Recommendation for HDD monitor

**fatbastard** · Posted: Tue, 19 May 2009 14:09:36 Post Subject: Recommendation for HDD monitor

OK..I recently picked up a new laptop and all was running fine until two days after a tech came and replaced my LCD and added a BT card. progression of events is as follows:
5/8 Tech replaced LCD
5/10 Machine failed to boot, saw BIOS screen then nothing. Tried to reboot then Vista tried to recover and failed. I manually tried to go back to a restore point but all failed.
5/11 machine seemed fine
5/12 Vista didn't load properly. Several apps flagged errors saying files were not found. Rebooted and all was fine.
5/13 Suspecting HDD was on its way out I backed up data and d/l Active Hard Disk Monitor. This read health of the drive at 57% on raw read error rate and 66% on seek error rate. Contacted India and was told to run the diagnostics, which flagged an inverter cable issue but no HDD issues.
I forwarded this info to the manufacturer but heard nothing so I called today. First I was told there was no such thing as an inverter cable then I was told that the other software was wrong and theirs was right. While this software may not be accurate I do trust it more than Dell especially in light of the errors. I was intending on reinstalling the OS but am hesitant since the drive may be going so my questions are:
1) Is there a good app to test the drive. I tried Seatools but it only reports back that SMART passes not the values of each so I don't know where they set teh threshold for failure.
2) What else could cause these random errors and should I just try reinstalling the OS and see if that fixes the problem?
3) Could errors in the OS cause these read and seek errors?

anduril · Posted: Tue, 19 May 2009 15:00:34 Post Subject:

If the Seagate tool is reporting smart failure issues and you're having those kinds of crashes and failures the drive is dying or near dead anyways. Backup your data, get a new drive and be done with it

Edit: If you have another computer you could download Ultimate Boot CD and run it on the failing machine. Its got every hard drive tester known to man (or close to it) and it also has memory testers as well to narrow out that possibility

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Tue, 19 May 2009 15:04:10 Post Subject:

15-Day free trial of HD Tune Pro: http://hdtune.com/

**fatbastard** · Posted: Tue, 19 May 2009 19:50:05 Post Subject:

I am running some more diagnos as i was reading on the SMART feedback I found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis,_and_Reporting_Technology it indicates that Seagate drives often show high values for reaw read error and seek error rates.

**fatbastard** · Posted: Wed, 20 May 2009 08:14:39 Post Subject:

OK so HD Tune and Seatools found no problems with the scan of the drive and both show the drive SMART status as OK. So what else could be causing weird issues like this? Could there be a corrupted file in the OS that is causing an intermittent problem when it tries to execute programs? I would have thought it either worked or didn't but now I am really confused. I am thinking of cloning what I have...wiping the drive and starting over. This way if the fresh install isn't better I can revert back to what I have an not spend all that time updating annd tweaking everything again. Any thoughts or suggestions?

x.clay · Posted: Wed, 20 May 2009 09:56:09 Post Subject:

if everything on your hard drive is checking out I would probably do some checks on your memory just to rule that out. I like Memtest86 or Prime95. If you have a failing stick of memory one of those programs should let you know. I have had memory problems cause similar errors with BSODs, file corruption, etc. I hope you can get it sorted out.

**fatbastard** · Posted: Wed, 20 May 2009 11:37:09 Post Subject:

OK...I had some trouble trying to get the machine to boot up into those tests so I am being a hypocrite and running the Dell diagnostics to see if it can find any issues with the CPU memory or RAM. If I get a chance I will burn a bootable CD version of the other tests and see if they work if Dell find nothing.

anduril · Posted: Wed, 20 May 2009 17:26:21 Post Subject:

If the drive passed I'd def. take a very hard look at the memory. Even IF the memory passes I'd still consider it suspect. My old memory in my current desktop crashed like crazy in Windows but passed Vista's memory tester, Memtest 86, etc. but the second I swapped memory all problems went away.

If you have extra sticks laying around try swapping in new memory and seeing what happens

**fatbastard** · Posted: Wed, 20 May 2009 19:58:29 Post Subject:

Unfortunately this is DDR3 for a laptop so I don't have anything else I can try. But I am hoping to get the memory test running tonight.

**fatbastard** · Posted: Wed, 20 May 2009 21:28:40 Post Subject:

memtest86 shows no errors in the memory...I think I may try to make an image of this drive and reinstall Vista and see what happens.