Hard drive keeps corrupting!

Fry · 08-18-2006, 11:22 PM

I had a Maxtor hard drive a few months back. It was hopeless, I lost alot of data as it always became corrupted.
I put it down to Maxtor being bad, so i got rid of that HDD and bought a Seagate 250GB.
Ive had that in for about 3 months, working well. Until now, it tells me i have some corrupted folders that i cant access.. no way this HDD could be playing up too, Ive never had issues with Seagate.
Could it be something else in my computer causing this problem?

Will.Spencer · 08-19-2006, 05:54 AM

It could be a lot of things: RAM, CPU, motherboard...

Or, it could be a software issue.

Or, it could be cosmic rays. (No joke! Read the PDF!)

Fry · 08-20-2006, 01:25 AM

cosmic rays.. hmm sounds scary, and unlikely :p
Could RAM, CPU or motherboard really cause hard drive corruption and file loss?
They are all fairly new, around a year old.

Will.Spencer · 08-20-2006, 06:28 AM

Yes that could, because they could corrupt data on its way to be written to the disk. Data like the partition table and NTFS file information.

Fry · 08-20-2006, 07:07 PM

Hmm so how can I test this without completely replacing each part? I cant afford to do that now.
Im finding my PC is also VERY slow lately. I have XP installed on the first hard drive and just did a reformat and reinstall on that, but its really slow. The login screen takes forever to load, and even though there are no programs loaded on, windows takes minutes to start up and it seems to freeze alot. This is on the supposed good hard drive, its the other hard drive Im getting corruption messages on.
Im sure its something else causing this, but I dont know how to diagnose it

Are there any programs I can run to test the hardware?

Will.Spencer · 08-20-2006, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fry

Are there any programs I can run to test the hardware?

Yes. You want a program like BurnInTest.

Quote:

PassMark BurnInTest is a software tool that allows all the major sub-systems of a computer to be simultaneously stress tested for endurance, reliability and stability.

Assists in PC Troubleshooting and diagnostics.
The best value professional burn-in tool on the market!
Avoid delivering D.O.A. (Dead on Arrival) hardware to your customers.
Dramatically reduce your burn in times with multithreaded simultaneous testing of components.
Build your image as a supplier of quality systems.
Avoid costly downtime, system rebuilds and lost data.
Test the stability of a system after configuration changes or hardware upgrades (critical for overclocking).

Anyone who has used computers for any period of time will understand the importance of having a stable system. The cost of a hardware failure can be enormous. If you are lucky your data will only become inaccessible while faulty components are replaced. If you're unlucky you can lose your files completely or have them permanently corrupted. Even if you have good backups, you can still lose days of work returning the PC to its pre-failure state. In many cases the lost data can never be replaced and businesses can be brought to their knees, with the loss of documentation, customer details and financial records.

What BurnInTest does is thoroughly exercise the hardware in a PC in a short period of time, in the same way as normal applications use a PC over a long period of time. This takes advantage of the fact that computer hardware tends to fail either very early in its life or after many thousands of hours of use. Typically BurnInTest should be used before a PC is put into service, as the failure of a computer that isnât being used for a critical application and doesnât have any critical data is much less damaging, (especially if it is still under warranty).

BurnInTest will bring intermittent or hidden problems to the surface so that after a successfully run the computer can be used with a much higher level of confidence. BurnInTest can also be used by overclockers to verify system stability at high clock speeds.

BurnInTest tests the CPU via mathematical operations and SIMD calculations, hard drives, RAM, CD-ROMs, CD burners, DVDs, sound cards, 2D graphics, 3D graphic, network connection, printers, video playback. If you have specialized hardware that BurnInTest does not test, you can even write your own test and integrate it with BurnInTest. PassMark has produced plugin tests for Keyboards, Dial up Modems and FireWire ports. This can all be done simultaneously as the application is multithreaded. The Professional version also has a number of additional features such as tape drive testing, USB port testing, USB 2.0 port testing, Serial and parallel port testing with the use of loop back plugs.

Fry · 08-21-2006, 01:00 AM

Thanks, im going to try this right now!

Will.Spencer · 08-21-2006, 04:45 PM

Coolness.

Fry · 08-21-2006, 08:03 PM

If i just try the demo version of this software, will I be missing out on anything or will it still give me an indication of what is going on?

Will.Spencer · 08-21-2006, 09:17 PM

I think the demo should work for you.

Fry · 08-21-2006, 11:05 PM

When starting it it warns me to back up my data as its an extensive test... can it cause any damage?

Will.Spencer · 08-22-2006, 06:24 AM

Anything and everything could cause damage. I would back up before doing any hard drive tests. I would not bother to backup before doing mainboard, CPU, or RAM tests.

But really, it's a personal choice. How much would you miss your data if it disappeared?

Fry · 08-22-2006, 07:41 PM

Alot! But I've already lost quite a bit due to the corruption.. and it seems most of what I backed up earlier is corrupted anyway

That program is so complex. I cant work out how to only run selective tests and not the whole lot.

Cormac · 08-25-2006, 06:16 PM

I always advise on running a Debug, FDISK and total reformat for a hard drive thats having issues....thats if the data can be backed up first.

To debug a hard drive get the command prompt on start-up and type the following:

F 200 L1000 0
A CS:100
xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301
xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200
xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1
xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80

xxx:010C INT 13
xxxx:010E INT 20
xxxx:0110
g
q

Make sure to hit enter after every command line.

Now I am not suggesting you actually try this because this is your 2nd problem hard drive. Just wanted to post the hard drive debug script for future reference.

Fry · 08-27-2006, 09:02 PM

Wow Ive never heard of this script, what exactly does that do and how long does it take? Can it cause any damage to the drive?

Do you have any suggestions as to why I'm continually having hard drive failures with a computer thats less than a year old?

Will.Spencer · 08-28-2006, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fry

Wow Ive never heard of this script, what exactly does that do and how long does it take? Can it cause any damage to the drive?

FDISK does not rewrite the entire partition sector when you repartition your drive.

That debug script will overwrite the first sector (Cylinder 0, Head 0, Sector 1) of the first hard drive in your system.

This will force FDISK to completely rewrite to partition sector.

I am a bit more fond of the version of this script published in Removing Non-DOS Partitions with Debug.