Is my Hard Disk Dieing?

[pdrnsf]

Hi,

So I think I`ve got a Quantum Bigfoot or Firebal SATA 250Gb Hard disc, tried to find out model but it justs says WDC_WD2000JD-00GBB0 (I`m sure it used to tell me the model name!?). Had it about 3 years now.

The other day booted up windows but it seemed to take forever to load up so I turned it off and back on again. Upon doing so I received some dos text stating that a disc read error had occured and to press crl alt del to reboot. This kept reoccuring. I opened up the computer and unplugged the hard drive and reconnected it and it worked fine.

This then reoccured a few days later. This time I just wiggled the cables a bit on the hard drive and it started working again.

The computer is working fine now but its noticably slower in booting up and everything else, for example I burnt a DVD to backup my documents - this would normally take about 10-15 mins but now takes 1h 20mins!

Anyone any ideas if my hard drive on its way out? Could there be a problem with the cables? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Paul

 

[croc]

I'd be doing a backup... What's WD's warranty?

 

[pscowboy]

Run chkdsk on that drive - right-click the "C" drive - Properties - Tools - Error Checking - click both boxes and reboot.

Could take over an hour. When you get your desktop back. Go to Control Panel - Admin Tools - Event Viewer - Application. Look for "Winlogon" near the top on the right side and open it. Look about 2/3rds of the way down at the bad sector line. If you have bad sectors, your hd is dying.

 

[Mobius]

Bigfoot is undoubtedly the worst HDD ever made. Do NOT accept one as a replacement as the same thing will happen. If it's a Fireball, it's not quite so bad, but you do NOT want one of those either.

 

[blue68f100]

Backup is in order, once completed I would run SpinRite to see if it can repair the HD. It may buy you some time.

But I would get a replacement, it's in the cards.

Most WD only have a 3 yr warranty, if oem 1 yr. By the model number you posted it is only a 200gig.

 

[trixst4r]

Maybe you already know this but BACKUP FIRST before running any type of program to attempt to fix/see what the problem is.

 

[scorch]

Well its not a quantum its a Western Digital. You can check the warranty status on there web site. Usually there warranty is 3 years. The symptoms do sound like a dying hard drive. There is also the possibility of a bad file table which is not likley. Back up your important data.

 

[pdrnsf]

Thanks for all replys.

Will finish backing everything up then give your suggestions a go.

Sorry for confusion with model, thats the only thing that came to mind, think the one I had before that must have been the quantum then.

Cheers

 

[w3as3l]

yeah maybe your card maybe faulty cause i had the same problem with my seagate once, changed the cables and it worked fine for quite some time but then the problem returned, you would be better of getting your drive replaced

 

[eatwelld]

Something i have found helpful is Speedfan a free utility on the net.

On the SMART tab you have an option to do an indepth analysis of the hard drive by comparing the SMART values from your HDD against industry settings.

Give it a try.

 

[evongugg]

If you download the manufacturer's diagnostics, it will give you all the information you need on the drive. I would suggest running the diagnostics in addition to the SMARt test with Speedfan as said previously. If it fails any test, RMA the board. Many times it is enough to know the serial and look it up on the website.

 

[pdrnsf]

I`ve eventually got things sorted with western digital and I can return my hard drive under warranty.

I obviously dont want to return it to them with all my data on it. Does any have any recommendations on wiping everything off the hard drive so that it is un recoverable. One of the manufacturer tools will write zeros to the whole hard drive, will that be sufficient?

Thanks for all the help.

 

[hammerhead2]

sorry wasn't watching which post,, busy at work
Me BAD
Hammer

 

[apache_lives]

WTF, bigfoot are the big 5.25'' hdd's - i got 2 of em - 2gb each! LOL

Did quantum ever make a SATA drive before being bought out by Maxtor (even worse brand if anything)

WDC tho, thats Western Digital and id say thats what you have

Western Digitals higher end models (8mb cache, standard on SATA drives) have a 3 year waranty

Download WD tools or Hitachi tools to check the hdd for issues:

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT - easiest one is the Boot CD image

see what that turns up

Hi,

So I think I`ve got a Quantum Bigfoot or Firebal SATA 250Gb Hard disc, tried to find out model but it justs says WDC_WD2000JD-00GBB0 (I`m sure it used to tell me the model name!?). Had it about 3 years now.

The other day booted up windows but it seemed to take forever to load up so I turned it off and back on again. Upon doing so I received some dos text stating that a disc read error had occured and to press crl alt del to reboot. This kept reoccuring. I opened up the computer and unplugged the hard drive and reconnected it and it worked fine.

This then reoccured a few days later. This time I just wiggled the cables a bit on the hard drive and it started working again.

The computer is working fine now but its noticably slower in booting up and everything else, for example I burnt a DVD to backup my documents - this would normally take about 10-15 mins but now takes 1h 20mins!

Anyone any ideas if my hard drive on its way out? Could there be a problem with the cables? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Paul

 

[pscowboy]

Writing zeroes will be sufficient.