BleepingComputer.com: Is my hard drive bad?

Hello,

I have a Lenovo 3000 C 200 with a 40GB HDD and the computer seems to run fine.

I have this HDD set up with 2 partitions C and D, programs on C and My Documents on D.

The C drive is getting crowded so I thought I would use GParted to make it bigger and D drive smaller. I used this program to partition this computer before.

I defragged both drives but D would not completely defrag, it left 2 sectors that could not be defragged.

I ran the check disc utility and it kept coming up with 2 sectors on D that it could not fix.

I decided to try a partition change anyway and when I got to the part to shrink D, it would not do it and came up with a message that my hard drive had a mechanical problem and could not read the whole drive and that I should back up my stuff and replace the hard drive.

I ran Belarc Advisor:

TOSHIBA MK4034GSX [Hard drive] (40.01 GB) -- drive 0, s/n Y66DT0J4T, rev AH401E, SMART Status: Healthy

What I would like to know is, should I be ordering a new hard drive?

Thank you for any advice.

BarnacleBill

I would, but I'd get a larger capacity.

This post has been edited by fairjoeblue: 28 May 2009 - 10:41 PM

I ordered a 120GB one but I am curious to how bad this really is.

The computer works great, the smart thing says healthy in Belarc

When I run Defraggler, the second little box on the left on the top row is red. It contains 8 files, the largest one is $LogFile, 1 fragment, 65,536 KB.

Could those files be moved to a different block on the drive?

Mainly I was wondering if this could be repaired.

Thanks.

Depending on why the HD has bad sectors it may be usable.
Usually once a HD just starts getting bad sectors it is on it's way out.

You could try this,
Open My Computer
Right click on the C drive
On the menu click Properties
Click the Tools tab
Click Check Now
When the box opens put checkmarks [click on them] in the little boxes under Check disk options
You will get a message , click Yes
Restart the computer & be patient !
Let it finish the check & start to the desktop on it's own.

When the unit finishes starting go to ,
Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Event Viewer>Application
Under Source locate Winlogon & double click it to see the results of the scan.

To keep from losing anything , installed programs, etc. I would use XXClone to clone the old HD to the new
Once the drive is cloned your copmputer will be as it is now as far as programs & personal files go.
The only thing that I've ever had a prpoblem with is AVG anti-virus, it doesn't clone so I just unistall it & reinstall after the clone.

A side bonus is you can put the old HD away, intact, & use it to reinstall if you ever have to

XXClone download,

http://www.xxclone.com/xxclone.zip

Online manual,

http://www.xxclone.com/ixcman00.htm

This post has been edited by fairjoeblue: 29 May 2009 - 11:52 AM

Thanks for the tips fairjoeblue, I have run the check disc with both boxes checked 5 or 6 times and always get the same results when I look in the event viewer under winlogon and it says I have 2 bad sectors.

Yesterday I made a Ghost Image of C drive, I am glad the bad sectors are on D, Ghost might have a hard time on D, everything on D is already backed up, I think I have everything I need ready but it is still a challenge for me as I have never set up a new hard drive. I took off the hard drive cover on the laptop and it looks like an exacting job just to change it, there are some tiny star screws, I will look for instructions.

I don't know exactly what you mean by keeping the old one for a reinstall, but I will be sure to keep it intact now that you mentioned it.

Thanks

Sorry about that, I wasn't thinking about it being a laptop when I posted.
There is no way to use XXClone on it unless you happen to have a USB enclosure the drive will fit in.