cbrookhart Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 I have an HP Envy M6-K010DX laptop which has been running slow lately. Applications have been taking several minutes to open, and periodically the mouse has become frozen. Where I'm at right now, is the computer takes several minutes to startup. I eventually get to the desktop, but only see the background and the windows logo. I contacted HP and got them to provide me with information on accessing a diagnostic menu. I ran a diagnostic on the hard drive and it failed a short DST test. This laptop is only about two years old, and I understand that all harddrives eventually fail, but it seems like the hard drive should last longer than two years. Prior to this laptop, I had an HP DV7-3065DX which also experienced a hard drive failure. I don't recall how long the original hard drive in that laptop lasted, but I think it may have been around the 2-3 year mark. The warranty is conveniently out of date by just under a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted September 25, 2014 MVC Share Posted September 25, 2014 Just start copying what you can off the hard drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted September 25, 2014 MVC Share Posted September 25, 2014 Hard drives can fail day you get them, you never know when they might fail - makers put a warranty on them saying that it majority of them should last at least this long. You might get 10x that amount, you might get 2 weeks only, etc. I agree better start moving anything you want on that drive off. Hopefully this is not even needed because you backup your critical files anyway. Since it is out of warranty - might be good time to just go SSD, or look for new laptop all together with SSD, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhangm Supervisor Posted September 25, 2014 Supervisor Share Posted September 25, 2014 I have an HP Envy M6-K010DX laptop which has been running slow lately. Applications have been taking several minutes to open, and periodically the mouse has become frozen. Where I'm at right now, is the computer takes several minutes to startup. I eventually get to the desktop, but only see the background and the windows logo. I contacted HP and got them to provide me with information on accessing a diagnostic menu. I ran a diagnostic on the hard drive and it failed a short DST test. This laptop is only about two years old, and I understand that all harddrives eventually fail, but it seems like the hard drive should last longer than two years. Prior to this laptop, I had an HP DV7-3065DX which also experienced a hard drive failure. I don't recall how long the original hard drive in that laptop lasted, but I think it may have been around the 2-3 year mark. The warranty is conveniently out of date by just under a year. These sound like the typical symptoms of drive failure. Back up your data, and avoid using the drive for anything until you have the most important files backed up. Remember that time to failure is going to be dependent on the particular drive, so while you could have a batch of drives that have a mean lifetime of five years, that mean comes from a distribution, with half of the drives lasting longer than five years, and half lasting less than five years - many that last much longer or much shorter periods. It's not unlikely that you could get two duds in a row. Why not consider doing an overall upgrade to an SSD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted September 25, 2014 Moderator Share Posted September 25, 2014 In my experience, HP's are notorious for failing just after warranty ends. Like they have a time bomb on the board. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compl3x Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 In my experience, HP's are notorious for failing just after warranty ends. Like they have a time bomb on the board. :p Like planned obsolescence? Psst, that obviously a conspiracy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Praetor Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 These sound like the typical symptoms of drive failure. Back up your data, and avoid using the drive for anything until you have the most important files backed up. Remember that time to failure is going to be dependent on the particular drive, so while you could have a batch of drives that have a mean lifetime of five years, that mean comes from a distribution, with half of the drives lasting longer than five years, and half lasting less than five years - many that last much longer or much shorter periods. It's not unlikely that you could get two duds in a row. Why not consider doing an overall upgrade to an SSD? OP said that it failed a short DST test, so yeah the HDD is dieing; backup ASAP (with whatever tool you use, as long you do it fast, even robocopy with the right flags is OK) and go for a SSD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 Hard disks are one of those things that tends to fail very quickly...or lasts many years without incident. 2 yrs in seems a bit odd. Then again it is a laptop so there are a lot more movements and "bumps". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compl3x Posted September 26, 2014 Share Posted September 26, 2014 Hard disks are one of those things that tends to fail very quickly...or lasts many years without incident. Luckily for me, I have been in the latter camp. Optical drives, however, have given me nothing but headaches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted September 26, 2014 Moderator Share Posted September 26, 2014 Luckily for me, I have been in the latter camp. Optical drives, however, have given me nothing but headaches. And yet, opticals are cheap. Other than BD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compl3x Posted September 26, 2014 Share Posted September 26, 2014 And yet, opticals are cheap. Other than BD. I remember when the first DVD-RWs came out. They weren't giving them away. They were the "must-have" item in a lot of peoples' minds. Even BD-RWs are relatively cheap now. However, when I do a build I don't even bother putting in an optical drive unless the person has a specific reason for it (CD/DVD/BD ripping, for example). If I was buying a laptop tomorrow, I would specifically look for one without an optical drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbrookhart Posted September 26, 2014 Author Share Posted September 26, 2014 I have a hard drive docking station from the last hard drive failure. I'm hoping I can use that to get the data off the drive. As for reinstalling Windows, I'm trying to figure out how to go about doing that. This particular computer doesn't have any CD drives so I don't have any recovery setup. I understand that hard drives can fail, but I should be able to get more than two years of use out of the drive. Even HP agrees with me on this point. While I've had two hard drives fail in two HP computers, they are not the same brand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted September 28, 2014 MVC Share Posted September 28, 2014 "I should be able to get more than two years of use out of the drive" Most likely sure you would/could - doesn't mean you. Here this disk has been on for 5 plus years, everything looks good.. Then again it could fail tmrw.. Should I bitch that I should of gotten 10 years out of it? Not sure I understand your concern here.. What was the warranty on the drive? You can get lucky and get 10x the warranty -- you could fail day one out of it, etc. Drives FAIL -- if you want more than 2 years out of it with replacement, then get a warranty that is longer than 2 years ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted September 28, 2014 Moderator Share Posted September 28, 2014 I have drives from the 98/2000 days. Still work, but they are only 20GB drives. Not worth using. Then some of my latest drives failed on me, big whoop... It happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidosho Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 "I should be able to get more than two years of use out of the drive" Most likely sure you would/could - doesn't mean you. Here this disk has been on for 5 plus years, everything looks good.. 5plusyears.png Then again it could fail tmrw.. Should I bitch that I should of gotten 10 years out of it? Not sure I understand your concern here.. What was the warranty on the drive? You can get lucky and get 10x the warranty -- you could fail day one out of it, etc. Drives FAIL -- if you want more than 2 years out of it with replacement, then get a warranty that is longer than 2 years ;) Just because the S.M.A.R.T data shows fully OK, it isn't a foolproof mechanism, as most of the parameters have wholly unrealistic measurement algorithms. I have 3 WD 1TB drives here that are only 6 months old, SMART is all green, yet the drives won't read or write, they seem to have suffered sudden head failure, but SMART hasn't even picked up on it. S.M.A.R.T is useful, but only in certain circumstances, it should not be taken as gospel that the drive is perfect. Only when the drive is left idle long enough does the drive do a full built in sector self test known as offline data collection, unless done manually via diagnostic software. The mechanisms in a hard drive, especially a laptop one, are tiny. The tiny heads alone are connected via even tinier coil wires thinner than a human hair over the arm. Thrashing about several thousand times a minute in normal operation stresses them, as does doing emergency shutdowns, not letting the heads park themselves before powering down, they forcefully clank into the parking area rather than gently causing vibration in the arm assembly. Failing a short DST doesn't actually mean the drive's dead, it could just be that there's a few 'soft' bad sectors that can be fixed by rewriting the sectors. Hard bad sectors (physical damage from a drop, for example) is a different story, your heads could even have magnetic flux on them causing eventual complete degradation. I treat my HDD's like gold, not had a failure for over 7 years. At work however it's different. Normal people take stuff like this for granted and assume they can throw stuff about, I'm glad I appreciate the workings of machines, hey, someone has to ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted September 28, 2014 MVC Share Posted September 28, 2014 "Just because the S.M.A.R.T data shows fully OK, it isn't a foolproof mechanism" Where did I say that it was?? Clearly I stated that it could fail tmrw "Then again it could fail tmrw." I was using that only as a way to show how long the disk has been ON.. I think you misread what I was saying completely.. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidosho Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 I was using that only as a way to show how long the disk has been ON.. I think you misread what I was saying completely.. ;) No, I didn't actually. I was saying that just because it's been 5 years and all status green, don't get complacent, I was EMPHASISING what you said. One of my server drives recently hit 5 years, then suddenly started showing excessive bad sectors in its self tests. Good job I was planning a replacement anyway. 5 years is a long time in a 24/7 server, just shows how long a drive can actually last when from a good batch ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted September 28, 2014 MVC Share Posted September 28, 2014 Well you worded it weird if you are agreeing with me ;) Where did I say I was complacent?? You quote my text and then go on about how smart does not mean it wouldn't fail. Sure looked to me like you were trying to say even though my drive shows green and on 5 years doesn't mean it can not fail, etc.. Which was my point as well ;) Nowhere in my text did I say anything of the sort, etc. I have a arrow pointing to the time powered on was the whole reason for that post.. You can forget that I showed any smart data at all. If you were trying to agree with me - that is not how it looks.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidosho Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 @BudMan: Never mind :) I just felt like going technical :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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