CRC error on hard drive - is it toast?

[Maverick2002]

I was doing a backup of data to a spare drive and got a delayed write fail error. Ever since then the drive is not accessible. It shows up in device manager, but you can't access it, Windows says it needs formatting, can't error check it. Trying to access it gives a cyclic redundancy check error. Is the drive toast? The data isn't critical (it's one of multiple backups), I just want to know if it's worth keeping it around or if it's dying and should get tossed.

 

[fffblackmage]

I got that error before in an external HDD. I wasn't sure if it was the enclosure or the HDD. I never did get around to testing it. But seeing how I lost a few files (though I was able to recover most things), I wouldn't want to keep a HDD showing signs of trouble for back-up purposes.

 

[tweakboy]

its not toast,, crc errors can should be fixed with a deep disk scan from windows. Let us know what happens.

 

[acole1]

Try running HDAT2. It's on the Ultimate Boot CD. It should fix it enough to be usable, although you will want to move to a new drive.

 

[Maverick2002]

its not toast,, crc errors can should be fixed with a deep disk scan from windows. Let us know what happens.

Where can I find this?

Try running HDAT2. It's on the Ultimate Boot CD. It should fix it enough to be usable, although you will want to move to a new drive.

Don't have an Ultimate Boot CD, but may be able to borrow one. Is it available anywhere else? And how do I get to it?

Is HDAT2 this? http://www.hdat2.com/

IIRC CRC is generally a sign of a drive about to kick the bucket or at the very least make more problems down the road, no? I know with old DVD media these errors made them unreadable. As I mentioned neither the drive nor the data are critical (data is stored in multiple locations and this is just one of the failure points) and if it's going to bust again it's more cost effective for us here at work to just get a new one.

I'm just trying to understand CRC errors better as they relate to media stability.

 

[FishAk]

Don't have an Ultimate Boot CD, but may be able to borrow one. Is it available anywhere else? And how do I get to it?

Ultimate Boot CD is pretty easy to get a hold of. You can use something like BurnAware Free to put it on a CD or DVD.

 

[RebateMonger]

You didn't say how the disk is connected. In my experience, Delayed Write Failures are most common with external disks.

You may want to replace your connecting data cable. And if the disk is in a USB housing, you might want to try a different housing or try directly connecting the disk to your computer.

You might also want to try the disk maker's disk diagnostics program to see what it thinks about the disk.

CRC tests the data pattern that's on the disk and looks for "illegal" patterns, meaning that the data has been corrupted. There's several reasons this could happen and those include both physical errors (bad sectors) and logical errors (like a power outage that scrambled things). As noted, bad cabling can also introduce CRC errors.

Be prepared to have to scrap the disk. I haven't had much luck with "repairing" disks in the past. I've had disks lose their formatting information, I've rebuilt them and installed an OS,and had them fail completely a week later.

 

[Maverick2002]

Thanks for the heads up, but I we need to toss it. Can't format (CRC errors). Won't properly initialize. Seagate's diagnostic software won't even pick it up (it's a Seagate drive).