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#1
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HD problem
A few days ago my backup software wouldn't work, it gave a message:
"Failed to read from the sector 63 of hard disk". I ran Windows Chkdsk and it found no problems. The software worked until three days later and it had the same problem. I ran Chkdsk again, still found no problems. Then it worked again until two days later, when I got the same message. Is the HD about to go bad? Will formatting it help? Or it is time to get a new HD before it dies? -- Replace you know what by j to email |
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#2
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HD problem
Jan Philips wrote:
A few days ago my backup software wouldn't work, it gave a message: "Failed to read from the sector 63 of hard disk". I ran Windows Chkdsk and it found no problems. The software worked until three days later and it had the same problem. I ran Chkdsk again, still found no problems. Then it worked again until two days later, when I got the same message. Is the HD about to go bad? Will formatting it help? Or it is time to get a new HD before it dies? It does seem to be time for a new drive, but you could first download run the diagnostic software from the disk manufacturer. -- Lem Apollo 11 - 40 years ago: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ap...0th/index.html |
#3
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HD problem
"Jan Philips" wrote: A few days ago my backup software wouldn't work, it gave a message: "Failed to read from the sector 63 of hard disk". I ran Windows Chkdsk and it found no problems. The software worked until three days later and it had the same problem. I ran Chkdsk again, still found no problems. Then it worked again until two days later, when I got the same message. Is the HD about to go bad? Will formatting it help? Or it is time to get a new HD before it dies? -- Replace you know what by j to email . Sounds like your hard drive is going South. Buy a new one and use the cloning software that comes with it to clone your installation on the old drive to the new drive while you still have a chance. Then use the diagnostic utilities provided by the maker of the failing drive to test it. Even if it tests OK, you will now have peace of mind that you are not about to have a failure. New hard drives are pretty cheap these days. |
#4
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HD problem
Jan Philips wrote:
A few days ago my backup software wouldn't work, it gave a message: "Failed to read from the sector 63 of hard disk". I ran Windows Chkdsk and it found no problems. The software worked until three days later and it had the same problem. I ran Chkdsk again, still found no problems. Then it worked again until two days later, when I got the same message. Is the HD about to go bad? Will formatting it help? Or it is time to get a new HD before it dies? You never mention HOW you ran chkdsk. So what command-line parameters did you specify? To see them (other than using Windows' own help via Start - Help and Support to read up on them), open a command shell (cmd.exe) and run "chkdsk /?". So did you use the /f parameter? Probably better (but only when you won't be using the computer for awhile because it takes much longer) is to use the /r parameter. If it reports any sectors got reallocated (the reserve space on the hard disk masks to the replacement sector), I run it until it says the disk is clean. If it doesn't go clean after 5 runs then it's time to use more robust diagnostic & repair software (see below). Did you end up running chkdsk on the wrong drive because you didn't specify which one to check? Since it runs against partitions, I would suggest running against every partition (drive) on the hard disk. When using the /f or /r parameters, you will need to reboot your host so the partition isn't inuse when testing is performed on those partitions. If using the /r parameter doesn't eliminte the problem then it's time to use stronger 3rd party utilities. Some hard disk manufacturers have diagnostic software you can download from their site. Alas, these are marginally better than "chkdsk /r" and some not at all. SpinRite ($89) is probably still the best program for fixing bad sector and misalignment problems in hard drives; however, at its cost, you could probably buy a replacement hard disk so it makes sense to get it to put in your software toolbox that you will employ against many hard disks at once or over some time (i.e., it's cost effective when used against multiple hard disks). |
#5
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HD problem
On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:46:10 -0500, Lem lemp40@unknownhost wrote:
It does seem to be time for a new drive, but you could first download run the diagnostic software from the disk manufacturer. Thanks for that suggestion. I got SeaTools for Seagate and am running tests now. -- Replace you know what by j to email |
#6
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HD problem
Personally this all comes down to money and time. If you can afford to,
the best thing to do is buy a new hard drive; costs money but may save time (ie. backing up, formatting, installing OS, programes, etc one time) then what I might do is make the old hard drive your second drive OR you could reformat current hard drive (after backing up of course), reinstall then chance the drive being totally inoperable either during the reformat or worse yet shortly down the road. From personal experience (and i've done this on quite a few computers) I've had both happen. I've reformatted Hard drives and they pretty much lasted with no problems until the computer itself was obsolete and I've had them completely crash during a reformat. As long as you backup the second option isn't as risky but can be a major inconvenience and a complete waste of time. So bottom line is time versus money. Cheap in comparison or not $50 is $50. If my sons HDD gave such errors on his older computer I'd reformat and reinstall his old HDD and see what happens versus dumping any money into an old computer. If it were mine..........really depends on the mood I was in and if i had the time. If there were 3 foot of snow outside on a weekend I probably would opt to reformat as well. "Jan Philips" wrote in message ... A few days ago my backup software wouldn't work, it gave a message: "Failed to read from the sector 63 of hard disk". I ran Windows Chkdsk and it found no problems. The software worked until three days later and it had the same problem. I ran Chkdsk again, still found no problems. Then it worked again until two days later, when I got the same message. Is the HD about to go bad? Will formatting it help? Or it is time to get a new HD before it dies? -- Replace you know what by j to email |
#7
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HD problem
On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:22:01 -0800, Mark Adams
wrote: Sounds like your hard drive is going South. Buy a new one and use the cloning software that comes with it to clone your installation on the old drive to the new drive while you still have a chance. I think that is my best option. It is a 500GB which doesn't cost much these days. It is the second HD in this computer, so it won't be hard to replace. Even if it tests OK, you will now have peace of mind that you are not about to have a failure. The peace of mind and potential aggravation make it worthwhile. Strange thing, though, it is my youngest HD, only 2 years old. -- Replace you know what by j to email |
#8
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HD problem
On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:20:05 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:
You never mention HOW you ran chkdsk. So what command-line parameters did you specify? I went to Properties/tools and checked both boxes. Then I rebooted so it would run CHKDSK and fix any problems. clean. If it doesn't go clean after 5 runs then it's time to use more robust diagnostic & repair software (see below). I've got Seagates SeaTools running on it right now (the second HD in this computer). Did you end up running chkdsk on the wrong drive because you didn't specify which one to check? No, I checked. Since it runs against partitions, I would suggest running against every partition (drive) on the hard disk. It only has one partition. diagnostic software you can download from their site. Alas, these are marginally better than "chkdsk /r" and some not at all. SpinRite ($89) is probably still the best program for fixing bad sector and misalignment problems in hard drives; however, at its cost, you could probably buy a replacement hard disk Yes, I used SpinRite many years ago. I looked at it yesterday, and it hasn't been updated in 4 or 5 years. And, as you say, I can buy a new HD for that amount of money. Thank you for your reply. -- Replace you know what by j to email |
#9
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HD problem
On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:34:37 -0500, Jan Philips
wrote: The Seagate SeaTools diagnostics finished after several hours but showed no problem. But with the error occurring 3 times in about a week, I don't feel comfortable so I plan to replace the drive tomorrow. -- Replace you know what by j to email |
#10
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HD problem
Are the fans working?
An overheating problem could cause erratic behaviour. teabag "Jan Philips" wrote in message ... On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:34:37 -0500, Jan Philips wrote: The Seagate SeaTools diagnostics finished after several hours but showed no problem. But with the error occurring 3 times in about a week, I don't feel comfortable so I plan to replace the drive tomorrow. -- Replace you know what by j to email |
#11
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HD problem
Jan Philips wrote:
A few days ago my backup software wouldn't work, it gave a message: "Failed to read from the sector 63 of hard disk". I ran Windows Chkdsk and it found no problems. The software worked until three days later and it had the same problem. I ran Chkdsk again, still found no problems. Then it worked again until two days later, when I got the same message. Is the HD about to go bad? Will formatting it help? Or it is time to get a new HD before it dies? Just for chuckles, download HDTune and use the Error Scan tab. Each block on the screen, will represent many megabytes of data. See if any blocks are non-green, implying something happened within that chunk. Since the disk is scanned raw, every block should be tested. It is not a partition based scan. I like the fact I get visual feedback while it is running, and that it can be stopped if all I wanted to see is the health of the first gigabyte of the disk. http://www.hdtune.com/download.html (ver 2.55 is free) Everyone else seems to be quite comfortable with your symptoms, but "sector 63" bothers me. The CHS geometry of my disk, uses what looks like 63 sectors per track. Sector numbers start at zero. "Sector 63" is the first sector of the second track. My partition table shows, sector 0 is the MBR, and the rest of the first track is not used (at least, I don't know what is hiding in there). My very first partition starts at sector 63. That may not contain actual user data or a file. The partition boot sectors are stored up in the front of the partition. There is a primary and a backup boot sector in there. In fact, that might be the primary boot sector. If that was unreadable, wouldn't your OS be un-bootable ? I don't know whether the OS is smart enough to access the backup boot sector or not. When I looked at mine, what impressed me about my setup, is it doesn't look like the backup boot sector is valid. http://www.ntfs.com/boot-sector-damaged.htm The program TestDisk, has the ability to "dump" the boot sector section of a partition. I'm running the Windows version at the moment. http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk To navigate there, start the program. Use "Create" to create a log file (a don't care for now). Select the disk to be examined (I have two, and I'm looking at the first one.) I used "Proceed" at this point. Then "Intel" for the partition setup type. That brings you to the main menu. Select "Advanced". Cursor down to the partition you want to examine the partition boot sector on. If you have only one partition, there should be just one entry showing. At the bottom of the screen, "Boot" should be highlighted, if there is a boot sector present (maybe it detects the signature bytes). Hit return to go to the Boot sub-menu. The right-most option at this level, is "Dump". This will show the primary and backup boot sectors. When you hit return while selecting "Dump", that will read the partition boot sectors. In your case, I'm expecting the sector shown on the left of the screen, will be the contents of sector 63. If sector 63 was really busted, then that sector should not be display-able. You can select the Quit options, and Quit all the menu levels until the TestDisk program closes, or press control-c to just make the program quit completely. The control-c option is good for levels of the program that don't seem to have a quit option. If you just use the "Dump" option, that shouldn't do anything to your disk. The above sequence should only have been reading things. The amount of data shown, is 0x600 hex. That is 1536 decimal or three 512 byte sectors worth. So the "boot sector" area displayed, is actually two chunks of three sectors each. But offset zero on the left hand side, could well be the "sector 63" your backup program is complaining about. And I can't help but feel that is no coincidence. It is a pretty funny sector to be reported as being fried, of the millions of sectors on your disk. This might not make any difference to your desire to replace the disk. I frequently replace my disks, before they show signs of being on their last legs, so I don't have a problem with you changing out the disk. It makes your current disk the "backup" or "snapshot" in a sense, which is a good thing. I'm just curious why the backup program chose to complain about sector 63, and nothing else. To examine your primary partition table (stored in sector 0), you can use this. That will show the same kind of info that TestDisk was showing, but with a little less cursor based navigation. This tool is part of some older version of Partition Magic. Unzip this. Then double click the PTEDIT32.exe to run the program. What you're looking at, is the place where the up-to-four primary partition entries are stored. ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/PTEDIT32.zip (Screenshot of PTEDIT32 viewing a Dell boot disk) http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/...0-dell-tbl.gif Paul |
#12
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HD problem
On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:30:26 -0000, "teabag" wrote:
An overheating problem could cause erratic behaviour. I ran Speccy which gave the temp as a little higher than normal, but at that time the diagnostics had been running for several hours. Right now it is at 47C, which is OK. -- Replace you know what by j to email |
#13
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HD problem
On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:34:37 -0500, Jan Philips
wrote: A few days ago my backup software wouldn't work, it gave a message: "Failed to read from the sector 63 of hard disk". I ran Windows Chkdsk and it found no problems. The problem has now happened 4 times. So 4 times in 8 days it has prevented my automated daily backup from running, which is unacceptable to me. I've bought a HD to replace it and I will use this one in a non critical situation such as additional backups. Thanks for all the help. -- Replace you know what by j to email |
#14
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HD problem
don't junk that drive!
a google search of the string "Failed to read from the Sector 63 of the hard disk 2" suggests that as a pretty common error, this is not your drive - it is acronis (that is where the error message always comes from) this was confirmed here (at bottom): http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=198221 saying: "...Finally got it working, following advice from Acronis. I had to tick the "Do not load CD-ROM drivers" box in Tools - Options - Startup. (Pretty disappointing that the manual says absolutely nothing about this option. But then the manual's pretty weak on the whole subject of setting up multi-boot systems.) I asked Acronis what was going on here, and got this reply: "Such issue could happen because sometimes (it depends on certain hardware configuration and some other parameters) it becomes possible, that OS Selector confuses hard disk drive with CD-ROM drive. As a result, he cannot read necessary information required to boot and displays this error message... ." so either do that or click ignore all, but it is a problem with acronis (i got it on two separate systems, both with WD external drives attached that otherwise checked out perfectly fine) - and fwiw, i am using acronis v12, so it hasn't been fixed in two versions since the guy reported in v10 acronis backup software is not too reliable, unfortunately, not much else is either Ian Philips wrote: A few days ago my backup software wouldn't work, it gave a message: "Failed to read from the sector 63 of hard disk". I ran Windows Chkdsk and it found no problems. The problem has now happened 4 times. So 4 times in 8 days it has prevented my automated daily backup from running, which is unacceptable to me. I've bought a HD to replace it and I will use this one in a non critical situation such as additional backups. Thanks for all the help. |
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