Dell PC reporting fatal hard disk error

Johnmcl7

littlerock wrote: »

!I'm not too sure what triggers the message as I noticed it first on bottom right of screen when I returned to the PC which was running at the time. The Dell diagnostics only say your drive indicates that a failure may be imminent. It is a Vostro desktop.

I would assume it's a result of the drive failing a SMART check (Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology), the system measures many different parameters on the hard drive and reports when any one of them isn't within a certain range. The idea is to try and predict when a drive is failing if one of these parameters is out of range although in practice I find drives frequently fail without any warning at all and drives that warn they are about to fail often don't. You've done the right thing by ensuring your data is backed up and getting an image now would be ideal as well.

In terms of replacing the PC just because it's three years old, I disagree particularly with a desktop machine where you can upgrade and replace most of the parts. CPU performance hasn't been moving on that much recently and a hard drive is one of the cheapest and easiest parts to replace. To be honest I'm disappointed you were recommended to replace the PC, I always like to be able to keep a PC going where it's feasible and replacing hard drives is one of the most common repairs I do as it's cheap and easy to do normally. My own desktop PC which I mainly use for high performance stuff is approaching four years old but its processor is still fast (hex core i7 at 4.2Ghz) and the rest I've just upgraded or replaced as needed.

John

littlerock

thanks for all the advice. I must say I don't feel I should need a new PC yet because I carefully spec'd the old one to have a useful life. The techie also said I would need to buy not only a new internal HD, but also a new Window 7 pro licence. As it happens I have a backup Windows cd which came with the pc originally, but if he is mirroring all my software, wont it include the OS ? Why should i need to buy another windows licence when i have a valid one already?

stator

You shouldn't need a new windows licence. Usually it's tied to the motherboard. Cloning the hard drive will not cause licencing issues AFAIK

NiftyDigits

littlerock wrote: »

thanks for all the advice. I must say I don't feel I should need a new PC yet because I carefully spec'd the old one to have a useful life. The techie also said I would need to buy not only a new internal HD, but also a new Window 7 pro licence. As it happens I have a backup Windows cd which came with the pc originally, but if he is mirroring all my software, wont it include the OS ? Why should i need to buy another windows licence when i have a valid one already? Think that techie may have to be crossed off the list.

Not a Techie. Either an idiot or a conman. Since your PC has a valid COA, worse case scenario would be to simply use the product key on the side of the PC.
But yes the cloning would take care of that anyway.
Don't even think about taking your PC to him.

glentoran99

Not sure how you all are planning on copying or imageing a failed hard drive

debitcardmayhem

glentoran99 wrote: »

Not sure how you all are planning on copying or imageing a failed hard drive

It has not failed yet, read upwards slowly and then give them your "technical advice".

Littlerock delete the friendly techie from your phone contacts and cross the street when you approach his shop. If as you say you have backups of your data then if you find that the clone doesn't work then there are people here to help you re-install Windows 7 without needing to buy a new license/laptop.

There is no need to check the "failing" drive using tools, they may make the failing drive more likely to fail,depending on the tools of course. You have a PC with a valid license, a new drive won't invalidate that , if the COA sticker is still readable copy it using a smart phone / pen and paper, even that is not insurmountable giving it's a dell and it will have a service tag associated with it too.

Tell us what the service tag is and someone will give you very good advice (mentioning no names of course , because I don't want to "big" she/he up;))

motorguy

littlerock wrote: »

thanks for all the advice. I am not sure I trust myself to copy over all the data so I contacted my friendly neighbourhood techie about copying over the HD onto a new one and he said, predictably, that at three years old my PC needed replacing. (rolls eyes). The thing is I also have a laptop running windows 8.1 and I hate it. And I am not happy at moving directly to win 10 I would prefer to stick with window 7 pro for now.

(just to say it has an i5 processor , Nvidia graphics and 1tb memory so I do not think it is that old hat. it motors along quite nicely.)

Windows 10 is excellent, compared to both 8.1 and 7.

3 years old is no age at all for a desktop pc. I've a Dell PC that i think is around 8+ years old and still going strong.

Up until Nov my laptop was a 6 year old HP.

googler

littlerock wrote: »

The techie also said I would need to buy not only a new internal HD, but also a new Window 7 pro licence.

Drivel.

littlerock wrote: »

As it happens I have a backup Windows cd which came with the pc originally

So you can buy your own, new HDD or SSD, and install the OS yourself. As described above.

Honest, it's not difficult.

As regards other 'software' - what do you have? Do you have the install discs for it, or is it freeware or similar that you downloaded? If the latter, you can probably go to the website for each and get a newer version once your new disc is installed.

littlerock

where do I find the service tag?

googler

littlerock wrote: »

where do I find the service tag?

https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/2490-find-dell-service-tag-with-command-line-locally-or-remotely

Either that, or a sticker on the case that states it, along with date of manufacture.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=dell+service+tag&espv=2&biw=1152&bih=730&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiY0bmDvafLAhUDUhQKHX3cCpIQ_AUIBigB