Hard Drive failure?

winslow33

Daemon Poster
Messages
861
look who's back from the dead :p

Ill cut to the chase, my girlfriend's laptop is only about a year old with windows 7.. for the last few days she keeps getting this error:

Windlows detected a hard disk problem. Back up your files immediately to prevent information loss, and contact the computer manufacturer to determine if you need to repair or replace the disk.

Sounds to me like the hard drive's on its way out. Before I assume the worst and put a new hard drive in and install windows on that, is it likely that somethings corrupted, or a problem with a certain sector that could be fixed by reformatting?

Thanks in advance guys!
 
Much as I hate to say it, the troll may be right.

I'd at least do a quick scan, then go to the drive manufacturers website, download the drive utilities for your model and run a full diagnostic.

If it fails, then contact the manufacturer the laptop and check for warranty status, then the drive manufacturer.
 
Hmm well thats not so bad... Thanks a lot guys ill give that a try and see where it takes me
 
run the chkdsk C: /r first.

or backup the data and performance the low level format on the HDD.
Then repartition and reinstal the Win7.

hope this helps!
Bill
tech Manager
Wptinc
 
Negative folks, this is a legitimate error message on the newer systems care of our ol' buddy S.M.A.R.T. You should pay attention to it. Back up the files, and get a warranty replacement if possible.

If you want to be certain, grab either the CF Boot CD or Hirens, and run a hard drive diagnostic. GWSCAN will do nicely. Run a full test. If it says all is well, then it's benign. If it says it found errors and fixed them, you can keep using the system, but do a chkdsk /r but if it says it found unrepairable errors, see my first sentence.
 
That sounds like SMART stuff going off. Ya, you might have a real problem. Windows is designed to pick up on SMART status changes on the drive. SMART was introduced many years back to help detect physical disk issues. I had that problem with a brand new 1TB drive.... was a real bummer actually.
 
I had the same exact quote when my HDD failed the SMART. Run some diagnostic programs from the HDD manufacturer.
 
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