Hard drive getting more broken every day, can't boot Windows anymore
13 replies, posted
Some days ago my laptop (which I only bought two weeks ago by the way) started stuttering every 10 minutes. If I was working in a program it would go unresponsive for half a minute, same if I listened to audio (video was strangely enough not affected).
So I decided to scan my HDD, and the S.M.A.R.T. test was okay, except that I had 2880 "pending sectors" (apparently the same as bad sectors). I decided to run a chkdsk to make sure it wasn't a mistake, that scan only found 7 bad sectors.
However, the next day my laptop just suddenly BSOD'ed and gave the error "Operating system not found". After I forced to shut my laptop down, it booted just fine, albeit very slowly (booting up took about 15 mins).
Today, however, my laptop crashed again and showed that same error as yesterday but Windows doesn't boot anymore. It keeps getting stuck in Startup Repair (even if I choose to boot normally).
Now I'm running on a Ubuntu LiveCD and I can actually access all my files on my HDD, which is even weirder. I'm probably just going to return this laptop, but maybe you guys have a better idea of what's going on.
tl;dr: Windows doesn't boot anymore, probably because of my HDD, but I can access all my files just fine through a LiveCD, I have no idea how to fix this.
What brand is the laptop? And it's odd that you can access all your files perfectly fine, but that's possibly just because you're viewing them rather than actually executing them. I'd imagine that if you stored a linux program on there and ran it, it could have problems, or if you installed ubuntu on the hard drive you'd probably have the same problems. You'll most likely need a new hard drive but you're better off returning the laptop considering you only got it 2 weeks ago
It's a Sony VAIO S, I'm not sure if this falls under the warranty though, I guess I'll call them tomorrow. I actually copied some of the most important files over to a USB drive, so I don't really know what's the matter.
Hmm I wouldn't have expected that from a Sony VAIO, you must just be really unlucky. I'd expect something like that to happen if you got a Dell or HP laptop though. Sometimes you can still copy files over, but you'll probably find that if you try to copy over a large amount of files (for example over 2GB) that it might freeze and error, I've had that problem in the past
2880 pending sectors means that there are 2880 sectors on the hard drive that are damaged and the drive is trying to recover those sectors' data and move them to a new area of the disk.
Having 2000+ bad sectors is not normal, and is likely a sign that the drive has had a head strike (where the read/write heads inside the drive have struck the rotating platters.) Head strikes are usually caused by a sudden jarring motion up and down (dropping a laptop while powered on more than an inch.)
Head strikes will cause irrecoverable data loss due to the heads physically scraping the magnetic coating off the disk. Your only choice really is to buy a new hard drive.
So if I replaced it with an SSD the same thing wouldn't happen again right? Because I'm not really sure if what happened counts as "physical damage", but if it does, my warranty is apparently voided.
An SSD wouldn't do that because it's not mechanical
[QUOTE=Egonny;38221287]So if I replaced it with an SSD the same thing wouldn't happen again right? Because I'm not really sure if what happened counts as "physical damage", but if it does, my warranty is apparently voided.[/QUOTE]
SSDs are more resistant to damage from falling, but they can still break like everything else. The EEPROMs inside SSDs are usually mounted on BGAs, which are the most troublesome type of chip mount.
[QUOTE=Egonny;38221287]So if I replaced it with an SSD the same thing wouldn't happen again right? Because I'm not really sure if what happened counts as "physical damage", but if it does, my warranty is apparently voided.[/QUOTE]
If there is no scuffs or anything signaling that you dropped it, you could easily get it replaced.
You aren't using windows 8 are you?
[QUOTE=Zerokateo;38228227]If there is no scuffs or anything signaling that you dropped it, you could easily get it replaced.[/QUOTE]
Except that would be fraud, and the fact that S.M.A.R.T. on laptop hard drives has a sensor to detect freefall events and logs them to the S.M.A.R.T. table for later examination.
Drive manufacturers and computer manufacturers aren't as dumb and gullible as you think they are. That aren't out to lose money for user error/stupidity.
[QUOTE=bohb;38231849]Except that would be fraud, and the fact that S.M.A.R.T. on laptop hard drives has a sensor to detect freefall events and logs them to the S.M.A.R.T. table for later examination.
Drive manufacturers and computer manufacturers aren't as dumb and gullible as you think they are. That aren't out to lose money for user error/stupidity.[/QUOTE]
But I didn't drop the laptop and I'm still not sure what actually caused the head strike. The only reason that I can come up with is that it shifted while stored in my backpack, but none of my previous laptops ever broke because of that.
[QUOTE=bohb;38231849]Except that would be fraud, and the fact that S.M.A.R.T. on laptop hard drives has a sensor to detect freefall events and logs them to the S.M.A.R.T. table for later examination.
Drive manufacturers and computer manufacturers aren't as dumb and gullible as you think they are. That aren't out to lose money for user error/stupidity.[/QUOTE]
Never said they were dumb or gullible but I usually don't think they even check that unless I just got lucky when I sent in my cousins Samsung drive after she dropped her laptop. And its not really fraud if you tell them "My HDD crashed and wont work" and say nothing else. If they ask you if you dropped it or anything and tell them no, then that would be fraud.
[editline]29th October 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Egonny;38233051]But I didn't drop the laptop and I'm still not sure what actually caused the head strike. The only reason that I can come up with is that it shifted while stored in my backpack, but none of my previous laptops ever broke because of that.[/QUOTE]
This probably could be what happened, hard drives aren't as sensitive as they used to be but there are always those "One times" That just ruin something, If you get it fixed/replaced it probably won't happen again but I'd be careful still.
Back your shit up while you can.
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