Hard Disk Failure

#1 (**permalink**) 02-13-2007

Hello everyone. I've just installed Windows Vista Ultimate Edition on my Desktop PC. The installation went fine and everything works correctly. However, I am getting these dialog boxes telling me that the HDD with Vista installed on is about to crash and that I should back up my PC. The wierd thing is that sometimes my other HDD somehow gets "disconnected" while the PC is running. I go to My Computer and the HDD that is going to crash is appearing but my good HDD has disappered! A restart always fixes the problem.

My main question is why am I getting this HDD Crash error when my HDD worked great in Windows XP?!

#2 (**permalink**) 09-15-2007

Hi, I just Bought new pc and installed Vista Ultimate Succesful. then i was getting these failure boxes too how is it possible that my HDD is broken and still working fine, and what makes this even more hilarious is that my hdd is brand new, i also wanna know why i get thes errors.

Mike · #3 (**permalink**) 09-16-2007

You should try and diagnose the drive. Its possible that there is a problem but Windows XP just didn't detect it (or didn't notify about it). Run a complete scan of your hard drive on the next boot:

Run a complete chkdsk scan of the file system:

Go to Start - > Accessories - > Right Click on Command Prompt

Go to Properties - > Run as Administrator

Type chkdsk c: /f /r

It will ask you if you want to perform a scan the next time your computer starts, type y

--
If you are still getting the message after the chkdsk,

You may have physical bad sectors on the drive meaning the drive itself is damaged.

The drive may just be performing slowly because it is old.

If your system is running on a RAID array (multiple hard drives) the array might have been corrupted if you lost power abruptly or your computer crashed.

There are 3rd party tools that can rebuild an array but you would need an external drive to back everything up.

You may also want to open up your PC and check the HD cables (either IDE or SATA) to see if they are loose.

#4 (**permalink**) 12-21-2007

I got the same error with my raid 1 array. There's nothing wrong with the drives, I just occasionally get a error "Your hard drive has failed do you want to back up now?" I always hit no its been doing this for a few months now and its a really getting annoying that it minimizes my games ever few days with this false error.

I updated all my drivers and bios to no avail.

#5 (**permalink**) 01-06-2008

I'm getting this today after taking a 750GB drive out of my NAS device (formatted in EXT3), "quick" formatting it to NTFS, and slapping it in my newly-installed Vista box.

If the errors don't stop, I'm going to reformat, slowly this time.

--James in S.D.

kemical · #6 (**permalink**) 01-06-2008

I agree with Mike. It sounds like the HDD is about to die. If you go to 'My computer' right-click on the C drive (or which-ever letter denotes your drive) and click properties. Along the top choose tools and schedule a disk scan, make sure you click on all the relevant boxes. Reboot and the checkdisk will go ahead unless you stop the prompt.
You could also try this utility called HD tune it will check your drives using SMART (might have to be enabled in your bios) and will look for errors. Its free and you can get it from here: HD Tune 2.50 download from Guru3D.com

#7 (**permalink**) 01-10-2008

I have this problem as well. The HDD is brand new... the only problem with it.

vista.

I find this OS to blame a lot of its problems on my hardware.
I am willing to take the risk of my "hard disk failing" how can I make vista leave me alone with this "issue"?

thanks in advance for the vague answers about checking my disk for errors. But please not I do not want to "fix" this problem I want to ignore it at my own peril without being logged on to a "temporary account".

#8 (**permalink**) 05-30-2008

I think there`s a very serious problem with vista.

Yersterday was the second time that I realized that my HD IS DEAD after the istallation of this "OS"...SAME problems, SAME sounds, SAME crashes...two brand new HDSs (WD Caviar SE, WD Raptor X)

The funny thing was that I installed XP on both of them and no problems..both worked GREAT....after I just installed vista: RIP

Be careful everyone...

#9 (**permalink**) 05-31-2008

I too have this problem

lap top 6 months old - start having slow start up - decide to do the usual defrag - complete scan of hard drive - fix errors etc
after long scan reboot warns me of hard drive failure

reformat 3 times - same thing - computer acts fine

surely scan has just found and attempted to fix a bad block/ ? now thiks hard drive is broken - isnt this just a OS trying to be too clever and actually anouncing a minor issue as a complete hard drive failure ??

kemical · #10 (**permalink**) 05-31-2008

Have you tried to do a 'checkdisk'? Right-click on your C drive, hit properties and then tools. Hit 'error checking' and make sure you tick the box to repair bad sectors... You'll need to reboot to start chkdisk off but hopefully it may cure your ills...