Hard Drive Failures

[malhussaini]

My computer is made up of a 3.06 GHZ p4, 1 GB ram, and most importantly 3 hard drives:
1. C & E Drives: 80 GB hard drive with 2 equal partitions of 40 GB each. Windows is installed on c:\windows

2. D drive: 120 GB hard drive, but after a crash and a format 90 GB magically dissappeared with no trace... Im left with 30 GB of usuable space

3. J drive: 250 GB external Lacie Hard Drive

______________

The computer would start up fine, and then it would freeze unexpectendly and I would hear screeching sounds from the drive. When I restart the PC it freezes before Windows is loaded and some other times a screen appears informing me that Slave Hard Disk drive 3 has failed. It seems to me that the drive is not defunct yet but is certainley causing some problems. I dont think that its a power failure or anything similar because I have not opened up the case for monthes now.

Any insight would be appreciated!

P.S. I would also like if anyone explained to me why 90 GB of my precious hard disk space has vanished from my 'D' Drive?

 

[winbob]

You said, "but after a crash and a format 90 GB magically dissappeared with no trace".

There are crashes...and then there are CRASHES! You do not elaborate, so it is difficult to say if there is a case & effect relationship.

Likewise, "I would hear screeching sounds from the drive".

Which Drive? This is important to know! I would consider this drive a GONER. Get your data off of it ASAP!

I would RE-Partition the mystery Drive and then Format it.

But even before that, why not run the Manufacturer's Diagnostics on the Drive!!

If you don't have them, go to their Website and download them.

Also, "I dont think that its a power failure or anything similar because I have not opened up the case for monthes now."

Opening the Case or not has little to do with whether or not there was a Power Failure.

 

[malhussaini]

Thanks for the reply winbob...
the story with the 120 GB hard drive with the missing 90 GB goes like this
1- I started up the pc, everything cool, went up to 'My Computer', tried to access the D drive and I got an error message.
2- "This Disk is not formatted. Do you want to format the disk?" seeing that the drive was full of useless crap I opted in and ok'd the format.
3- The format finished quickly and left me with 30 GB only (I previousely had 30 GB of empty space on the same drive... maybe the data on the disk has been corrupted or is inaccessible...)
4- Tried repartiotining, reformating once again using the windows cd, even tried HDD regenerator and similar apps... no luck
So what kind of Crash do u classify this? I would classify it as a silent but deadly one

Regarding the screeching sounds, i decided to be primitive and kick my CPU... the screeching sounds are gone for now... but im sure that its coming back soon

Also regarding the power failure and opening of the case, well lets put it this way; I should have reread my post before submiting it But anyway my point was that my drive dies when there is a power failure usually... damn power company. Should get me one of those UPS. And yeah whenever I open up my case I have a tendency to mess up things... one time I almost burnt my motherboard when i tried to install a dvd-rw drive... that would've been funny if the motherboard wasnt as expensive as it is.

I'll try to find the manufacturer's diagnostic drive, not sure what to look for though... Should I go to the OEM's website (actually the PC is a no-brand PC... built it myself) or go to the Hard Drive Manufacturer's website?

Thanks alot!

 

[winbob]

What country do you live in? Middle East/Asia? That geography is notorious for bad power..yes get a UPS...a good one!

Go to the Drive Manufacturer's Website for any Diagnostics. Download from there.

If the drive is 1-3 years old, it is probably warranteed. See about getting an RMA at the website as well.

Perhaps the "Screeching" is a Fan with dry bearings? Check that out with the case open and the machine running Be careful this time

Don't ever install ANYTHING with the machine on...AND/OR even Plugged In!!

You said, "So what kind of Crash do u classify this?"

Don't know that there was a CRASH affecting the HD at all. Could have be a User Error in drive setup or other?? Never rule out user error, if the user is breathing!

You know that the part that fails the most frequently is located between the keyboard and the back of the Chair!

 

[malhussaini]

The 120 GB drive with the missing space turned out to be a seagate Barracuda 7200 (ST3120022A)

Capacity:120.9 GB
Speed:7200 rpm
Average Seek Time: 8.5ms
Cylinders: 1023
Heads: 256
Sectors: 63

and while looking at their page I noticed this interesting little note

On drives greater than 33.8GB, Limit Capacity jumper changes total
available sectors as reported via Identify Drive data words 60-61 to
33.8GB to solve issues with certain BIOS during power on. The ATA
Read Native Max command will report true full capacity. The ATA
Set Max command will restore true full capacity to the operating
system drivers. Third party partitioning software may be needed to
achieve full capacity when using this option jumper.

I'm gonna try the diagnostic tool at a later time, thanks alot winbob

And Yeah mayeb you're right I might have caused this error... but sometimes with computers somethings just happen on their own without me interfering

 

[malhussaini]

I'm sorry for the double post;
I've opened up the case once again, cleaned up the dust, and I made sure that none of the wires connecting the drive to the cpu were loose. After that operation, the screeching sounds have gone... but I dont know if its temporary or will it last. But at this moment everything is working fine with no crashes ({offtopic}except for firefox... it keeps crashing!)
Anyway, my mission objectives now state that I have to get back my 90 GB lost data. Seagate's website mentioned something which I quoted in the above post. Im a bit clueless... but I'll start with the diagnostic tool first and see if its gonna help me. I have tried to start the diagnostic tool previousely but the PC froze as soon as I started it. Wish me Luck

_______________

Ok after trying lots of stuff it came to my understanding that I have to put in a DDO for my 120 GB drive so its full capacity would be recognized by the BIOS. The thing whenevr i try to do so I get an error, and besides that some DDO related tasks in the tools provided by SEAGATE were greyed out for no apparent reason. The Bottom line is that I could not put in DDO properly, the drive is recognized as a 120 gb drive by the diagnostic tool running on Dos but is being loaded still on windows as a 33.81 hard drive by Windows and by the Diagnostic software too (while running on windows, not on dos). Is this a problem with the bios? Should I update the BIOS? Any other suggestions?