2nd HDD makes some trouble

Hi,

sorry for posting this here cos it's only half related to SL.

1. My system consists of 2 500GB HDDs, C: for system things, OS and other software and D: ,which's simply the data storage for me.
Everything worked properly so far. This whole system is a bit more older than a year (More specs see my forum's profile).

2. For 2 or 3 days now the D: drive makes some trouble. Let's say there's a sub folder where I save my SL pics with ten files in it. Suddenly 3 or 4 of 'em are not readable for my picture display software anymore. IrfanView says : Can't read file header information. Or another sub folder where I used to store my SL videos. Suddenly 3 or 4 of those 10 files are not connected with my video player software anymore and clicking on one of it opens the appropriate player ..but nothing happens. File corrupted or destroyed. Never mind if it's a bmp, jpg,tif,mpg,avi,flv ...files disappear from one day to another on that D: drive. But not all, only some of 'em. Sorry, they don't disappear, they become unusable !

3. I checked the whole system as well as that single drive for viruses,trojans and other malware : nothing, all well. I checked the drive for cluster loss or any other physical malfunction : nothing . I checked the SMART interface : nothing, no errors, all well.

HELP !! What can it be ? How can I stop that file loss on my D: drive ?

smart interface?
i run 3 physical hdd's partitioned into 9 drives and have never heard of a smart interface.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis,_and_Reporting_Technology

I don't have any suggestions about the drive problem, though. Ordinarily, I'd be suspicious of cabling, but I'd expect some other errors to have appeared if that were the problem here. In any case, I'd be very surprised if there were anything SL-specific going wrong.

Did you look at the actual SMART values, or did you just run a proggie that said nothing was wrong?

If you haven't already, now would be a good time to back everything you car about up (which you should always do regularly regardless really).

If it's a software error (OS crashed and corrupted some data) then there's nothing wrong (although you still need to fix the file system structures) but if it's a hardware failure there's not always a whole lot of warning between a hard disk acting up and going completely dead/dieing.

As far as the file system goes (and this should be safe, but please just back up whatever is still readable first of all):
* Start / Run / cmd
* chkdsk x: <- replace x: with the drive letter(s) for a read-only (no fixing) scan
* chkdsk x: /r <- to actually fix errors if any turned up previous (again, back up *before*)

I ran a tool that picks out the actual SMART values...and it said nothing's wrong ,all values correct.

I also ran chkdsk already, completely..and it backed up some lost files ..but after a restart the same problem continues. Another 3 or 4 file per sub folder are gone unusable.

I think I can't avoid formatting that drive and restart it all. I'm pretty sure it's not a hardware failure, so it might be the file system. NTFS is said to be sooo secure..pffff.

Sounds like an impending hardware failure to my Resident Geek.

He says to try the reformat, sure...but keep an eye and an ear on that drive, and make frequent backups.

Ditto that.. sounds hardware to me as well. If it's making ANY ticking or clicking noises your time is limited and the drive will eventually die. Also, on the odd chance there's something more devious than a virus/trojan going on, I'd Google and download a couple free rootkit scanners. Some rootkits are known to mess with file tables, headers, and MBR's so it can't hurt to make sure.

I'll echo what Lindal and Dana said. My guess is you've got a hard drive that's about to die. I'd highly recommend you back up your data immediately, before you do anything else.

What's the make of the drive? If it's Western Digital, you can download excellent diagnostic software from their website. It operates outside of your OS, from a bootable CD, so there's no chance that malware or OS corruption could interfere with its operation. Just boot from the CD, and let it do its thing (takes several hours). If there's anything wrong with the disk itself, the diagnostic tool will tell you.

I'd imagine other makes probably have similar tools, but I haven't used anything other than WD in several years, so I don't know.

You might also want to give Diskeeper a try. It can help find and repair many common drive health problems.

It's also possible you've got a loose data cable, or a bad cable, connecting the drive to your motherboard. If you're confident tinkering inside your case, unplug the cable at both ends, and plug it back in. While you're in there, carefully remove any built-up dist from around the connections (and everywhere else).

What option did you run chkdsk with?

given the size I'm assuming these are SATA drives? What's the controller chip? It's not an nForce2 by any chance is it? Some of the first motherboards that advertized built in SATA RAID were horrible. Did you have to set up a JBOD in BIOS to get the two drives working?

also, how do you power down? Some large hdd's have ridiculously large caches (16MB+) in them these days. If power is cut unexpectedly the data is not written out of the cache ram (volatile) to the physical platters. AKA it's lost. Be sure to power down properly when ever possible. Do you use suspend or hibernate? There might be an incompatibility.

What OS? You say NTFS: XP or Vista? Do you have the newest drivers installed for your sata/ide controller? Newest Chipset driver? If on Vista is the driver certified for Vista?

Do you hear any abnormal noises from the drive? Many will literally chirp if the internal controller detects a problem.

Check all cables especially the power cable. Make sure you only use one kind of power cable. Some sata drives have two different kinds of power socket, only use one. If you have a sata power cable with 3V (orange wire) available that is better than the kind with only red/yellow/black.

SMART is crap, I wouldn't put much value in it saying things are okie-dokie. In fact, disable SMART in BIOS and see if it makes any difference. The SMART poking around (on very very rare occasions) can *cause* problems.


if nothing helps, I would look into RMA-ing the drive. I would still say the most likely probability here is that the drive is defective.

I got everything back. After I got stuck in a chkdsk routine at every restart (chkdsk D: /r ) it came all back to life after the 5th restart. Everythings fine now. As is said it couldn't be a hardware failure, the drive ran and runs silently, no symptoms of cluster loss or a beginning to die HDD. The drive is just a bit older than a year !! Normally drives don't die that early

The reason : 4 days ago I got some MS updates and after installing them I broke off the normal shutdown by pressing the ON/OFF switch for 5 seconds. That led to an abnormal shutdown and somehow damaged the file system on that drive.

To answer some of the questions above : I ran "chkdsk D: /r" but Windoze won't let me run that in normal service so it started on the next start-up and did that for the next 4 start-ups.

My 2 drives are each on UDMA 6 (PIO 4) as ATA-133

My chipset is a VIA Hyperion VT8732A

For more specs see my forum's profile.

Thanks to all for their participation and generous help !