is this drive going bad? evaluate HD tune results

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

another post of mine on usenet pointed to a drive being the
problematic compenent in a system I was troubleshooting
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.sys.laptops/browse_thread/thread/962ededf41b91a62/fefbade397f42242?lnk=st&q=hupjack&rnum=5&hl=en#fefbade397f42242

sure enough.. swapping out the drive solved the problem.

now I'm helping a friend out with a dell xps b733r and it feels like
his drive is introducing a lot of latency as well.. lots of excessive
clicking instead of quick application launch..

so what's the deal with HD's as they die? I won't necessarily see
"bad sectors"? I ran HD tune, and results are linked to below... I'm
just not to sure quite how to interpret them.. what should I key into
from the results that might indicate that the drive is problematic?

http://infohdtune.notlong.com
http://healthhdtune.notlong.com
http://benchmarkhdtune.notlong.com

thanks for any insight you can offer.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

Ethan Lipman <ethan.lipman@gmail.com> wrote

> another post of mine on usenet pointed to a drive being the
> problematic compenent in a system I was troubleshooting
> http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.sys.laptops/browse_thread/thread/962ededf41b91a62/fefbade397f42242?lnk=st&q=hupjack&rnum=5&hl=en#fefbade397f42242

> sure enough.. swapping out the drive solved the problem.

> now I'm helping a friend out with a dell xps b733r and it
> feels like his drive is introducing a lot of latency as well..
> lots of excessive clicking instead of quick application launch..

The clicking is the drive recalibrating on the seek errors.

> so what's the deal with HD's as they die?

That sort of problem is one way they die.

> I won't necessarily see "bad sectors"?

Yeah, from the SMART data the problem is the seek errors.

That can be a cracked flexible connector to the
heads, a mechanical problem with the heads
which stops it flying reliably over the surface,
or something loose in the head assembly etc.

> I ran HD tune, and results are linked to below...
> I'm just not to sure quite how to interpret them..
> what should I key into from the results that
> might indicate that the drive is problematic?

> http://infohdtune.notlong.com

That doesnt indicate too much, tho the downward spikes are
likely seek errors. You can see those with a good drive tho.

> http://healthhdtune.notlong.com

This one shows a high level of seek errors.

> http://benchmarkhdtune.notlong.com

Nothing unusual there.

> thanks for any insight you can offer.

Try running Seagate's diagnostic on the drive.