Problems with harddisk

[Poke386]

I have two hard disks, both from Seagate:
1. 250GB and contains the system partition (a few years old)
2. 500GB and is used for storage (1-2 years old) (problem with this one)

The 500GB HDD is divided into two partitions G: and H:

Recently I've been getting errors like the one in the attached image. Sometimes I cannot access the HDD and sometimes windows(XP) fails to detect it. After a few reboots everything becomes okay for a little while and then the problem repeats. I've tried reinstalling windows (for some reason I felt that could help) but to no avail.

I used a HDD health monitor and it showed the health of both the disks to be ~55% and temperatures of both around 50 Degrees.

Does any one have any ideas as to how I may fix this problem?

PS: On a completely unrelated note, how much does a 8GB iPhone (with or without 3G) cost these days (in India, of course)?

[giprabu]

Originally Posted by Poke386

I have two hard disks, both from Seagate:
1. 250GB and contains the system partition (a few years old)
2. 500GB and is used for storage (1-2 years old) (problem with this one)

The 500GB HDD is divided into two partitions G: and H:

Recently I've been getting errors like the one in the attached image. Sometimes I cannot access the HDD and sometimes windows(XP) fails to detect it. After a few reboots everything becomes okay for a little while and then the problem repeats. I've tried reinstalling windows (for some reason I felt that could help) but to no avail.

I used a HDD health monitor and it showed the health of both the disks to be ~55% and temperatures of both around 50 Degrees.

Does any one have any ideas as to how I may fix this problem?

does your 250 GB drive is an IDE one ? and you use that as MASTER ??

[Poke386]

Oops, I forgot to mention, both the drives are SATA drives and the 250GB one is probably master (how do I check? Windows is installed on the 250GB drive btw, if it helps).

[giprabu]

Originally Posted by Poke386

Oops, I forgot to mention, both the drives are SATA drives and the 250GB one is probably master (how do I check? Windows is installed on the 250GB drive btw, if it helps).

Even i experienced exactly same problem.. but my case was with 2 IDE drives... Both will be undetected at some points and after some re boots it'll be working fine for quite some time... After then i removed one of the drive and my problem got solved..

i'm not sure about your case... wait for the senior members of this forum to solve your query..

[Poke386]

Its good to know I'm not the only one with such problems. Could it be a problem with the SATA cables?

[Poke386]

Come on guys..anybody?

[static_x]

Try installing any Hard disk monitor software like HD Sentinal and see what it says about the disk...I think the problem is with the HDD only and you may need to back up your data asap...

[Poke386]

In many cases the HDD is not even detected by windows (the BIOS detects it though). When it is detected, I get health as 72%, performance as 63% and temp as 43 Degrees. The health is shown differently by different software, apparently.

Here is the entire report as generated by Ashampoo HDD Control for the 500GB HDD:

[Harddisk 1 ; Modell=ST3500418AS ; Size=500 GB ; ID=IDE#DiskST3500418AS_____________________________CC34____#5&7350733&0&0.0.0_0]
Current Health: 72%
Current Performance: 53%
Current Temperature: 43 °C
Contains Partitions: 
HDD-Firmware Revision: CC34____
Reallocated Sectors: 5
Attributes failed: 0
Attributes warnings: 0
RAW-Values (22 found):
001 Value=102 Worst=099 Threshold=006 Condition=049% RAW=4,290,192 
003 Value=099 Worst=097 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=0 
004 Value=080 Worst=080 Threshold=020 Condition=075% RAW=21,282 
005 Value=100 Worst=100 Threshold=036 Condition=100% RAW=5 
007 Value=072 Worst=060 Threshold=030 Condition=060% RAW=16,108,484 
009 Value=091 Worst=091 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=8,713 
010 Value=100 Worst=100 Threshold=097 Condition=100% RAW=0 
012 Value=080 Worst=037 Threshold=020 Condition=075% RAW=21,299 
183 Value=100 Worst=100 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=0 
184 Value=100 Worst=100 Threshold=099 Condition=100% RAW=0 
187 Value=100 Worst=100 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=0 
188 Value=100 Worst=099 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=327,693 
189 Value=100 Worst=100 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=0 
190 Value=057 Worst=048 Threshold=045 Condition=---- RAW=724,238,379 
194 Value=043 Worst=052 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=67 
195 Value=034 Worst=019 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=4,290,192 
197 Value=100 Worst=100 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=0 
198 Value=100 Worst=100 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=0 
199 Value=200 Worst=200 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=0 
240 Value=100 Worst=253 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=12,430 
241 Value=100 Worst=253 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=1,647,724,397 
242 Value=100 Worst=253 Threshold=000 Condition=---- RAW=181,972,071

[static_x]

Backup your data and create RMA. Send it back to Seagate....

Are there any bad sectors on the Disk???

[Poke386]

Okay, HD Sentinel changes things...
It shows health of my 250GB HDD as 100%(with 0 bad sectors) and that of my 500GB HDD as 95%(with 5 bad sectors).

What does create RMA mean? Should I erase everything from the HDD before sending it? (It has a lot of personal info, and probably some important stuff like passwords, etc).

Where exactly am I supposed to send it anyway? (Back to the store I bought it from?)

Edit: SeaTools' tests for the drive (500GB one) also fail? Is this a sure sign that I have to get it replaced?

[Poke386]

Please reply..

[rkneo11]

I think you are having a virus attack...
I once had a problem like this and it was solved only with a clean reinstall of XP SP3

[Poke386]

Originally Posted by rkneo11

I think you are having a virus attack...
I once had a problem like this and it was solved only with a clean reinstall of XP SP3

I've reinstalled XP nearly twice or thrice, to no avail..

However, I disabled write caching on the disk yesterday, and since then it seems to be working fine. But this might be temporary (Similar bouts of luck have come a few times before, but never for this long..).

And now my 250GB HDD is acting up. I get Disk Read Errors when I try to boot windows. A few reboots later everything works fine. Sigh...

[static_x]

You try installing your HDDs at your freinds PC and then see what Sentinal says....
Once its confirmed that the problem is with the HDD only then only you RMA else you'll get the same HDD back and all your efforts will go in vain...
To create RMA of the SG HDD call on their Customer Care No. they'll create RMA for you and you have to pack your HDD as directed by them and they will arrange for the pick up from your place...
But before that make sure that you check your HDDs state..

[Poke386]

Thanks for all your help. Unfortunately I don't have access to another PC. I'll try RMA'ing this. Hope I can find the box for the drive though.