3 week scandisk?????

[androo]

The situation:
I have a 40g IBM hard disk in my second computer which, for some unknown reason, stops being recognized by computer. This doesnt happen very often (three times in as many years). Before, i would boot from a floppy, run fdisk and then format. The previous formats did take some time (two days i think) during which the hard disk would a quiet although unnerving "chhhhhk-chk-chk-chhhk" sound and the computer stated that it was in the process of "Trying to recover allocation unit xxxxx". This time though, i left it formating for 4 days and it was still on allocation unit 1,500,000. Since it was a 40g hard disk, i guessed there would be upwards of 6million allocation units and couldnt be bothered waiting weeks so gave up on the format and tried to find another way round.

I used the winXP pro cd to boot after using fdisk, and used the quick NTFS format in winXP installation. Since i choose the quick option, im guessing it skipped detecting corrupted allocation units. Computer seems to be working ok now, but when i run winXP disk check thing, it takes ages verifying file data (stage 4 of 5) and makes the horrible "chhhhhk-chk-chk-chhhk" sound again. I have never had the patience to wait for it to get past 1% complete as i would like to use the computer sometime in the next month. I'm guessing disk check is trying to recover corrupt allocation units aswell, but if its taking a month i'd rather just give up on lost alloction units.

Im using the computer as normal at moment, but im just waiting for use of corrupt alloction units stopping all my programs from working....

What is wrong with my computer?? And what can i do to just mark all corrupted allocation units so the computer doesnt use them?

Thanks for any help

 

[pmonett]

It seems to me that you are going to experience a disk failure real soon.
Does your BIOS have SMART enabled ? You should check the boot sequence to find what SMART says about your disk status.
In any case, a disk that makes undue clicking sounds is definitely one to be replaced in my book.
Back up your data now, or you might be sorry.

Pascal.

 

[dbk4297]

Hi,

Your hard disk is failing.
Replace it as soon as you can before you lose every thing. There is nothing else you can do.



Darrell,

http://home.pacbell.net/dbk4297/

 

[androo]

Yea, I am now getting "Primary hard disk fail" message at post.

So there's nothing I can do?

btw should i have SMART on or off?

 

[mattjurado]

SMART is a feature that tests the disks at startup, when you start to have problems, it will usually give you a message to the effect of "uh oh, drive about to die, replace now." (not really these words, but that's what will come across). You should leave it on, won't hurt anything. Yes, your drive is gone. Noises, allocation unit errors, these all point to bad drives.

Matt J.

 

[azpctech01]

I had a drive do that to me once..I removed it from the computer and placed in a zip lock bag and put it in the freezer for a few hours ( 3 ) took it out reconnected it and was able to recover important files..the fix for this is to get a new hard drive..