HDD nigh death


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My WD 500GB recently died on me, and I had it repaired so I could at least have my data backed up to another HDD.

 

However, while transfering large files my PC froze, upon restarting it gave me a SMART error (Hard Disk bad: Backup and Replace). Now when I try to backup my files (I'm copy pasting, moving/cut-place doesn't work) the transfer rate is somewhere between 300kbps to 1mbps.

 

Now I fully understand that my HDD is about to die soon, and I should make backups ASAP.

 

What I'm looking for is technical explaination as to what exactly is wrong and if it could be repaired so that I could salvage my files.

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Upon researching I found out something about HDD dropping into PIO mode, hence the extremely slow read/write. Any thoughts about that?

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I am curious where/how you had it repaired?  Did someone just chkdsk against the filesystem - or did they replace say the pcb on the hdd?  What was the process of repair?

 

So where this was repaired didn't take a copy of the disk for you?

 

I know it might be beating a dead horse - but it can never be said enough.  If the data on this disk is important enough to you that you would pay for repair/recovery - why did you not have a backup of this data?  I just can not fathom not having multiple copies (backups) of critical data.  All disks fail, ALL OF THEM!!!  It could be one morning its just dead, or if your lucky you get some warnings via smart, etc..  But you can not store data on 1 disk only if its something you do not want to loose.  And no raid 1 or mirror is NOT a backup either..  The copies of file have to be nonsynced - or synced on schedule only, any real time sort of sync like raid 1 is not backup because if file becomes corrupted on disk one it is instantly same thing on the other disk, etc.

 

edit:  To your PIO question - is the disk IDE/PATA or is connected via SATA?  Sure OLD PATA disks had slower modes they could drop into when seeing errors, etc.  But I do not recall modern SATA disks doing that..  Even the slowest PIO mode is faster than 1mbps.

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I am curious where/how you had it repaired?  Did someone just chkdsk against the filesystem - or did they replace say the pcb on the hdd?  What was the process of repair?

 

I have a 250GB Seagate which has the primary partition, then there's the WD 500GB, for bulk storage - both SATA. The problem occurred a week ago - the drives of my data HDD vanished from My Computer. I tried plugging it into another SATA slot but it didn't work. Took it to a technician who said something about fault in a part that rotates the plates, which he apparently fixed. I plugged in the HDD, ran chkdsk which found some errors, some bad sectors in two of the partitions (8 kb each). But the HDD was good as before. The problem showed up I was transfering some huge files from the faulty HDD to my healthy one. The rest you know from my main post.

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So a problem with the drive motor? Can this be replaced without opening the drive? I don't think it can. I would pull the data off this drive and impelement a real backup strategy. Then replace this drive entirely. It is a ticking time bomb (although all drives are).

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And how much did this repair cost may I ask?  They replaced the drive motor?  Yeah that would require a clean room, and sure would not be cheap - I would guess multiple times the cost of a new drive that is for sure.  500GB -- that would be a very old drive.  You can pick up a 1TB drive for right around 50$ I would think http://www.amazon.com/WD-Blue-Desktop-Hard-Drive/dp/B0088PUEPK%C2'> $55 to your door.  How much did the repair cost?

 

"I have a 250GB Seagate which has the primary partition, then there's the WD 500GB, for bulk storage"

 

So you have NO BACKUP of any data on this bulk storage, do you have a copy of your data on the seagate on your WD?

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