HDD imminently failing, best options?

[Harley62]

So as per the subject line, my less-than 2 year-old SONY VAIO (this will definitely be the LAST Sony product I ever own!) suddenly reports an "imminent HDD failure"....of course I immediately backed-up all important data to an external HDD, but I have continued to use the laptop (about 1 week).

 

Now at the initial power-up I get a message (prior to boot screen) saying that I "should consider replacing the HDD", and I have since run a "chkdsk" utility which revealed some "bad sectors" on the HDD. This is a WD 750 GB HDD, and wasn't even 50% full....very disappointing!

 

Up until now, the laptop still boots up and runs fine (after the warning I press any key to continue boot), but when I run a "Crystal Disk" info utility, I get "bad" reports, showing reallocated / bad sectors, etc....so I assume at some point it will simply crash, or fail to boot at startup? (I have made 6 recovery media disks already)

 

Forgive the "newbie" questions here, but I have yet to experience such a failure while away from the USA, so I am feeling a bit uneasy....

 

Now that I've removed / transferred all the important stuff, the main questions are :

 

1) Will any Tukcom shop be able to repair this HDD,or is it ONLY possible to replace? Is it worth saving the failed HDD, or is it "garbage" now?

 

2) I am concerned about receiving a "clean" install of the OS (Win 8.XX), as most of the software around here is NON-licensed, and therefore I won't be able to get updates, and will get annoying warning "pop-ups" about the OS being illegal, etc....

 

3) Assuming I CAN get a clean OS install, is there any way to "move" programs / apps from the defective HDD to the new one? I know there's lots of freeware out there for most applications but I get "attached" to using certain programs etc....and would like to retain those.

 

4) Should I avoid getting any more WD brand (Western Digital) HDD's now? Any suggestions?

 

Sorry for all the newbie questions, just want to get the damned thing back to "normal" before it goes totally "black" and I have NO function whatsoever!

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice...

 

HB

[bob_ny]

Sorry can't help you with relevant Thailand info but I can give you my experience with WD hard drives.

 

I've got about 5 WD external portable hard drives. All but one work fine. After the failure of the 1, I started using seagate externals as archive drives rather than portable.

 

I was told that all hard drives fail for no apparent reasons so one brand is no more reliable than the next.

 

I just replaced a MacBook and was able to easily remove the HD from the laptop and install it into an enclosure that cost me $10 US.

 

Check out YouTube tutorial videos to see about replacing your HD if it's possible. Also, do a google search and YouTube search on your problem and search the boards to see how others handle your problem. It's unlikely you're the only one.

 

Sorry I couldn't be more thai specific.

[CyberPro]

1) Will any Tukcom shop be able to repair this HDD,or is it ONLY possible to replace? Is it worth saving the failed HDD, or is it "garbage" now?

 

2) I am concerned about receiving a "clean" install of the OS (Win 8.XX), as most of the software around here is NON-licensed, and therefore I won't be able to get updates, and will get annoying warning "pop-ups" about the OS being illegal, etc....

 

3) Assuming I CAN get a clean OS install, is there any way to "move" programs / apps from the defective HDD to the new one? I know there's lots of freeware out there for most applications but I get "attached" to using certain programs etc....and would like to retain those.

 

4) Should I avoid getting any more WD brand (Western Digital) HDD's now? Any suggestions?

 

1. As indicated by your computer's diagnostics, the drive is in danger of failing. Repairing drives requires a facility able to rebuild the drive to factory specifications and I wouldn't trust a rebuilt drive for critical data. Your local shop can't do this work. 

 

2-3. Any good drive imaging program (Ghost, Acronis) can copy your entire drive to the replacement to include OS, applications and data. Do this soonest. Any decent shop can do this or you can do it to an external drive being careful to follow directions, ie don't copy the blank drive to your existing. I do this pre-failure so I'm never stuck without an operational spare. Put essential data on the cloud (Dropbox, etc), encrypted as needed. 

 

4. The WD 750 GB black label 2.5" drive is my favorite pending moving to 1 TB drives or larger as prices drop. All drives fail and newer drives are reported as failing sooner than in years past. A disturbing number are DOA these days. Check out drive reviews on newegg.com and decide whose products you want to put to chance. The WD 750 GB drives go for as little as $65-75 on sale. The green/blue/red label won't last as long as the black label. Good luck. 

[coolsmoe]

Yes, let the hd be cloned to a new drive. Maybe you could buy replacement SSD instead, performance of your laptop will be much better and it will be more shock resistant. The drawback, SSD's are smaller (or more expensive, depends on how you look at it) then HD's, but maybe you can put some data on external storage.

[filibuster]

I just replaced a 1 tb HDD on my iMac.  All-in cost, including OSX Mavericks installed, was 3,700 Baht at my local iService shop.  

[Newguy1967]

So as per the subject line, my less-than 2 year-old SONY VAIO (this will definitely be the LAST Sony product I ever own!) suddenly reports an "imminent HDD failure"....of course I immediately backed-up all important data to an external HDD, but I have continued to use the laptop (about 1 week).

 

Now at the initial power-up I get a message (prior to boot screen) saying that I "should consider replacing the HDD", and I have since run a "chkdsk" utility which revealed some "bad sectors" on the HDD. This is a WD 750 GB HDD, and wasn't even 50% full....very disappointing!

 

Up until now, the laptop still boots up and runs fine (after the warning I press any key to continue boot), but when I run a "Crystal Disk" info utility, I get "bad" reports, showing reallocated / bad sectors, etc....so I assume at some point it will simply crash, or fail to boot at startup? (I have made 6 recovery media disks already)

 

Forgive the "newbie" questions here, but I have yet to experience such a failure while away from the USA, so I am feeling a bit uneasy....

 

Now that I've removed / transferred all the important stuff, the main questions are :

 

1) Will any Tukcom shop be able to repair this HDD,or is it ONLY possible to replace? Is it worth saving the failed HDD, or is it "garbage" now?

 

2) I am concerned about receiving a "clean" install of the OS (Win 8.XX), as most of the software around here is NON-licensed, and therefore I won't be able to get updates, and will get annoying warning "pop-ups" about the OS being illegal, etc....

 

3) Assuming I CAN get a clean OS install, is there any way to "move" programs / apps from the defective HDD to the new one? I know there's lots of freeware out there for most applications but I get "attached" to using certain programs etc....and would like to retain those.

 

4) Should I avoid getting any more WD brand (Western Digital) HDD's now? Any suggestions?

 

Sorry for all the newbie questions, just want to get the damned thing back to "normal" before it goes totally "black" and I have NO function whatsoever!

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice...

 

HB

 

What make of PC is it? Replacing a HDD is a 2min job that requires one screwdriver for most laptops.

 

I would get rid of that failing HDD and replace it ASAP as I could have no "confidence" in it anymore.

 

For

2). You can create a System Image (which will preserve all applications, updates and settings of your current OS) with Win 8.1 (and other OS's) but you will then need to save that onto an external source (HDD or USB key but my latest was 60GB+):

 

Look at the section "Creating a System Image Backup in Windows 8.1"

 

https://www.winhelp.us/system-image-backup-in-windows-8-1.html

 

As long as you have your Windows 8 Key you could then readily DL the same copy of Windows 8.1 and burn the image onto a DVD creating an install disc using Image Burn.

 

Then to "Restore your computer from a system image backup" you will need the Windows 8.xx install disc and then follow:

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/167984/how-to-create-and-restore-system-image-backups-on-windows-8.1/

 

Although this may seem a bit daunting it is quite easy and will restore your PC to exactly how it is now except with a replacement HDD.

 

I agree with the other comments that all makes and models of HDD's can fail and WD is very well known and trusted brand (I have 4-5 at least) - you just got a bad one but I wouldn't "shun" the brand becuase of that.

[david555]

Got such a message more than several years , still working......,

had before on that laptop once replaced a hd that really was defaulting , so I guess that somewhere in laptop bios this message stayed...,

after restoring some time from an image it appeared again for some several times , on certain moment got a choose menu to cancel this message (what I did ) not appear any more for now ...!

laptop is still working for now .... think making image windows 7 in back up option >" system image making" give you the solution .

 

Aafter  finishing  you get the option to create a rescue disk , all in win 7 os , in case os fails, must choose booting from ext hd or (usb disk/stick  in case)

[JHolmesJr]

Never had a drive fail...have some from 10 years ago. Just lucky maybe. But i always have backups.

[LongPlay]

The system image is the best way to fix it permanently.  Drop your image onto a new drive and go.  No loading back of old software or anything.

 

If you do want to switch to an SSD, caution is advised here.  #1, to get an image to drop onto your SSD, the SSD must be as large or larger than your original drive.  And an SSD 750gb in size is going to be pricey.

 

#2, if you do go with an SSD, even if you just do a normal copy using a smaller drive, like mine, a 512GB SSD, there can be issues.

 

The SSD is going to drive your processor hard and fast.  So much so that if you are on the edge cooling wise on the CPU, you are going to have thermal issues.  I have a relatively hot Core I7 desktop running at 4.5 Ghz and lost my hard drive.  Got it "saved" with some expert work from my brother in the business, and he cloned it over onto my new SSD.  It drives the CPU so hard that during full deep virus scans, it goes to 100% load on all three cores and runs the temperatures up on the CPU into the 190F to 200F range.  It will trip off and shut down at around 206F.  So I am really close.

 

If your cooling is good, you should have no issues.  But for sure, you will notice the SSD if you use one.  It boots in a few seconds now and is the one biggest speed improvement I have ever done to a computer to increase speed.

 

 

[Woofiee]

Good advice on how to back up, but now - what to back up to...

If you go traditional hard disk, consider a Hitachi or Western Digital drive 2TB or 4TB disk, but not a Seagate...and especially, not a 1.5TB or a 3TB drive.

 

Backblaze - the online-drive company - did an internal survey of it's past 3 years and 34,881 drives (a decent sample) and considered those two the best brands, and those 2 sizes the most problematic. Failure rates varied from 1% over 3 years to nearly 14%, which is completely unacceptable. 

 

More info at ZDnet. 

[southsidebruce]

I just replaced a 1 tb HDD on my iMac.  All-in cost, including OSX Mavericks installed, was 3,700 Baht at my local iService shop.  

that's a real decent/good price... I have a MacBook Pro with a 750GB Hybrid drive that I bought a couple years ago when I purchased the MacBook Pro (2nd hand from a friend of my Mom's kid), hardly used... bought a drive enclosure, popped the new drive into it, used SuperDuper to image the disk (FANTASTIC imaging software - highly recommend it/have used it for years to do full image backups of my MacBook), did the disk swap (EZ PEEZEE in the MacBook Pro, especially compared to an older Mac Notebook I had and several years ago swapped out the hard drive in it - a relatively major job (for me)), and booted up and all was good... But checked recently for a 1 TB hybrid drive and on AMAZON.COM it was close to $80-$100 - so your 3,700 THB price was a good one for the work... of course back home, the work would have cost A metricShitTonne more - here labor is so damn cheap - on car repair, etc, etc... 

[filibuster]

But checked recently for a 1 TB hybrid drive and on AMAZON.COM it was close to $80-$100 - so your 3,700 THB price was a good one for the work... of course back home, the work would have cost A metricShitTonne more - here labor is so damn cheap - on car repair, etc, etc... 

 

I think the work was around 1k Baht (fixed price - I'll have the receipt somewhere).  When I go to my office after the break, I'll have a look to see what the make/model of the HDD is.

[mryang]

I am horrified by the VAST numbers of replies coming from people obviously clueless about computers in general. If you don't know - don't say it.

 

ABOUT HDD REPAIR

A hard disk can't be refurbished. If it has unreadable magnetic sectors - get rid of it!

 

ABOUT IMAGING

SymantecGhost back in the days (until version 7 at least when you could True BOOT it from disk) was good and reliable but the OS versions are USELESS crap. Don't use it for ANY image work because they will spare partitions of the windows system reserved for no good reason than to butt-fuck you. USE ACRONIS! The only good image / ghosting app with simple to use UI worth mentioning.

 

However bad Symantec / Norton Ghost is, the built in Windows 7 / 8 imager is ever worse because they surely butt-fuck you with NOT doing a proper ghost, excluding license-information and tagging the OS ID's to machines etc.

 

ABOUT COPYING / REPLICATING / DATA TO NEW DRIVE

Doesn't need to be same size, just larger than the IMAGE-file!! Image files can be hugely compressed (unless it's A/V-files).

 

ABOUT HDD QUALITY STUDY

All statistics lie. Backblaze has a data center where the stress on the disks are completely different than that of home use. Also, they don't use 2.5" disks at all. So, it's like taking a Toyota Vios, Honda City and Nissan Leaf, run their engines in max rpm and see which one dies first, then conclude that whatever car breakes down first is the brand that is the worst. Yes, if you use the same discs, then it makes sense, but variations in model, size and capacity, year, batch can make a world of a difference.

 

ABOUT SSD and HEATING

This is a record. SSD making CPU to thermal overload. Wow, someone shooting from the hips like John Wayne with this one.

 

SSD is superior ANY HDD in any viable comparison. Period. If you can afford to not eat out 10 days in a row, then buy it. And use INTEL SSD. Nothing else.

 

SOME TIPS:

1) Don't use de-fragmentation software - ANY Computer Tech telling you to do so is clueless for sure. Performance gains - ZERO. Risk of data loss - HIGH.

 

2) If your computer can - use dual hard disks, one SSD for SYS, and another Mechanical HDD for FILES + IMAGE. I would even so far that if your computer is important, then get a computer that can do it (most professional computers can).

 

3) Only comptuters from IBM / Lenovo, HP and DELL are worth using. I give Panasonic and Toshiba an honourable mentioning. The rest is CRAP. At all cost, avoid SONY, ACER, ASUS, Samsung and "no names".

 

4) USE DROPBOX for backup.

 

5) Encrypt if you use sensitive data.

 

Said by a guy starting his career working for Adobe and Quark Technical Support in the beginning of the 90's and stayed true to my computer interests ever since.

[LongPlay]

 

I am horrified by the VAST numbers of replies coming from people obviously clueless about computers in general. If you don't know - don't say it.

 

ABOUT SSD and HEATING

This is a record. SSD making CPU to thermal overload. Wow, someone shooting from the hips like John Wayne with this one.

 

 

Yes Please if you dont know - dont say it....

This is my system that does this.  I KNOW.  I blew a HDD due to lightning.  I love the SSD I installed in it's place.  Great device.  The comment was that if you are pushing a CPU, and already have it maxed out on overclocking, as mine is, even a highly upgraded cooling system is barely keeping it running when heavy processor related work is going on.  I run a Core I7-4790 at 4.5Ghz and it gets to 204 F and 205 F with Kaspersky on a full bore scan because it can process the files so fast with the SSD that it gets HOT....  It idles at around 108F to 110F because it is set to remain at 4.5 ghz.  

 

Not every one is an expert, but downgrading "vast numbers" of people is uncalled for, especially when you also do not seem to know....

 

Rant over.

[mryang]

Just a comparison:

 

SSD read: 500-600MB/s

DDR3 1333Mhz: 21GB/s

4790k bandwidth: 25GB/s....

 

Now, where is the bottleneck?

[mrjd]

I am horrified by the VAST numbers of replies coming from people obviously clueless about computers in general. If you don't know - don't say it.

 

ABOUT HDD REPAIR

A hard disk can't be refurbished. If it has unreadable magnetic sectors - get rid of it!

 

ABOUT IMAGING

SymantecGhost back in the days (until version 7 at least when you could True BOOT it from disk) was good and reliable but the OS versions are USELESS crap. Don't use it for ANY image work because they will spare partitions of the windows system reserved for no good reason than to butt-fuck you. USE ACRONIS! The only good image / ghosting app with simple to use UI worth mentioning.

 

However bad Symantec / Norton Ghost is, the built in Windows 7 / 8 imager is ever worse because they surely butt-fuck you with NOT doing a proper ghost, excluding license-information and tagging the OS ID's to machines etc.

 

ABOUT COPYING / REPLICATING / DATA TO NEW DRIVE

Doesn't need to be same size, just larger than the IMAGE-file!! Image files can be hugely compressed (unless it's A/V-files).

 

ABOUT HDD QUALITY STUDY

All statistics lie. Backblaze has a data center where the stress on the disks are completely different than that of home use. Also, they don't use 2.5" disks at all. So, it's like taking a Toyota Vios, Honda City and Nissan Leaf, run their engines in max rpm and see which one dies first, then conclude that whatever car breakes down first is the brand that is the worst. Yes, if you use the same discs, then it makes sense, but variations in model, size and capacity, year, batch can make a world of a difference.

 

ABOUT SSD and HEATING

This is a record. SSD making CPU to thermal overload. Wow, someone shooting from the hips like John Wayne with this one.

 

SSD is superior ANY HDD in any viable comparison. Period. If you can afford to not eat out 10 days in a row, then buy it. And use INTEL SSD. Nothing else.

 

SOME TIPS:

1) Don't use de-fragmentation software - ANY Computer Tech telling you to do so is clueless for sure. Performance gains - ZERO. Risk of data loss - HIGH.

 

2) If your computer can - use dual hard disks, one SSD for SYS, and another Mechanical HDD for FILES + IMAGE. I would even so far that if your computer is important, then get a computer that can do it (most professional computers can).

 

3) Only comptuters from IBM / Lenovo, HP and DELL are worth using. I give Panasonic and Toshiba an honourable mentioning. The rest is CRAP. At all cost, avoid SONY, ACER, ASUS, Samsung and "no names".

 

4) USE DROPBOX for backup.

 

5) Encrypt if you use sensitive data.

 

Said by a guy starting his career working for Adobe and Quark Technical Support in the beginning of the 90's and stayed true to my computer interests ever since.

must say such a load of  crap have not heard not heard in a long time to much Dr Who

regards

mrd

[Dr.Winston]

Sometimes this kind of problem can be exasperated by power supply problems. If the drive does fail on you before you've been able to do a backup or create an image then try connecting the drive to another power supply or upgrading your own power supply, especially if you've added bits and pieces since you bought it. I've 'saved' a couple of HD's this way, including one that appeared to have failed completely.

[Woofiee]

must say such a load of  crap have not heard not heard in a long time to much Dr Who

regards

mrd

 

Please - Doctor Who is The Lancet next to this guy...

[mryang]

must say such a load of  crap have not heard not heard in a long time to much Dr Who

regards

mrd

 

Yaawn..... measure your dick elsewhere.