drive keeps having partition problems
in [Storage]
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From: mechphisto on 1 Apr 2008 11:02 I have a friend with a 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA (in a Win XP Pro machine) that's throwing weird partition issues at the drop of a hat. Last week, after the PC crashed in a game, the entire drive (3 primary NTFS partitions) became inaccessible. Partition Magic 8 showed it as one errored partition. I could get data off any of the three partitions with a partition recovery program, but not actually restore the partitions themselves. I finally had to 0-out the drive and re- partition. Now, yesterday, a power surge during a rain storm (he really does know better than that) it powered down, and when it came back, the first (active) partition (this time FAT32) was showing as unformatted! (At least the other 2 partitions are still there and Partition magic can "see" them.) All CHKDSK tests, Partition Magic tests, other drive checking programs all discover no errors with the drive. (Well, once it's partitioned and formatted). Any ideas? Thanks, Liam
From: Arno Wagner on 1 Apr 2008 11:43 In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage mechphisto(a)gmail.com wrote: > I have a friend with a 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA (in a Win > XP Pro machine) that's throwing weird partition issues at the drop of > a hat. > Last week, after the PC crashed in a game, the entire drive (3 primary > NTFS partitions) became inaccessible. Partition Magic 8 showed it as > one errored partition. I could get data off any of the three > partitions with a partition recovery program, but not actually restore > the partitions themselves. I finally had to 0-out the drive and re- > partition. > Now, yesterday, a power surge during a rain storm (he really does know > better than that) it powered down, and when it came back, the first > (active) partition (this time FAT32) was showing as unformatted! (At > least the other 2 partitions are still there and Partition magic can > "see" them.) > All CHKDSK tests, Partition Magic tests, other drive checking programs > all discover no errors with the drive. (Well, once it's partitioned > and formatted). > Any ideas? > Thanks, > Liam Potential reasons: Driver or hardware issues that cause transient problems and prevent timely write-back of information (unlikely) or cause writes to the wring areas. It may be faulty RAM. It may be a faultu cache entry or the like. What would be interesting is whether there is any other data corruption and what its exact form is (e.g. is there an all-zero sector or is some other data in it). Have you looked at the SMART attributes (any other test is really quite meaningless today) and tun a long SMART selftest? Arno
From: mechphisto on 1 Apr 2008 12:00 On Apr 1, 10:43 am, Arno Wagner <m...(a)privacy.net> wrote: > In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage mechphi...(a)gmail.com wrote: > > I have a friend with a 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA (in a Win > > XP Pro machine) that's throwing weird partition issues at the drop of > > a hat. > > Last week, after the PC crashed in a game, the entire drive (3 primary > > NTFS partitions) became inaccessible. Partition Magic 8 showed it as > > one errored partition. I could get data off any of the three > > partitions with a partition recovery program, but not actually restore > > the partitions themselves. I finally had to 0-out the drive and re- > > partition. > > Now, yesterday, a power surge during a rain storm (he really does know > > better than that) it powered down, and when it came back, the first > > (active) partition (this time FAT32) was showing as unformatted! (At > > least the other 2 partitions are still there and Partition magic can > > "see" them.) > > All CHKDSK tests, Partition Magic tests, other drive checking programs > > all discover no errors with the drive. (Well, once it's partitioned > > and formatted). > > Any ideas? > > Thanks, > > Liam > > Potential reasons: > > Driver or hardware issues that cause transient problems and > prevent timely write-back of information (unlikely) or cause > writes to the wring areas. It may be faulty RAM. It may be > a faultu cache entry or the like. > > What would be interesting is whether there is any other > data corruption and what its exact form is (e.g. > is there an all-zero sector or is some other data in it). > > Have you looked at the SMART attributes (any other test is > really quite meaningless today) and tun a long SMART selftest? > > Arno Hmm, how does one look at SMART attributes? I normally have SMART off at the BIOS (have read SMART can just cause more issues than it's worth oftentimes.) If I turn it on, what tool can I use to view the attributes? I can do another 0'ing out of the drive. Once I do that, how can I then check to see if indeed it wrote all 0's? Thanks for the reply! Liam
From: Arno Wagner on 1 Apr 2008 12:21 In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage mechphisto(a)gmail.com wrote: > On Apr 1, 10:43 am, Arno Wagner <m...(a)privacy.net> wrote: >> In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage mechphi...(a)gmail.com wrote: >> > I have a friend with a 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA (in a Win >> > XP Pro machine) that's throwing weird partition issues at the drop of >> > a hat. >> > Last week, after the PC crashed in a game, the entire drive (3 primary >> > NTFS partitions) became inaccessible. Partition Magic 8 showed it as >> > one errored partition. I could get data off any of the three >> > partitions with a partition recovery program, but not actually restore >> > the partitions themselves. I finally had to 0-out the drive and re- >> > partition. >> > Now, yesterday, a power surge during a rain storm (he really does know >> > better than that) it powered down, and when it came back, the first >> > (active) partition (this time FAT32) was showing as unformatted! (At >> > least the other 2 partitions are still there and Partition magic can >> > "see" them.) >> > All CHKDSK tests, Partition Magic tests, other drive checking programs >> > all discover no errors with the drive. (Well, once it's partitioned >> > and formatted). >> > Any ideas? >> > Thanks, >> > Liam >> >> Potential reasons: >> >> Driver or hardware issues that cause transient problems and >> prevent timely write-back of information (unlikely) or cause >> writes to the wring areas. It may be faulty RAM. It may be >> a faultu cache entry or the like. >> >> What would be interesting is whether there is any other >> data corruption and what its exact form is (e.g. >> is there an all-zero sector or is some other data in it). >> >> Have you looked at the SMART attributes (any other test is >> really quite meaningless today) and tun a long SMART selftest? >> >> Arno > Hmm, how does one look at SMART attributes? > I normally have SMART off at the BIOS (have read SMART can just cause > more issues than it's worth oftentimes.) If I turn it on, what tool > can I use to view the attributes? I use the smartmontools (commandline, available on Linux and windows). There is also a tool called "Everest", that allows SMART access. And to just see the attributes, you can use the current SpeedFan. > I can do another 0'ing out of the drive. Once I do that, how can I > then check to see if indeed it wrote all 0's? Run a long SMART selftest. It does a complete surface scan. Arno
From: smlunatick on 1 Apr 2008 13:34
On Apr 1, 11:00 am, mechphi...(a)gmail.com wrote: > On Apr 1, 10:43 am, Arno Wagner <m...(a)privacy.net> wrote: > > > > > > > In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage mechphi...(a)gmail.com wrote: > > > I have a friend with a 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA (in a Win > > > XP Pro machine) that's throwing weird partition issues at the drop of > > > a hat. > > > Last week, after the PC crashed in a game, the entire drive (3 primary > > > NTFS partitions) became inaccessible. Partition Magic 8 showed it as > > > one errored partition. I could get data off any of the three > > > partitions with a partition recovery program, but not actually restore > > > the partitions themselves. I finally had to 0-out the drive and re- > > > partition. > > > Now, yesterday, a power surge during a rain storm (he really does know > > > better than that) it powered down, and when it came back, the first > > > (active) partition (this time FAT32) was showing as unformatted! (At > > > least the other 2 partitions are still there and Partition magic can > > > "see" them.) > > > All CHKDSK tests, Partition Magic tests, other drive checking programs > > > all discover no errors with the drive. (Well, once it's partitioned > > > and formatted). > > > Any ideas? > > > Thanks, > > > Liam > > > Potential reasons: > > > Driver or hardware issues that cause transient problems and > > prevent timely write-back of information (unlikely) or cause > > writes to the wring areas. It may be faulty RAM. It may be > > a faultu cache entry or the like. > > > What would be interesting is whether there is any other > > data corruption and what its exact form is (e.g. > > is there an all-zero sector or is some other data in it). > > > Have you looked at the SMART attributes (any other test is > > really quite meaningless today) and tun a long SMART selftest? > > > Arno > > Hmm, how does one look at SMART attributes? > I normally have SMART off at the BIOS (have read SMART can just cause > more issues than it's worth oftentimes.) If I turn it on, what tool > can I use to view the attributes? > > I can do another 0'ing out of the drive. Once I do that, how can I > then check to see if indeed it wrote all 0's? > > Thanks for the reply! > Liam- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - Head over to Seagate's web site and get the diagnostics for the hard drive. http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools/ Until the drive has been tested and found to be "ok" do not use this drive at all. It sounds like it is failing. |