Is my hard drive about to give out?

[Sean D]

My problems all started earlier tonight, when I got a lockup for no apparent reason. I was running BOINC, Firefox, and WMP at the time, so maybe the system wasn't entirely stable. Anyway, I restarted, and after it says "Backup of CMOS is complete.....", it said "Disk read error. Push Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart." So I did that, and the same thing came up again. Tried a few more times, and it got a little further this time. But all I got was a black screen with the cursor. I restarted once more, and it booted into Windows, but froze up when loading the startup programs. Rebooted one more time, and that is where I am now. Everything loaded up as normal.

So are these warning signs of a failing HD? Drive is a 250gb Seagate 7200.8 SATA drive, which has only one C: partition with my OS and games on it. I have a 160gb External drive for my media. Should I be worried about the Seagate crapping out on me? I'm gonna make sure everything is backed up right now, and just cross my fingers. Any input is appreciated.

 

[GamerExpress]

What is "BOINC"? Nevermind I think it was the SETI project, it could be the HD about to give out. Did you recently add any new software or new drivers on the machine>?

 

[ForumMaster]

the CMOS means bios. although that's wierd. how old is the harddrive? Did u try putting the drive in a different machine? maybe somethinggs carppy with your MB... although your rig says u have a DFI Lanparty UT nf4 Ultra-D which is a good MB. backup would be key here. try a fresh install of XP.

 

[PurdueRy]

My seagate 7200.8 300 GB SATA just failed on me after a month of use, and let me say that their support personnel aren't all that amazing

 

[imported_rod]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1787123&enterthread=y

 

[Sean D]

Thanks for the response. The drive is only one month old. I haven't installed anything new in a few days. I checked out that thread, and while I kinda remember the HD making a noise like the "Head damage" clips, I don't really recall what it was. I restarted again and it booted up fine again, so I can only hope that all is well. I backed my drive up using Acronis, to put my mind at ease a little. Thanks again.

 

[PurdueRy]

Mine sounded most like slow spindle motor although not quite the same, anyway, it died a few hours after is started doing that. Good thing you backed up