Proving a HD is actually dying....

Mutant_Fruit

I had HD problems a few weeks ago, which resulted in the drive losing all my info TWICE. I sent it back as an RMA, but its now being shipped back to me. Komplett believe that it is fine, but there is NO WAY the drive is fine. I will NOT under any circumstances be putting ANY data on it.

How can i prove that the drive really is faulty. They ran some tests (including a 17 hour "burn-in" test, which showed up no problems, but the drive itself has lost the partition info twice, and corrupted my files. I am positive it is dodgy.

Mutant_Fruit

or would it be possible for it to be RMA'ed directly to Western Digital (its a WD 160gb drive). If so, anyone care to run me through the details of how to do that.

secret_squirrel

One suggestion, use the SMART monitoring section of SpeedFan. Its meant to collect all the smart statistics and tell you if a hard drive is gonna fail.

Install it as a second drive and copy some crappy data onto it. Then set up a (very regular) scheduled task in windows, that say copies a file from 1 place to another.

Alternatively Im sure there are more specialised tools out there that will do the same thing or allow you to perform your own burn-in tests.

secret_squirrel

here's what it looks like :

Mutant_Fruit

yeah, i ran one of those type programs, and it was predicting iminent failure, and it did fail... twice. (but it still spins).

I need a bullet proof way to prove it is dodgy, and so far all i can think of is the copying/pasting. But there has to be a better way.

Fabritzo

I've a WD 160 8meg cache I bought from komplett that is giving me trouble too, it was working fine earlier and now on boot it gives disk read error occured, I'll have to put it as slave on a different machine to get data from it, it's not more than 4-5months old.

Mutant_Fruit

same model as mine (WD Cavier 160gb with 8mb cache), except mine is about 6-7 months old.

Argh, thats not the first report i've heard of those 160gb drives bought around that time causing problems.

Explosive_Cornflake

Ahhh, i don't like heariong this. I have one of these also. My motherboard is being RMA'ed at the minute and i needed tog et some info off that HD, so i stuck it on a usb connection that it worked on before and no joy. Started to get worried. So i but it into this box as a slave and i worked fine. Hmmm, i had a feeling it had a problem running as a master. Crap, i don't have enough room to copy it.

Fabritzo

Mine shows up fine as slave, so I'm wondering how to run windows system file checker on a slave drive, there's something wrong with the partition info...I can't reinstall xp without formatting

unkel

Originally posted by Mutant_Fruit
or would it be possible for it to be RMA'ed directly to Western Digital (its a WD 160gb drive). If so, anyone care to run me through the details of how to do that.

Apparently so. I'll take the liberty of suggesting you PM the brigadier for some info

He's been there with Western Digital drives and he is a sound chap so hopefully you'll strike luck!

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Mutant_Fruit
yeah, i ran one of those type programs, and it was predicting iminent failure, and it did fail... twice. (but it still spins).

I need a bullet proof way to prove it is dodgy, and so far all i can think of is the copying/pasting. But there has to be a better way.

I think thats all the proof I'd need. I'd print a screen grab of the software message and send it all to Komplett and demand a replacement, of a different model. I think if you stick to your guns on this they'll have to give you a replacement. Ask what tests they did on the drive. As a drive with an intermitent fault might look ok if all they did was boot off the drive once or twice. If they are still being stroppy, say the drive is useless to you if you can rely on it, and that you'll take it to the small claims court and who do you need to contact about that.

Generally that shifts them around to your view point.

Mutant_Fruit

Right, i'll reinstall the program, and get it to show up the ETD (estimated time of death ). I'll e-mail that to them and see what happens.

Now, to wait for parcelforce to return it to me...

Explosive_Cornflake

On a side noe, how long does the RMA procedure take in general? I've been without my mobo for about 2 weeks now. Only got to post it last tuesday, so i e-mailed wedneday gone by, and all they said was that it is still probably in ballycoolin.
Itss annoying me now, as i'm going to get a new rig in a few months anyway.

Mutant_Fruit

RMA takes roughly 3-4 weeks, and thats pretty typical for all suppliers.

secret_squirrel

My motherboard RMA with komplett took almost 2 months, but to be fair thats because SDS lost it.

Although they did return it with the fault still there - its v picky about how you put the ram in......