Is my hard drive about to die? Help me choose a new one!

[inf1nity]

Using a Hitachi Deskstar 160GB drive. Full name- HDS721616PLA380

I have been hearing "ghrrrr" sound, as if of two rough surfaces grinding against each other, for a long time. I guess for around 4-5 years now(The drive is 8 years old). However recently I have started hearing the "Click of Death" sound.

I recently have been having issues with my PC getting slow to point where it becomes unusable. I managed to open up task manager and saw the Disk Usage at 100%, mainly due System & Service Host process.

Today at bootup, the computer gets really slow, taking 5 minutes to reach the Windows logo screen. I opened up the case, connected the drive to a different port on the motherboard and its working okay as of now.

What is it? Is it my drive? My motherboard? The SATA ports on it? I already tried changing the SATA cable, no use.

The slowdown happens randomly but once it does, it doesn't go away until i do something like trying a different port, or rerouting the SATA cable through the case.

 

[Ketchup]

So this is the same drive you created the previous thread about:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=38000798#post38000798

Sounds like you bought some time, but the drive may still be on its way out.

Try the Seatools for Windows program, long test.
There are also countless progress that will tell you what the S.M.A.R.T. data is showing.

 

[lightningbaron]

Start backing up your data and run Hitachi Drive Fitness Test. The drive is very likely going out. Anything in Event Viewer?

 

[eton975]

The drive is almost certainly dying. Backup immediately even if the SMART test doesn't detect anything.

 

[inf1nity]

So this is the same drive you created the previous thread about:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=38000798#post38000798

Sounds like you bought some time, but the drive may still be on its way out.

Try the Seatools for Windows program, long test.
There are also countless progress that will tell you what the S.M.A.R.T. data is showing.

The thing is, i don't have a lot of money. Also don't have any spare parts to swap and diagnose by elimination.

I need to sure that its my hard drive and not something else(like the SATA ports on the motherboard). That's why created a new thread. I need to pinpoint the exact trouble before I go spending money.

Last night I ran chkdsk with the /f and /r switches on C:. It became a little smoother after that. But this morning it ran bad again. Switched to a different SATA port and running okay right now.

I used CrystalDiskInfo to check SMART status, it gives a "Good" in all parametres except Reallocated Sectors Count, where it gives a yellow "Caution" status. Overall drive health is marked "Caution" as well. However, its been this way since the 1st time I ran it, which was more than an year ago, long before these troubles started.

https://i.imgur.com/PkZpr8G.png

I don't know if I can trust SMART diagnosis. Isn't SMART notoriously unreliable?

Start backing up your data and run Hitachi Drive Fitness Test. The drive is very likely going out. Anything in Event Viewer?

Tried that, but my drive doesn't show up in the list of connected drives

The drive is almost certainly dying. Backup immediately even if the SMART test doesn't detect anything.

Already did all backups, thanks to advice I got previously.

 

[Charlie98]

I don't know if I can trust SMART diagnosis. Isn't SMART notoriously unreliable?



Tried that, but my drive doesn't show up in the list of connected drives.

It's not reliable or unreliable... it is what it is, that is to say, the statistics of your HDD. What is the raw number for reallocated sectors?

(NM, I see your link.)

Does your drive show up in Computer Management > Device Manager > Disk drives?

 

[Charlie98]

Actually, after looking at your disk info, I would suggest swapping in a new cable... the CRC error count is kind of high. You mentioned you plugged it into a different SATA port and everything was OK... that would be an indicator. I would also check your power plug... maybe swap to a different plug if you can.

 

[inf1nity]

So to give you guys an idea, i fired up Chromium browser while Firefox was running. it took around 3 minutes to start. During that time, this was what Task Manager showed:

https://i.imgur.com/wanAoU7.jpg

Charlie, I've already tried a new cable. It worked fine for a 2 days but then the symptoms repeated themselves. Same thing after switching to a different port. Fine for 3-4 sessions and then back to square one.

I'll try another power plug and report back.

Does your drive show up in Computer Management > Device Manager > Disk drives?

yes it does.

 

[inf1nity]

Actually, after looking at your disk info, I would suggest swapping in a new cable... the CRC error count is kind of high. You mentioned you plugged it into a different SATA port and everything was OK... that would be an indicator. I would also check your power plug... maybe swap to a different plug if you can.

So i switched to a different power plug and I can feel the system has gotten a little more responsive. Although seeing that it has a history of doing this, I'm gonna wait for atleast a week to see if it stays that way.

If it goes back to stuttering and hanging, as a last resort I'm gonna revert to Windows 7. IDK why but I have a gut feeling that says all these issues are cropping up because I'm running software the hardware can't handle.

If that fails too, a new drive it is.

On the topic of a new drive, should i get a Seagate or a WD Green? I'm leaning towards WD, but i've heard the Green drives are not good?

http://www.flipkart.com/seagate-250-gb-desktop-internal-hard-drive-st250dm000/p/itmd4kwhbhbd9wpc

and

http://www.flipkart.com/wd-green-po...ernal-hard-drive-wd250avvs/p/itmdtyvesegczzxr

Another option is this 320 GB drive:

http://www.flipkart.com/seagate-db3...al-hard-drive-st3320820sce/p/itmebfrqb8vjznut

 

[Ketchup]

The thing is, i don't have a lot of money. Also don't have any spare parts to swap and diagnose by elimination.

I need to sure that its my hard drive and not something else(like the SATA ports on the motherboard). That's why created a new thread. I need to pinpoint the exact trouble before I go spending money.

Last night I ran chkdsk with the /f and /r switches on C:. It became a little smoother after that. But this morning it ran bad again. Switched to a different SATA port and running okay right now.

I used CrystalDiskInfo to check SMART status, it gives a "Good" in all parametres except Reallocated Sectors Count, where it gives a yellow "Caution" status. Overall drive health is marked "Caution" as well. However, its been this way since the 1st time I ran it, which was more than an year ago, long before these troubles started.

https://i.imgur.com/PkZpr8G.png

I don't know if I can trust SMART diagnosis. Isn't SMART notoriously unreliable?

Looking at your data, there are a lot of bad sectors on the drive. That's why you are seeing the caution status. And I will bet you that number is higher than it was, say, a year ago. In my experience, once that number starts growing, it won't stop.

Whenever you run chkdsk, it will mark the additional bad sectors so that the computer won't try to write to/read from them. That is why your drive seems to get faster after doing this. I doubt it has anything to do with the SATA ports.

It's not that S.M.A.R.T. is unreliable, but there is a good bit of room for manufacturers to provide more or less information, or information that can mean different things. That it why it's also a good idea to use the program from your hard drive's manufacturer to test the health of the drive. The S.M.A.R.T test just lets you know that there is something worth digging into (vs a wild goose chase).

 

[Puffnstuff]

You should do as has already been suggested and run the manufacturers drive tools (Seagate, WD or HGST tools will work) and get their report on your drive. Chances are high that it is in the final stages of failing but unless you run a diagnostic tool on it you won't get the full report. It has been my experience that when the yellow caution appears that a failure is immanent.

 

[daveybrat]

Looking at your data, there are a lot of bad sectors on the drive. That's why you are seeing the caution status. And I will bet you that number is higher than it was, say, a year ago. In my experience, once that number starts growing, it won't stop.

Whenever you run chkdsk, it will mark the additional bad sectors so that the computer won't try to write to/read from them. That is why your drive seems to get faster after doing this. I doubt it has anything to do with the SATA ports.

It's not that S.M.A.R.T. is unreliable, but there is a good bit of room for manufacturers to provide more or less information, or information that can mean different things. That it why it's also a good idea to use the program from your hard drive's manufacturer to test the health of the drive. The S.M.A.R.T test just lets you know that there is something worth digging into (vs a wild goose chase).

Best explanation. Your drive IS failing. The chkdsk is simply buying you more time like Ketchup said. And do not buy a WD Green drive for the OS. Only the Blue or Black drives. You want a 7200RPM drive.

 

[Charlie98]

So to give you guys an idea, i fired up Chromium browser while Firefox was running. it took around 3 minutes to start. During that time, this was what Task Manager showed:


Charlie, I've already tried a new cable. It worked fine for a 2 days but then the symptoms repeated themselves. Same thing after switching to a different port. Fine for 3-4 sessions and then back to square one.

I'll try another power plug and report back.

Chrome taking time and your HDD issues are separate... as others have pointed out, I really think it's time to replace the drive.

Keep track of the CRC error count, if after a day of use, that number is greater, and you have already swapped the cable and port, then replacing the drive would be warranted. In my case, my Samsung SSD did the same thing... I was ready to RMA the drive but swapped the cable first... end of the CRC problems. If you are starting to see bad sectors, too... that's the drive.

The WD Green has been rolled into the WD Blue line, so check the RPM to see which drive you are actually getting (Blues are 7200RPM; ) personally, I would just get whatever drive is on sale, minus Toshiba (the two Toshiba drives I have both run hotter than my other drives.) I'm not a big fan of the 5400RPM drives in any event.

 

[inf1nity]

Looking at your data, there are a lot of bad sectors on the drive. That's why you are seeing the caution status. And I will bet you that number is higher than it was, say, a year ago. In my experience, once that number starts growing, it won't stop.

Whenever you run chkdsk, it will mark the additional bad sectors so that the computer won't try to write to/read from them. That is why your drive seems to get faster after doing this. I doubt it has anything to do with the SATA ports.

It's not that S.M.A.R.T. is unreliable, but there is a good bit of room for manufacturers to provide more or less information, or information that can mean different things. That it why it's also a good idea to use the program from your hard drive's manufacturer to test the health of the drive. The S.M.A.R.T test just lets you know that there is something worth digging into (vs a wild goose chase).

Okay. i'm gonna run a chkdsk on the entire drive. This drive hasn't really been dropped or thrown, so im assuming the bad sectors must be mostly soft and not hard.

And that screen shot is from 3 Dec 2015. Right now, the only things that have changed are the read error rate, from 86 to 98; and the Spin-up time from 116 to 104.

I tried Hitachi Diagnostic and it didn't detect the drive. Gonna try Seatools now.

 

[inf1nity]

Which test in Seatools should i run?

 

[ElFenix]

Which test in Seatools should i run?

all of them. from short to long.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Just be careful that the tests are non destructive. Some tools will warn you before you execute them that they will destroy any data on the drive.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Ah,i remember having the ops issues with Maxtor drives.Then with the first 1tb Seagate drive that got released.Think Seagate bought out Maxtor about that time too.Never been a issue with WD.

The click at least for me always ended with the drive dropping from my system and never being recognized by any system.

 

[Ketchup]

Assuming the drive is new, large enough, and my money conversion is any good, this WD has a pretty good price:
http://www.flipkart.com/western-dig...rno=p_10&query=hard+disk&otracker=from-search

 

[inf1nity]

Assuming the drive is new, large enough, and my money conversion is any good, this WD has a pretty good price:
http://www.flipkart.com/western-digital-ide-160-gb-desktop-internal-hard-drive-wd-cavier-normal/p/itme4haapvh3xwrz?pid=IHDE4HAAM8HBQHNW&ref=L%3A-5553567443950287471&srno=p_10&query=hard+disk&otracker=from-search

I'm looking for a drive that a little larger than my current one, thus looking at 250s or 320s.

Budget is around 1200, no more than 1500 INR in any case.

How are those drives I posted in the post above? How this one:

http://www.flipkart.com/seagate-250-gb-desktop-internal-hard-drive-st250dm000/p/itmd4kwhbhbd9wpc

 

[inf1nity]

Update: My drive passed all Seatool tests without any errors.

BTW, since yesterday after I followed Charlie98's advice and swapped a different power plug, it appears that the problems I was originally facing have stopped. Although 24 hours are too early to arrive at a conclusion, could this be a sign that the drive's fine?

 

[Iron Woode]

that drive is going to go bye-bye sooner or later.

you should purchase the most storage you can afford.

perhaps as a stop-gap measure you could consider a good used drive?

 

[Ketchup]

Update: My drive passed all Seatool tests without any errors.

BTW, since yesterday after I followed Charlie98's advice and swapped a different power plug, it appears that the problems I was originally facing have stopped. Although 24 hours are too early to arrive at a conclusion, could this be a sign that the drive's fine?

Well, you are on your third power plug, right? So if it's not the hard drive, you power supply would be the next suspect. But you have devices in your computer taking a good bit more juice than a power supply, which sound like they are running ok. The clicking sound is never a good sign.

Also, I didn't see you mention what your chkdesk results were.

 

[inf1nity]

Well, you are on your third power plug, right? So if it's not the hard drive, you power supply would be the next suspect. But you have devices in your computer taking a good bit more juice than a power supply, which sound like they are running ok. The clicking sound is never a good sign.

Also, I didn't see you mention what your chkdesk results were.

Yeah, now I am on the third, after the same story repeated with the 2nd one. Will run fine for a few days, then back to extremely slow bootups. And the clicking sound has stopped.

Chkdsk results were fine. On the boot partition i didnt check the results but on one other partition i got:"Windows has made changes to the file system. No further action is required" The second partition chkdsk reported no errors

 

[inf1nity]

that drive is going to go bye-bye sooner or later.

you should purchase the most storage you can afford.

perhaps as a stop-gap measure you could consider a good used drive?

I don't like buying used stuff, you never know what kind of abuse they've gone through.

I've managed to ask a friend for some money. Will buy a few things together, so as to get some discount. I need a new NIC too.