Is my hard drive toast?

sshnuke

I'm hoping someone can help with this.

Can you tell from my chkdsk logs if my hard drive is toast or not please?

Win XP
WD Passport Ultra 1TB

Log 1 - chkdsk repair:
No more errors but bad cluster count has increased tenfold after running chkdsk.

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Chkdsk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 26180
Date: 15/10/2014
Time: 11:02:04
User: N/A
Description:
Checking file system on I:
Volume label is WD Passport Ultra.
Cleaning up 4 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 4 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 4 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
Read failure with status 0xc000009c at offset 0x244317000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc000009c at offset 0x244324000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc000009c at offset 0x245285000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc000009c at offset 0x245290000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc000009c at offset 0x249211000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc000009c at offset 0x24921a000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc000009c at offset 0x24946b000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc000009c at offset 0x249473000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 489
of name \RECYCLER\S-1-5-~1\Di49.avi.
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.
The upcase file content is incorrect.
Correcting errors in the uppercase file.
Adding 5 bad clusters to the Bad Clusters File.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

976728063 KB total disk space.
11064612 KB in 69 files.
72 KB in 36 indexes.
20 KB in bad sectors.
97951 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
965565408 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
244182015 total allocation units on disk.
241391352 allocation units available on disk.

Log 2. Formatted drive (Full format). Ran chkdsk repair again:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Chkdsk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 26180
Date: 18/10/2014
Time: 04:07:20
User: N/A
Computer: TITAN
Description:
Checking file system on H:
Volume label is WD Passport Ultra.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.
Adding 49 bad clusters to the Bad Clusters File.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

976728063 KB total disk space.
20 KB in 1 files.
4 KB in 9 indexes.
196 KB in bad sectors.
95795 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
976632048 KB available on disk.


The drive is only a month old so I could get probably get a replacement.

John_Gray

If you are starting to get bad clusters on CHKDSK, then it's usually downhill from there. How fast things go downhill depends on the disk.

As it stands, CHKDSK is able to deal with the current problems. You might leave it a week or so to see if things are getting worse, making sure you don't put anything important on the disk, or you could try and get an immediate replacement. I do hope you bought it from somewhere which has customer service of some adequacy!

kwikbreaks

As that's a new external drive I'd be looking at getting a replacement immediately. Although you can sometimes see bad sectors these days they are very much last century and not at all common with modern drives.

If it was my main drive I'd be mirroring it to a new drive PDQ to avoid the PITA of a full opsys reinstall later. Fortunately it looks like it isn't.

Whatever it is I wouldn't trust it to hold the only copy of anything I needed to keep and couldn't easily replace.

System

Hi

Well the figures were

For Log 1 965565408 KB available on disk.
For Log 2 976632048 KB available on disk.

So the format would suggest it improved. I noticed it changed from Drive I to Drive H.

Perhaps there are some diagnostic tools available to give a better answer...

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=608&lang=en

Cyberman60

I've had a warning coming up on my hard disk telling me it's about to fail for about three years. Occasionally it has totally crashed after the CPU hit 100% and with a strange grinding sound coming from the disk. This would leave files in an unstable state which I could correct via a CHKDSK. ( CHKDSK /f C: )
Sometimes though I've had to resort to a complete restore from backup CD. I've learned though that the issue is NOT with the hard disk, but windows software !!

Nowadays I always have Windows Task Master up so I can see what is happening showing the option 'processes from all users'.

One day I noticed that just one instance of SVCHOST was hitting 50% or more of CPU prior to a crash.

On checking the internet I saw that this is a known problem called a 'memory leak'

I appear to have solved this problem by not allowing my system to to automatic updates of windows on startup etc !!!...ie setting the option off in the control panel. I do them manually under my control every few weeks.

The moral of the story is that it may not be your hard disk that is the problem !!!! :eek:

kwikbreaks

johndough wrote: »

So the format would suggest it improved.
Perhaps there are some diagnostic tools available to give a better answer...

Normal formatting of a disk won't remove bad sectors.

Western Digital offer their own.. http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&sid=3

I had a duff Seagate external drive that was over the 12 months for easy shop replacement and went through a test from the manufacturers site and they sent a replacement based on the results. I did have to pay return postage. It's a lot easier for the OP though as the drive is virtually new.

sshnuke

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply everyone.

John Gray/kwikbreaks
Immediately after running the first chkdsk I backed up all the data on it. I'm inclined to agree with you and I think it's a downhill ride. Thankfully I bought it from Amazon so I'll return it and get a replacement. Have had the 500GB version for over a year now with no problems.

Cyberman60
In this case I do think it's the disk. I rarely have disk problems so when the disk started stalling and not dismounting properly from Windows the first thing I did was run chkdsk. I think it's okay for now but with increased use over time it may get worse.

johndough
Further to kwikbreaks comments, the increased amount of data available on the disk is because of running the repair rather than formatting.

The reason it changed from H to I is because I used a different USB slot for the second chkdsk.

Anyways....

Sorted. Thanks again all.