Guest LilBambi Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 Actually HGST is the creator of Hitachi Deskstar drives: Downloads HGST Storage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 So WD kept the name when they took over the Hitachi drives then. Anyways my link gives the software needed. I only have Seagate and Samsung drives these days so am not clued up on any others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 Guess so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
réjean Posted July 10, 2014 Author Share Posted July 10, 2014 I downloaded and used the software from this site abarbarian;http://support.wd.co...5&sid=2&lang=en. It told me that both hd ( which are plugged in as I write) passed. Windows also did 10 updates. I am currently downloading and will run Fran's suggestion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 I downloaded and used the software from this site abarbarian;http://support.wd.co...5&sid=2&lang=en. It told me that both hd ( which are plugged in as I write) passed. Windows also did 10 updates. I am currently downloading and will run Fran's suggestion. Frans link from post 31 will lead you to the same page as mine. Glad the drive passed. So if you crash again that would suggest something else is the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 I think he is referring to my other suggestion about running it on a LiveCD/DVD overnight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt.Crow Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 I get the sense that you are not out of the woods yet . Perhaps you might run a mobo diagnostics set. You might also have dusty internals on the power supply unit. Either way back up everything to dvd.disks. Just so you at least have a copy of the stuff that you can check in a quarantine. Just in case you got a worm . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
réjean Posted July 11, 2014 Author Share Posted July 11, 2014 The Win 7 OS on the problematic drive has 2 users; my wife and me Rejean. I logged in as Rejean at one point this afternoon and was told there were too many pop-ups and that the drive could be infected. She has Avast and Malwarebytes but I didn't. I never use her computer and installed an extra user just in case I might need it. I tried installing Firefox and Avast this afternoonb but was refused although the security is set to standard: She (we) is asked to accept each time she is running a new software. I thought I would fine out for sure if the hard drive is the problem by moving it to my own machine. Win 7 couldn't boot normally and did a bunch of checking, fixing the problem, restoring but it never worked. I have been running Porteus from a livecd for about 4 hours and the machine (not my own) hasn't crashed yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 It's possible that the operating system could confuse bad sectors, lost data, and slow data acquisition on the hdd as malware/corruption of some sort, I would think. While you're in Porteus (if it's the older v1.2), you can start up disk-utility and it will run mechanical and read/write tests and tell you if there is an issue with the drive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME_Disks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 I thought I would fine out for sure if the hard drive is the problem by moving it to my own machine. If you moved the hhd with W7 installed to another machine then getting it to run right would not be easy. The os will have to cope with new mobo ,ram,etc etc and poor old windows just can not cope. I have managed to accomplish such a task by using Clonezilla but I still had to fiddle about a bit. Running the disk diagnostics I linked to from a live cd will tell you if the drive is faulty.Preferably on an empty drive to avoid data loss. It is a while since I used the tools but I seem to recall that there were quick tests and full depth tests.I would run the most detailed tests as you looking for a reliable hdd to use. Once you have found a reliable hdd then you could run something like Darik's Boot an Nuke to give you a totally clean hdd as a starting point.Any problems from then on are caused by something else. A clean install of Windows 7 would be the best way forward once you have a clean reliable drive. If you can not be bothered with the several days needed to get a fully set up and working W7 then I would suggest installing something like Makulu Mate which should only take you a few hours to get fully set up and working. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
réjean Posted July 11, 2014 Author Share Posted July 11, 2014 (edited) It's possible that the operating system could confuse bad sectors, lost data, and slow data acquisition on the hdd as malware/corruption of some sort, I would think. While you're in Porteus (if it's the older v1.2), you can start up disk-utility and it will run mechanical and read/write tests and tell you if there is an issue with the drive. https://en.wikipedia...iki/GNOME_Disks I'm not sure which version of Porteus I am running (I have the bad habit of not writing down the version sometimes). Any way I can check it. I do not see a disk utility. I do however have some old Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS DVDs. I'll check some of them later. @Fran; btw Porteus has been on all night. It was there when I came back and I was able to get online without restarting. @ abarbarian; That's what I realized after I move the hd to my own machine. I will reinstall on a different drive because my wife won't use Linux to my chagrine. Edited July 11, 2014 by réjean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 Sounds like your 'version of Windows is pooched' (mangled quote from the 3 Dead Trolls in a Baggie's Internet Help Desk) It is likely that the malware could started the chain reaction. There have been some malware that can emulate disk errors or even cause them. Maybe it's just time to lifeboat data (personal files only, no programs/executables) from that Windows drive using the Linux LiveCD to another drive and then Nuke that drive from orbit ... it's the only way to be sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 Then you can do all kinds of cruel and unusual diagnostics on the drive to prove whether it is truly the hard drive or was just the OS being infected with major malware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 I'm not sure which version of Porteus I am running (I have the bad habit of not writing down the version sometimes). Any way I can check it. I do not see a disk utility. I do however have some old Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS DVDs. I'll check some of them later. @Fran; btw Porteus has been on all night. It was there when I came back and I was able to get online without restarting. @ abarbarian; That's what I realized after I move the hd to my own machine. I will reinstall on a different drive because my wife won't use Linux to my chagrine. Use the manufacturers tools. They should be able to repair bad sectors and can also shutdown certain parts of the disc if unrepairable so that the disc is reliable and usable.Not for important every day use but certainly usable as a secondary backup to a backup. I used the tools and repaired a disc and ran it as a os disc for several years once, still use it to store movies and such like.it only gets used once in a while these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 I'm not sure which version of Porteus I am running This may tell you: cat /etc/issue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
réjean Posted July 11, 2014 Author Share Posted July 11, 2014 (edited) @Fran; I definitely intent to format that drive eventually. Right now I have the WD 120 GB and a Seagate Barracuda 500 GB to play with. @Abarbarian. I have no manufacturing disks. I've got 2 sticks of RAM (DDR2, 1 GB each) that came from 2 different machines. The processor and the CPU fan come from different machines, so I think does the power supply. @Josh; Thanks! Now I know that I have v.3.0 Edited July 11, 2014 by réjean 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 NOTE: Portable Linuxes like Porteus run mostly in RAM. They rarely if ever access your system's hard drives; same for LIVE CDs. Just so you know. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 Exactly. That's why we wanted him to run a LiveCD, to see if we could tell if this was a hard drive issue, or a motherboard/RAM issue. Looks like the LiveCD didn't tax the motherboard/RAM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 I just want him to run disk-utility in Porteus and find out ONCE AND FOR ALL if that hdd is bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 I hear ya. But I think he should back it up before doing any diagnostics, just in case it's on it's last leg and MTBF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 Disk-utility is a mostly passive app. It won't strain the drive just to read its SMART data. However, that data will tell him right away what's going on with that drive. It will show temps, spin-up rates, read rates, and most importantly - bad sectors. All that being said... BACKUPS SHOULD BE THE FIRST THING PERFORMED. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
réjean Posted July 12, 2014 Author Share Posted July 12, 2014 (edited) Some days ago now, not long after Eric told me the drive might be on its way out I did installed Win 7 on another drive (WD 1200) and copyed her My Documents to the new installation. I did not however get her Firefox bookmarks neither her mail in Thunderbird. Right now she is using her old machine with Win XP and all her old bookmarks and she uses gmail mostly anyway. So I am now running Vector Linux SOHO 5.1 but it is based on KDE so I should probably switch to another distro that is based on Gnome. I'll be back. I found Open SuSE 12.1 Gnome and I am runing it live. I'll try to find a 'disk utility'. Here it is. So what should I do; a benchmark, a SMART Data, check the file system? Before doing any test the SMART status tells me that the "Disk has a few bad-sectors". The SMART data tells me thae drive has been powered on for 1.8 years, the Temperature is 38 C/100 F. The self-assessment says "passed" and that it has 19 bad sectors. Beside a "Reallocated Sector Count" and a "Current Pending Sector Count" giving me a warning everything else is said to be either good or N/A. I just did a "refresh" and the temperature went up 1 C or 2 F. Edited July 12, 2014 by réjean 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted July 12, 2014 Share Posted July 12, 2014 I hear ya. But I think he should back it up before doing any diagnostics, just in case it's on it's last leg and MTBF. Yup, always backup especially when a drive starts dying!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt.Crow Posted July 12, 2014 Share Posted July 12, 2014 Maybe after the backup . Running chkdisk from dos will give the info . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted July 12, 2014 Share Posted July 12, 2014 Unfortunately, chkdsk will not reveal anything useful. that tool only scans the filesystem to attempt basic repairs, if it is able. It does not check the integrity of the drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt.Crow Posted July 12, 2014 Share Posted July 12, 2014 So in effect it only marks bad blocks and makes them unusable only for a fresh install of Windows. . I have used Seatools before on a Seagate 20Gb drive .To no good effect . I put that drive by mistake into a box that I assembled for Suse . It worked without any problems for about 5yrs . Until I gave the box away . The new owner was a lot cleverer than me and the drive failed two weeks later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted July 12, 2014 Share Posted July 12, 2014 Well, I think the "surface scan" mode of chkdsk might do something like that.... but sadly it is not very comprehensive. I love Steve Gibson's SpinRite, as it is a very thorough tool that works at the hardware level in the computer without regard to the data that's on the drive. Adam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
réjean Posted July 13, 2014 Author Share Posted July 13, 2014 Just to complete this saga. I reinstalled Win 7 on the WD 120Gb hd where I had migrated her "My Documents" from the problematic drive . It had only 3 bad sectors according to Disk Utility (as for the Seagate 500 GB. It had tons of bad sectors and an imminent total failure so that is a right-off). I will eventually format the problematic hd (Hitashi 250 GB) and use it for backing-up. One thing I didn't know about Win 7 is that when you install it it keeps what was previously on as a "windows old". So when I reinstalled it last night on the WD 120 not only did it keep the data I had transferred from the problematic drive but also what was originally on the WD drive. A bit confusing but sufficed to say that I have been purging viruses, malwares and what not using Spybot, Malwarebyte,Avira and another software that Leo suggested). Thanks for introducing me to his site and newsletter Eric. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted July 13, 2014 Share Posted July 13, 2014 A few bad sectors on a drive can always be mapped around. They're common, especially on older, heavily used drives. Nothing to worry about, usually. However, when disk-utility (or any diagnostic tool like that) detects oodles and oodles of bad sectors, that usually means that you should be calling for a priest to administer last rights, if the hdd happens to be Catholic, that is. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt.Crow Posted July 13, 2014 Share Posted July 13, 2014 Strip it out .The discs make really good skimming stones . And the magnets .Don't leave them loose anywhere near your IT gear . But hide one somewhere on the tv and watch the fun. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.