hard drive problem: says imminent failure may occur

[m1ke101]

friends computer was booting up the other day when during the bootup it said that SMART FAILURE ON PRIMARY MASTER
IMMEDIATE BACKUP OF YOUR DATA AND REPLACE YOUR HARD DISK DRIVE. FAILURE MAY BE IMMINENT.

now i know that can't be good...is his hard drive dead? or is there something we can do to fix it.

 

[Twilling]

It's good to have advance warning that a hard drive is going to fail. I suggest you take heed to that warning and follow the back up instructions!

If my drive was failing, I would want the same thing to happen, a warning...

 

[ProviaFan]

It's usually right. Back up your data right away and start saving for a new HD.

 

[m1ke101]

won't even boot into windows....any idea how to backup data?

 

[AbRASiON]

Originally posted by: m1ke101
won't even boot into windows....any idea how to backup data?

Yes, buy another hard disk, format it and install XP / whatever you use, then put the other one in as a slave, then hunt and peck out the data you need and RMA the old drive if it's under warranty.

Curse the new 1 year warranty's to boot.

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

Originally posted by: AbRASiON

Originally posted by: m1ke101
won't even boot into windows....any idea how to backup data?

Yes, buy another hard disk, format it and install XP / whatever you use, then put the other one in as a slave, then hunt and peck out the data you need and RMA the old drive if it's under warranty.

Curse the new 1 year warranty's to boot.

i agree
my maxtor 40gb has been saying the same message in smart for quite a while, just havnt gotten around to rma'ing it yet lol