topic Re: hard drive dead? help! in PCs & Accessories

hard drive dead? help!

jigme — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 01:06:39 GMT

hi - sorry if this has been covered, i'm new to this forum, there's no search tool (!!!), and i've looked thru' A LOT of thread topics without finding anything relevant...

anyway - got home tonight to my pcg-grv616g, which suddenly won't boot - i get sony logo, then os not found. tried the recovery disk to see if i could get into safe mode and at least back-up my data before taking any further steps (as is traditional in these situations, my data is NOT currently backed-up...), but it wouldn't work - hard disk not found.

HELP!

please tell me my hard drive hasn't just died - warranty ran out last month (how do they do that? that timing's uncanny.), i doubt i can afford sony repair, and i NEED that data (and a working notebook...).

like i said, please HELP!

many thanks,
j

Re: hard drive dead? help!

Twisted-Rizla — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 09:15:03 GMT

Sounds like your hard drive is on the way out.

Re: hard drive dead? help!

jigme — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 12:29:06 GMT

hmmm...

it's suddenly started working again now, though something doesn't sound 100% - hard drive? fan?

seems a bit early for a piece of kit i'd assumed was fairly reliable (coming from a reputable manufacturer, etc.) and was going to last me a few years to start coming apart. it gets daily, fairly intensive use, but still... it's less than 18 months old!

what d'you reckon - would you look at buying a new hard drive? any tips on how to go about it relatively cheaply? there's no way i can afford a new notebook...

also, is this kind of lifespan common among VAIO components, and can i expect other stuff to wipe out soon? 😞

cheers,
j

Re: hard drive dead? help!

TygerTyger — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 14:31:17 GMT

Well this is a bit of a long shot, but my hard drive was going a bit batty so I used my last resource tactic and to my surprise it worked. Turned out it was just a few important data sectors had gone bad, preventing start up half the time. Run XP's scandisk utility (Right click on your C:\ drive and click properties. Choose the Tools tab from the top and then click 'Check Now') Make sure both recovery options are ticked. And then do a scan, you will probably have to restart. It's a bit of a sellotape job but you never know. Worked for me.

Re: hard drive dead? help!

kee-lo_ — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 15:28:23 GMT

If that fails your yellow pages should have some good repairers, get some quotes.

Re: hard drive dead? help!

famanad — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 18:59:29 GMT

I had exactly the same problem a few months ago and sent my laptop to Sony. They said that there was nothing wrong but renewed the hard disk anyway. Guess what? I have exactly the same problem again and will contact Sony Customer Support

Frank

Re: hard drive dead? help!

TygerTyger — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 19:28:01 GMT

Twice in one row is bad bad luck. I wasn't very amused at my hard drive problems, I've only had it a few months.

Speaking of which, is there a limit to how many bad sectors there can be on a hard drive before you get a replacement? I mean, like the number of dodgy pixels in an LCD before you get a replacement?

Re: hard drive dead? help!

kee-lo_ — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 23:22:41 GMT

Don't think it works like that Tyger...

Re: hard drive dead? help!

jammold — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 18:15:45 GMT

Speaking of which, is there a limit to how many bad sectors there can be on a hard drive before you get a replacement? I mean, like the number of dodgy pixels in an LCD before you get a replacement?

Nope. You can look at your S.M.A.R.T statistics to see how often this is occuring. Most hard drives will automatically reallocate dead sectors to new live sectors on-the-fly. Occasionally this needs external help, by using CHKDSK (Check Disk) for Windows XP for instance.

To view your SMART statistics, use Lavalys EVEREST Home Edition. Look under STORAGE > SMART and pay attention to the "Reallocated Sector Count". If the value drops below the threshold value, the disk is in trouble and data backup is urgent. However, since the SMART status for each disk is proprietary, you still need to remain alert for any changes in the way your hard disk works.

You can also try DriveSitter which is shareware software, but it can provide more unambiguous results and generate reports.

Re: hard drive dead? help!

kee-lo_ — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 19:25:40 GMT

Woah thanks for the info James, very handy post.

Re: hard drive dead? help!

TygerTyger — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 19:43:45 GMT

Give that dog a bone! Excellent stuff James thank you.

What's not so excellent is that my 5 month old hard drive is already at breakdown threshold level. Nice to see that it's not my imagination that my computer has slowed down too, performance is at threshold level too. Well if they are replacing the hard drive, maybe they can replace my flickering screen while they are at it.

Charge a fortune then use cheap components mumble mumble complain angry kill them all spare no-one shove laptop right up mumble mumble.

Does anyone know, do they give you a courtesy laptop when you send yours in? And would a report showing probable imminent faliure hold enough to weight to get a replacement do you think?

Re: hard drive dead? help!

kee-lo_ — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 19:46:26 GMT

They don't give you any courtesy laptop
Hopefully it'll only be 4 days at most....

As for reports, the more you can give the better for them.
I should hope Sony use Everest anyway!

Re: hard drive dead? help!

TygerTyger — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 19:51:30 GMT

I used the second one, James was right it is better. But damn it's depressing. All these little statistics that say 'This will worsen over time' and seeing just how low they have gotten in 5 months. And not through fault either, just through wear. Phew.

Thanks anyway, I guess I'll print off a copy and go rant about my screen and hard drive. With that much wrong I'd half expect a new one.

Re: hard drive dead? help!

kee-lo_ — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 19:56:58 GMT

Heh knowing Sony they'll slip in a new Tosh and give you a new screen and inverter....

Re: hard drive dead? help!

jammold — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 19:58:31 GMT

 Woah thanks for the info James, very handy post.

You and Tyger are both welcome!

As for reports, the more you can give the better for them.

True - more reports is more ammunition for diagnosing disk related errors.

Thninking about it the same happened to me Tyger, with my machine reaching the 5 month point a few months back. What happened was the Help file for Adobe Photoshop Elements (on SP1) crashed the system. I ran CHKDSK as a matter of course, and reinstalled the application and it worked!

As an additional recommendation, use Everest to get the manufacturer of your hard disk - as IC25N040ATMR04-0 doesn't mean anything to a mere mortal like me LOL!:smileygrin:
Once you know who made the disk, follow the links in Everest to get the Hard Disk manufacurers proprietary tools for disk diagnosis - this may reset your SMART values. Run this at least every month to check the disk drive and more often if the hard disk displays unusual symptoms.

Symptoms:
1. Long seek times
2. Very noisy operation (i.e. above normal)
3. Very slow operation (i.e. OS hardly appears to start)
4. Certain files cannot be accessed
5. You get SMART Failure: Disk failure imminent messages on OS boot.

This is not an exhaustive list, but if your hard disk meets one or more of the above, then run diagnostics software ASAP and backup your data immediately!

Sorry I omitted this from the original post - but this may help newbies out there.

Re: hard drive dead? help!

kee-lo_ — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 20:04:41 GMT

Ah I see

Re: hard drive dead? help!

jigme — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 14:09:09 GMT

well,

thanks for your help. i've done about as much HDD diagnosis and maintenance as i can - i've run both Everest & Drivesitter (both of which, as far as i can tell, return OK status in all categories), i've wiped my freespace using Eraser, i've run CHKDSK - no problems, i've defragged...
as far as i can tell - and i'm no hacker - i'm getting a clean bill of health here...

...but i'm not convinced! SOMETHING caused this machine to refuse to boot up - OS not found, HDD not found (no HDD light...) - for several hours, before returning to (apparently) normal. weird...

any ideas?

cheers,
j

Re: hard drive dead? help!

jammold — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 14:16:49 GMT

If its under guarantee, speak to Sony by phone first (more reliable IMHO) and explain the problem fully. You may incur repair charges, but the turn around time apparantly varies from 4 days to 2 weeks.

If its out of guarantee look here at VAIOVillage.com who specialise in DIY repairs and how-to's.

Re: hard drive dead? help!

TygerTyger — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 17:29:47 GMT

Well nobody has mentioned a very thorough virus check, so I guess now would be the time. Unexplained hard drive crashes and missing OS's and distinctly virusey, especially if the hard drive is ok in all your tests.

Bear in mind though that the hard drive diagnostics may give you the 'OK' green light even though some parts of the dignostic say it's on the way out so check em if you didn't already.

Re: hard drive dead? help!

jammold — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 19:11:11 GMT

 Well nobody has mentioned a very thorough virus check

Glad to see someone is on the ball - I feel like a complete now.