Advice and / or opinions - PC playing up

richardvc

I need your advice please !

I own an all in one HP pc which has been the best pc I have ever owned, touchscreen, quick etc

Then one day out of the blue it came up with "hard drive failure is imminent" and whilst this isn't a problem in itself as I back everything up, it was a touch inconvenient.

I fitted a new hard drive and now within two weeks, the same fault has occurred. Once in a while it boots up fine (I'm typing this on it !) BUT I don't trust it to work properly later !

Is this just bad luck having 2 x HDD fail or an underlying fault ?

So my question is, should I throw more money at it and replace the HDD again OR go and buy a new one ?

I'm starting to lose patience with it !!!

Heedtheadvice

First thing I would do is download the Seagate drive testing software Seatools (will test many a drive but there maybe a WD or Toshiba equivalent) and test the current drive but also test the old drive.
Faults do happen but drives are quite reliable these days so another failure in short order points suspicion at the PC or it's PSU too.
Run the tests and report back. All for free......

Sicard

What is the make of the hdd?

Most manufactures would replace a faulty one within a reasonable time period of its failing.

I take it you checked for malware etc?

richardvc

Ok this is where I am at......

Just tried to reboot it and it wouldn't !!

Ran a diagnostic test F9 and it says the following :

CPU test - passed
Hard drive connection test : Failed
Error Code BIOHD1 (I haven't google that yet )
Verify drive cables are connected
Memory Test : Passed

It works sometimes and not others !!!!

richardvc

Its a WD hard drive and there is no malware !

Neil_Jones

BIOHD1 is unique to HPs and it usually means the hard drive has failed.

Send or take the hard drive back to where you bought it from, it should last far longer than two weeks.

psychic_teabag

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

First thing I would do is download the Seagate drive testing software Seatools (will test many a drive but there maybe a WD or Toshiba equivalent) and test the current drive but also test the old drive.

SMART (self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology) is a fairly standardised system in hard disks. May well be what your computer is using to discover the faults. Basically, the disk itself has various counters of events, and a standard way to report them to the host computer. "Imminent failure" usually means one of the counters is getting excessive.

If you can find a software utility to report the status in detail, it might be useful to see what is going wrong. That can possibly also trigger (non-destructive) surface scans.

I use smartmontools on linux, so I can't recommend any particular piece of windows software. Oh, okay, https://www.smartmontools.org/ is available for windows and mac too. But it might only give raw numbers without doing any interpretation for you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_S.M.A.R.T._tools

SeaTools discussion on SMART :
http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/203971en/?q=203971&l=en_US&fs=Search&pn=1

It could possibly be a cable problem, or a problem with the controller rather than the disk. Perhaps the air vents are blocked and it's overheating ? But as has been said, if the new drive is genuinely faulty, manufacturer should replace it. (I guess it could have been dropped during shipping or something.)

richardvc

Thank you all for your advice so far.

What I don't understand is that it boots up sometimes and not others.

This is what it did when the original hdd failed (which I think now might possibly not have failed !!)

I personally think it is a cable problem rather than a faulty drive but I know nothing about all this.

It's very frustrating - I'm still not sure what to do as I could keep chucking money at this when it is an inherent fault AND I seem to be wasting a ton of time trying to sort it out !!!

psychic_teabag

If you fitted the new disk yourself, then it should be easy enough to reseat the cable at each end. Possibly replace the cable as a next thing to try. If there's a choice of cables, try the other one.

If it's a cable problem, then when it is up and running, the smart tools would report no (internal) disk problems. They store the counters across poweroffs rather than merely reporting the instantaneous state.

esuhl

richardvc wrote: »

I personally think it is a cable problem rather than a faulty drive but I know nothing about all this.

That would be my first thought, unless you've been really unlucky and bought a duff drive.

I'd try changing the cable for a new one. Amazon have unbranded SATA cables for less than a quid, or a pair of branded ones for £2.45.

richardvc

esuhl, great thinking !

I could have sat here for a year and not thought of that.

It's worth a go !

Like you, I don't believe two drives could have gone in similar fashion in such quick succession as that would be bad luck in the extreme !!