Doomed 120GB HDD??

[niggle]

Hi i keep getting the error "The device, \Device\Harddisk2\D, has a bad block" in the Windows Event Viewer. i did a quick google search for the error, and found this page:

http://forums.rojakpot.com//showthread.php?p=103691#post103691

Where the user complains that he has seen this error recently, then his hard disk died. Is my hard disk doomed?

The hard disk is a Seagate 120Gb 7200rpm Serial ATA 8MB cache, windows xp pro sp2 plus!, 3ghz, 1024 ram, 128 Graphics. There are two of these hard drives in the pc, this one being the one where i store music, videos, etc.

Cheers -Nigel :)

[bistro]

Bad blocks, if left alone for just a short time, tend get very bored and go out and find other bad blocks, start messing around and pretty soon they have very bratty kids running around all over the place. For precaution's sake, I would move your data off that drive. Suggest you run a Seagate diagnostic program (http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/asp/tools/en/about.html) on the drive afterwards.

[SuperSparks]

Very well put bistro :D :D

I agree, that can often be an early sign of a failing drive. Remember that Seagate drives have a 5-year warranty, so there's a good chance that you'll be able to RMA it, depending on what the diagnostics report.

[ProfessorU]

If you need to recover data from bad blocks, I recommend spinrite from grc.com. Very useful data recovery app. Usually the SMART drives give you some warning before this happens, though. I would also be very cautious.

[niggle]

Ok yup im moving all the data right now, just got to find somewhere to put it! Oh thismorning when i booted up the computer it made a very loud, random sound, i ejected the dvd drives to makesure it wasnt them. It kept going, and slowly slowed down to normal. It has also been a bit slow accessing data from the drive today.. Oh no!

[bistro]

The sound of Taps echoing in the distance....

Could well be the actuator on the hard drive saying "Bye-Bye". http://bestsmileys.com/sad/6.gif Try that diagnostic utility.

[SuperSparks]

These can help identify the particular problem, if you can find a similar sounding noise:

Noises that indicate a defective drive (http://www.hitachigst.com/hddt/knowtree.nsf/cffe836ed7c12018862565b000530c74/4b1a62a50f405d0d86256756006e340c?OpenDocument)

[bistro]

And if it sounds like a marching polka band being run over by an out-of-control ice cream truck...better just get a new one.

:)

[niggle]

Ok i've run that diagnostic utility on all 3 hard drives,

Run: 18/01/2006 8:35:40 p.m.

Secondary IDE Channel : ST3120827AS
Model: ST3120827AS
Serial Number: 4MS1A52C 4MS1A52C
Capacity: 120.03 GB
Test result: Self-test routine completed without error.

Secondary IDE Channel : ST3120827AS
Model: ST3120827AS
Serial Number: 4MS1A4CY 4MS1A4CY
Capacity: 120.03 GB
Test result: Self-test routine completed without error.

Intel(R) 82801EB USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 24DD : SAMSUNG SP0802N USB Device
Model: SAMSUNG SP0802N USB Device
Serial Number:
Capacity: 80.06 GB
Operating Temp: 57°C / 89°F
Threshold Temp: 6°C / 38°F
Test result: SMART self-test is not supported for this drive.

This may be due to a limitation in the Windows driver for the controller that the drive is attached to or the drive may not support the SMART self-test. In either case, this is not a failure of the drive.

The 'faulty' hard drive is the second one, the third being an external hard drive that i've backed all the data up onto. I've run all sorts of other tests, Norton Disc Doctor, ScanDisc, Defragmented it, run all my spyware programs (Ad-Aware Pro, Spybot S&D, SpywareBlaster), i've also done a virus scan using Nortons. None of them found much really, the seagate one took about 2 hours :), the spyware ones came up with a few usual items, and the antivirus returned about 16 items. This is probably due to me not activating the product for a little while :)

The drive has stopped showing 'Bad Block' errors in the event viewer, so what i've done is COPIED all the data back onto it, trying to make it fault. :D

[SuperSparks]

In that case, I would't worry too much about it - you do very occasionally get false alarms and misreporting with hard drives. But I would advise that you keep the data on that drive regularly backed up for a while. And if more bad blocks or anything else get reported, then you should definitely consider it suspect.

[niggle]

I was looking through the Event Viewer after the computer had frozen and restarted itself, and found this to be the last warning:

information, source: i8042 port

The ring buffer that stores incoming mouse data has overflowed (buffer size is configurable via the PS/2 mouse properties in device manager).

What is this? I extended the buffer to 200 instead of 100 and it seems to have fixed it.

[bistro]

From what I can gather, that is a temporary fix at best. An overflowed ring buffer is usually indicative of some other hardware problem, not just the mouse processes. You may still have a hard drive problem. Check your event log earlier on (or the sequence just before) than when the ring buffer event occurs.