is there a test to check for imminent hard disk failure?

[BlahBlahYouToo]

i have a pc that slows to a crawl after being on for a few hours.
once in awhile, it'll boot to a blue screen that says it shut down to protect the system, etc. (xp sp2)

i have a feeling it's the hd but i can't really prove it... just a gut instinct.
there's no clicking or anything audible, so i'm just going on a hunch.
SMART is enabled and doesn't throw any errors.

is there some sort of disk check utility to check the health of the hd other than the windows chkdsk crap?
the disk is a 2 year old seagate 7200.7 iirc.

 

[Blain]

"is there a test to check for imminent hard disk failure?"

Wouldn't a Magic App. be nice? :laugh:
I can tell you now... Hard drives will fail.

 

[Roguestar]

The point of SMART is to try and attempt to pre-empt hard drive failures based on occurence of bad sectors, head problems etc. Other than that, it's pretty hard to predict the future. To be honest, if you think it's the drive, maybe you should just go replace it now. Get yourself a nice 750GB Samsung Spinpoint F1.

 

[Blain]

Forget that Samsung. They were "ok" back in 2007.
Get a VelociRaptor or 640GB Caviar.

 

[RebateMonger]

SMART is pretty worthless. Don't count on a warning from SMART. If you ever DO get a warning from SMART, assume the drive is bad.

All you can do is:
1) Look and listen for strange behavior from the drive. Any new noises, loud bearings, excessively high temperature, clicking, hesitation, and failure to be recognized at boot are all warnings.
2) Monitor the System Event log in your PC, looking for disk errors.
3) Run the hard drive maker's Disk Diagnostics program. It's free.
4) Keep ongoing backups of anything important. This is most important, since hard drives can fail at any time, without warning. Warranty or no warranty.

 

[Paperdoc]

The symptoms you describe sound more like an overheating problem. Many modern system's motherboards monitor key temperatures (for example, the CPU) and take two possible actions. If the first temp limit is exceeded it will slow down the system to reduce power consumption and heat generation. But if temp gets even hotter it may shut down completely - hence the message about "Shut down to protect the system".

Check for cooling problems. Check air intakes and exit points - anything blocking them? Dust built up? Clogged filters? Then observe the fans in the system. You will have at minimum of one in the Power Supply unit blowing warm air out the back, and another mounted directly on the CPU to cool it. There may be one or more fans in the case to draw in cool air and / or blow out warm air. There may be one mounted on the video card, directly oven the GPU chip to cool it. Are they all turning?

Last possibility, and a bit harder to check, is maybe the thermal paste between CPU and its cooler is not working. To fix that you usually have to remove the cooler carefully and probably the CPU chip, clean off their mating surfaces with rubbing alcohol to remove old heat sink paste, then apply new paste per the manufacturer's directions and re-install everything. If you are not handy with computer assembly, this one might be better done by a competent tech.

 

[RebateMonger]

I agree that it doesn't sound like your particular problem is a hard drive problem. The EXACT shutdown message (including any error codes) would be nice to have, along with the content of related System Event messages.

 

[0roo0roo]

google the google harddrive study.
and yes, smart isn't that useful.

but yea as said, not certain thats a drive problem. bad drive tends to slow system down when it tries to read certain areas and begins its fail/retry dance.

it wouldn't slow everything down.

cpu that is overheating can begin to throttle...or simply act crazy...or other things are overheating...hows the psu fan?

 

[bruceb]

I agree. Most likely not the hard drive based on what you provided.
Likely what was mentioned as to CPU Fan or bad power supply or
maybe, the RAM is getting flaky. Bad capacitors on the Mobo can
also do this .. easy to check .. see if any electrolytics are Bulging or
oozing out the electrolyte .. if so, they need to be changed.

This site tells and shows about bad caps: http://badcaps.net/

You can run a memory test with Memtest86 from here: http://memtest86.com/
It is free, but you need to burn it to a cd ... take the bootable iso file

 

[BlueAcolyte]

You can use HDTune's error checker...

 

[JackMDS]

There is a "Cosmetic" shift in the technology. Because it is Important/fashionable to be Green the Power Saving of the system's components creates a new ballgame.

Some of our enthusiasts "smell and fell" indicator might Not be so valid any more, and need to be adjusted.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

is your system overclocked?
Try a different power connector from the psu, preferably on a different line.
To be safe, some other quick things to rid a chance of other problems:
reflash bios to newest version- if you have a bios virus, standard checkers may not find it
reduce your installed memory to one dimm, if the problems (mainly blue screen) continue, swap it for the next. if it goes away- you have faulty ram

 

[0roo0roo]

install linux, see if it happens.
oruse a linux live boot dvd

 

[boomerang]

A short story.

4 year old system that belongs to a friend. He wants me to do a clean install of XP as he wants to give the computer to his sister. It's a Gateway and he has all the disks.

I decide to run Memtest and it passes just fine. I decide to run a diagnostic from Maxtor on the HD. It wants the full diagnostic run and says the drive is failing. I run it again with the same results.

I call him to tell him the news and that I suggest replacing the drive. I explain that I have never seen a HD diagnostic utility give these type of results. I've always seen results saying they're either good or bad.

He says that the computer had been running extremely slow and was getting near impossible to use.

I realize this is contradictory to what you've been reading here, but it's a true story nonetheless. Take it for what it's worth.

 

[JackMDS]

Boomerang, what is the technical explanation?

What in an HD can slow down the computer without the typical frantic re-read clicks?

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
Boomerang, what is the technical explanation?

What in an HD can slow down the computer without the typical frantic re-read clicks?

I have no explanation. Just telling the story. A new HD, and a fresh install and it's running like a champ.

I wish I could explain it as it goes contrary to everything (very little) that I know.