Re: HD failing, hardware or software problems?


Gman wrote:
no HD problems now, and XP is running better than ever and I'm now wondering if
the problem, it sounded like the HD was continually snapping the
retreive mechanizem from full seek back against the stop, was the
HD hardware failing, or was it some software problem?

Is there some log that tracks hardware problems, like the Event
Viewer does software?

Shenan Stanley wrote:
Did you run the hard disk drive diagnostics from the manufacturer
of the drive?

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
Hitachi

Stanley, thank you for responding. I missed this link before, and the
other sites i went to said I had to create a 'floppy'. No floppy on
this laptop, and I didn't know about my burners capability to make an
image, so I dropped the ball. However, when I went to the Hitachi you
provided, I found the option to download an image to a CD. Did it,
Ran it. Showed a SMART Failure, 0x72. TRC 720201D1. That belays my
fears of replacing a 'good' HD. Would you happen to know what the
specific failure indicates, or where I could find out? Thanks for your
assistance.

And yes - the event viewer system and/or application logs may list "disk"
errors.

You're right again. I went to the 'System' option in Event Viewer and
looked back to the date when the HD started acting up and found several
ERROR messages labeled 'disk'. They cooresponded to the times when the
problems started. So, XP does keep track of that stuff as well.
Thanks again for that pointer.

FWIW, I loaded AVG and turned on the XP Firewall and this stripped down
laptop has never run better and boots quicker than a wink. Sad that
I'm going to have to return this HD. However, there was a lesson to be
learned here, and that is, to not go overboard with all the toys, etc.,
AND to not allow them to put themselves in to the Start sequence
willy-nilly, when I do install one of them. Also my rethink installing
Norton SystemWorks/AV and Zone Alarm on the new HD. Once they were
turned off, everything settled down. Any thoughts about that?


Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

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