Patrick ([info]pathwriter) wrote in [info]gaygeeks,
@ 2008-01-02 01:46:00
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Hard Disk Error
I've had a strange error pop up tonight, wondering if anyone would be able to help.

I spent the evening updating my video drivers and organizing some of my files. I've got two drives, a fairly new 120 gig IDE drive (C) and an older 80 gig SATA drive (D). While I was idly browsing around after having successfully installed my drivers and dumped some files onto the D: drive, I went to empty my Recycle Bin and my system started to hang. When I opened My Computer, I saw that my D drive had been renamed from its usual designation (HDD2) to "Local Disk D:" and attempting to open it prompted a message claiming that D was not formatted and a dialogue asking if I want to format it.

I tried the usual game of rebooting my PC, wondering if Windows had simply gone crazy, and also did a System Restore to well before the updates I made today, back to when I was certain that my D drive had been working correctly. Neither accomplished anything and System Restore believes that my D drive is offline or disconnected. I opened the command prompt and ran a quick chkdsk. It showed the formatting (NTFS) and volume label (HDD2) correctly then reported that several dozen file record segments are unreadable. I have not yet run the repair function of chkdsk because I'm not knowledgeable enough to feel confident in doing so yet. There are no reported conflicts or errors with my SCSI/RAID drivers.

So that's the crux of my problem. It is an older drive, somewhere in the range of 5 years old now, and I use it entirely as a data drive. There's nothing on there that isn't replaceable, although it would be tedious to do so. Has my drive gone kaput or have I managed to do something completely unexpected?

For the record, I'm running Windows XP Pro SP1. The SATA drive is a Maxtor, I can't seem to find the manufacturer for the IDE. I can't actually think of what other information would be relevant before I go rattling off a list of unnecessary stats. I haven't made any hardware changes to my machine in months and I would assume this isn't temperature related as I monitor internal temps and, being that it's winter and our heating is inefficient, it is reading several degrees below summer temperature.

My thanks to anyone who can offer some insight.

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[info]indigojake
2008-01-02 07:10 am UTC (link)
I had a similar situation once when my data drive's MFT became corrupted. Running check disk with the repair option (reboot required) fixed the issue, however there were several directories renamed to something like "0001.folder" but the files inside still had their same names (oddly enough, the original files were also still in place in all but once instance).

This issue did worry me at the time, and if I would have known, I would have ran Spin Rite on the drive first. That you can find at GRC.com, but it is a pay-for program. Somewhere around $90 I believe.

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[info]pathwriter
2008-01-02 06:50 pm UTC (link)
Oddly, running chkdsk d: /r results in an "unknown error" that terminates the operation towards the end of its cycle. I was given an error to the tune of "Not enough memory to continue repair." That seems odd to me, given I know I had at least 25% open space (not an amazing amount, but hardly full up). However, as I was watching the utility run... it looks like System Restore files were among those affected. I guess I'd never disabled System Restore on that drive and now that faulty little system may be coming to bite me in the ass. Either way, after chkdsk craps out, I lose all access to the drive until I reboot. I may have to just give the thing up for dead at this rate.

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[info]indigojake
2008-01-02 09:04 pm UTC (link)
Ohhh, that is different. It really sounded like a corruption in the MFT to me, especially since it showed up right after a restart, but that "not enough memory" error makes me lean toward some type of more serious issue.

There is one other thing you could try, the Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ --free ISO) has a utility on it called "GWScan (ver. 5)" from Gateway. I've had good luck doing some general HDD repairs using GW. The only issue with GW is it doesn't always pick up SATA drives, but yours being older, it might. If not, then there are other utilities on there for Hard Drive recovery you could try, but I'm not as familiar with them.

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[info]grizzlyzone
2008-01-02 08:18 am UTC (link)
Drive problems? Corruption? I think the first thing I'd do is run my AV (with the latest signatures) and see if anything pops up.

Following that, I think I'd reseat cables. Maybe even put a new IDE cable in. Just to eliminate any possibility of problems there.

There is a real good possibility that your PC may even lead you on a real wild goose chase, where you throw a new IDE controller at it, only to have the problem change, then, go away mysteriously. (I've had that happen to me a few times.)

You could follow [info]indigojake's suggestion and get a copy of SpinRite from GRC.com, but, I think your best bet would be to replace the drive, re-install your suspect drive onto your secondary IDE controller, and re-evaluate your position.

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[info]pathwriter
2008-01-02 06:51 pm UTC (link)
I neglected to mention that I'd run all my typical antivirals and malware scans, too. They didn't show up a blip. After I posted this, I cracked the case and all the cabling is fine. I recently moved, so there was a chance that something had shifted, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

I know what you mean about the problem mysteriously disappearing, though.

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[info]grizzlyzone
2008-01-02 09:42 pm UTC (link)
The technique of re-seating boards and cables is not because something worked loose. It's to clean microscopic amounts of corrosion that may have formed between the contacts.

Maybe it's "old school" and now that everyone is using gold-plated contacts a bit out-dated. But, it's a quick thing to do, and you aren't putting all your trust in the folks overseas that built your ribbon cable. (They'd never cut corners, would they?)

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[info]tpaman1975
2008-01-02 09:49 am UTC (link)
Drives normally go bad around the 5 year mark, while I respect grizzly's input I would not go through that process. I say that because if it were a virus, your whole system would be effected, not just your D drive. If you haven't been inside your computer installing components then 9 times out of 10 it will not be a loose cable.

Run the chkdsk with the repair flag specified. Once the drive comes back, move your important files to C and replace the old drive or remove it (depending on your space needs)

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[info]tpaman1975
2008-01-02 09:55 am UTC (link)
Before anyone rags me about my advice, let me add, yes you could just repair the drive with chkdsk and keep using it but experience has proven in the past that once you start getting bad segments on the drive more follow. My suggestion is proactive because it is better to fix it now while you still have access to the data rather than finding your drive unaccessible one day with that all familiar clicking sound coming from the drive (indicating complete drive failure where standard data recovery is not possible).

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[info]grizzlyzone
2008-01-02 02:14 pm UTC (link)
No, I think you're right. Replace the drive. Drives are cheap enough these days. And, even if you were to successfully patch the drive, it'd still be your weak link.

Edited at 2008-01-02 02:14 pm UTC

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[info]grizzlyzone
2008-01-02 02:10 pm UTC (link)
Thank you. I think it's the drive, too. I just want to be systematic with the troubleshooting.

(And, old-school troubleshooting always has you re-seat cables and boards before you replace anything.)

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[info]pathwriter
2008-01-02 06:53 pm UTC (link)
I can live without the data drive, it was just a convenience that, really, I wasn't even using. I suspect it simply has reached its limit, though, but I like to triple-check before writing expired on the autopsy report.

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