. The values for each parameter aren't standardised either, but I don't think there are many hard disks out there with all the parameters or attributes defined, much less their values.

 

[Ola]

If SMART is enable in your BIOS and if the hard disk is failing, you will get a message during POST.
Since the hard disk is new, get the hard disk replaced. Bring a copy of the screen capture along as proof.

 

[RtOaNn]

Kinda scary, you format the whole partition as NTFS. Should anything go wrong :sweat: entire partition is lost.

Ya lo, I see liao quite scared too.
Better to split them up into different partitions.

 

[mirrorslap]

Best is mirror all your files onto another HDD as backup.

 

[zoossh]

If SMART is enable in your BIOS and if the hard disk is failing, you will get a message during POST.
Since the hard disk is new, get the hard disk replaced. Bring a copy of the screen capture along as proof.

my concern is whether it is a software issue or real hardware issue, or if there is any software program that can confirm hardware problem. cos sometimes i bring things over, they test and show it ok, when home, same old problems....

 

[Ola]

my concern is whether it is a software issue or real hardware issue, or if there is any software program that can confirm hardware problem. cos sometimes i bring things over, they test and show it ok, when home, same old problems....

That's why you should bring a copy of what you capture to show them the problem. It could be intermittent and by showing them, they know there is an issue. From what you have shown, high chance of a hardware issue.

Most hard disk manufacturer will do a 1-1 replacement but you might get re-worked hard disk instead of new.

Note of advice. Never use dynamic disk unless you want to use software RAID. Always use basic disk.

 

[zoossh]

That's why you should bring a copy of what you capture to show them the problem. It could be intermittent and by showing them, they know there is an issue. From what you have shown, high chance of a hardware issue.

Most hard disk manufacturer will do a 1-1 replacement but you might get re-worked hard disk instead of new.

Note of advice. Never use dynamic disk unless you want to use software RAID. Always use basic disk.

but i dun see the option when formating the hdd on computer management....

 

[Ola]

but i dun see the option when formating the hdd on computer management....

It is done at Computer Management --> Disk Management.
Right-click on Disk and you should be able to select "convert to dynamic" (if it is basic disk). I think you can convert back to basic using the same method.

Normally when you have a new hard disk (not formated), they will ask if you want to upgrade to dynamic. Select "No".

 

[vince123123]

:think:

Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Logs

Look through your event logs if you see any weird errors pertaining to disk failure. eg. Disk I/O Error - which is one of them.

You can start planning to get a new HDD already.

Kinda scary, you format the whole partition as NTFS. Should anything go wrong :sweat: entire partition is lost.

Ya lo, I see liao quite scared too.
Better to split them up into different partitions.

If its a HDD hardware crash, whether its one partition or many partitions - all may be affected right? Then in what situation would be many small partitions safer?

That's why you should bring a copy of what you capture to show them the problem. It could be intermittent and by showing them, they know there is an issue. From what you have shown, high chance of a hardware issue.

Most hard disk manufacturer will do a 1-1 replacement but you might get re-worked hard disk instead of new.

Note of advice. Never use dynamic disk unless you want to use software RAID. Always use basic disk.

What's the difference between dynamic and basic?

 

[zoossh]

It is done at Computer Management --> Disk Management.
Right-click on Disk and you should be able to select "convert to dynamic" (if it is basic disk). I think you can convert back to basic using the same method.

Normally when you have a new hard disk (not formated), they will ask if you want to upgrade to dynamic. Select "No".

thanks. seem to remove that errors and at risk sign on computer management now after repeated reformatting of the new hdd. however for my old hdd in c: & d:, shall i leave them in the same condition or to change all to basic? does changing back to basic requires re-formating of existent drives?

 

[Ola]

What's the difference between dynamic and basic?

Summary from the links below.

Basic disks store their configuration information in the master boot record (MBR), which is stored on the first sector of the disk. The configuration of a Basic disk consists of the partition information on the disk.

Dynamic disk is a physical disk that contains dynamic volumes created by using Disk Management. Dynamic disks do not use traditional partition tables like primary and extended partitions (logical drives); therefore, dynamic disks cannot be accessed by MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition (Me) or Windows NT operating systems.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/222189/EN-US/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254105

 

[Ola]

thanks. seem to remove that errors and at risk sign on computer management now after repeated reformatting of the new hdd. however for my old hdd in c: & d:, shall i leave them in the same condition or to change all to basic? does changing back to basic requires re-formating of existent drives?

If possible change it back to basic disk. Try the method I mention in previous post first. If not, you will need to reformat.

 

[Ola]

Ya lo, I see liao quite scared too.
Better to split them up into different partitions.

You should minimize the number of partitions in a physical hard disk.
A single partition would be good for data recovery process.