From: Keith on
Rod Speed wrote:

> Keith <here(a)there.com> wrote
>
>
>>My Win XP Pro PC suffered a BSOD yesterday telling me that part of the registry was corrupted. I
>>restored the OS from my Acronis True Image backup but the bad sector count has increased from 3 to
>>5. Not knowing much about these things, is it time to buy a new HDD?
>
>
> Depends on what is producing the bads. If its external to the drive like a
> bad power supply, mains surges etc, best to fix that and the drive will be fine.
>
>

Thanks Rod. It's a "store bought" Sony VAIO desktop PC and the other HDD
is fine. Would you happen to know if Sony's power supplies were prone
to being flaky? I have so much surge protection on everything I don't
think it's that.

Regards,
Keith.
From: Arno Wagner on
Previously Al Dykes <adykes(a)panix.com> wrote:
> In article <4vd690F1bj72mU1(a)mid.individual.net>,
> Arno Wagner <me(a)privacy.net> wrote:
>>Previously Keith <here(a)there.com> wrote:
>>> Arno Wagner wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> This one may completely healty, but the pending sectors are suspicuous.
>>>> Best run a long-smart self-test. It will do a comlete surface scan.
>>>> Lets see whether the pending sectors turn into bad ones. As it is, the
>>>> disk has zero bad sectors and this may be some other problem, e.g.
>>>> a driver issue or a controller problem. Post the SMART status of this
>>>> disk and the self-test log here, after running the test. This may very
>>>> well be a temporary failure, e.g. from a power-spike on writing or the
>>>> like. The long SMART self-test should identify that....
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>> Hi Arno and thanks for your reply. Total newbie here, how do I go about
>>> running a "long-smart self-test"? I have EVEREST Home Edition.
>>
>>No idea. I use the smartmontools, there it is just
>>"smartctl -t long <device>"
>>
>>Arno


> Got backup? I think you'll need it soon.

> I agree with the testing. I get the make and modek of the disk and
> them go to the manufacturer's web site and download their test tool.
> It's frequently called "drive fitness dest".

> You run it and it makes a bootable floppy or CD. Boot it and you can
> run read-only tests if you have data you want to save or run several
> passes of the write/read test to see if the drive is worth keeping.

> I don't use a disk that's ever shown one bad sector for anything
> important after I've swapped it out of service.

Agreed. But so far the disk has no bad sectors. Might
be something else entirely...

Arno
From: Arno Wagner on
Previously Keith <here(a)there.com> wrote:
> Arno Wagner wrote:
>> Previously Keith <here(a)there.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Arno Wagner wrote:
>>
>>
>>>BTW I just noticed the pending sector count is now up to 7 from 5 two
>>>hours ago.
>>
>>
>> Hmm. Not good. Do you have backup?
>>

> Oh dear god yes ;-) Chkdsk ran this morning and corrected a whole host
> of errors so I think it's time to replace it. Thank to all who responded.

Might be premature. So far the disk has no defective sectors,
just some it has trouble reading. This may have other reasons,
which could influence a new disk just the same way. You can of
course get a new disk and try, but it is possible that it will
show similar symptoms.

Arno
From: Keith on
Arno Wagner wrote:
> Previously Keith <here(a)there.com> wrote:
>
>>>
>>>>BTW I just noticed the pending sector count is now up to 7 from 5 two
>>>>hours ago.
>>>
>>>
>>>Hmm. Not good. Do you have backup?
>>>
>
>
>>Oh dear god yes ;-) Chkdsk ran this morning and corrected a whole host
>>of errors so I think it's time to replace it. Thank to all who responded.
>
>
> Might be premature. So far the disk has no defective sectors,
> just some it has trouble reading. This may have other reasons,
> which could influence a new disk just the same way. You can of
> course get a new disk and try, but it is possible that it will
> show similar symptoms.
>


Thanks Arno. Not sure what to do now, probably will try a new one and
see how it goes.

Regards,
Keith.
From: Arno Wagner on
Previously Keith <here(a)there.com> wrote:
> Arno Wagner wrote:
>> Previously Keith <here(a)there.com> wrote:
>>
>>>>
>>>>>BTW I just noticed the pending sector count is now up to 7 from 5 two
>>>>>hours ago.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Hmm. Not good. Do you have backup?
>>>>
>>
>>
>>>Oh dear god yes ;-) Chkdsk ran this morning and corrected a whole host
>>>of errors so I think it's time to replace it. Thank to all who responded.
>>
>>
>> Might be premature. So far the disk has no defective sectors,
>> just some it has trouble reading. This may have other reasons,
>> which could influence a new disk just the same way. You can of
>> course get a new disk and try, but it is possible that it will
>> show similar symptoms.
>>


> Thanks Arno. Not sure what to do now, probably will try a new one and
> see how it goes.

It is ok as a next step, if you do not mind the cost for the new
drive.

Arno