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Thread ID: 118195 2011-05-24 06:00:00 Symtoms of a failing harddrive? jwig (15664) Press F1
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1204502 2011-05-24 06:00:00 Are there any regular warning signs of an impending harddrive failure? I am worried I may be in line for this but may be missing other issues.

Would an increasing incidence of non system disk startup error message, (followed by normal startup after a reboot ) be a symtom of a failing hard drive in the IT gurus' opinions?

I am running linux mint, (newbie) on a small reformatted, second-hand hard drive, (laptop), and this behaviour is recent (this week.) Initially I thought it may be due to colder temperatures and because I had taken the battery out, (running on mains), but replacing the battery hasn't eliminated the problem; very simplistic thinking on my part I realise.

I'd be grateful for any guidance and good advice.
jwig (15664)
1204503 2011-05-24 06:28:00 Dose your bios have smartdrive ? if yes turn it on. HD manufacturers have diagnostic software on there websites which you can download and install. Trev (427)
1204504 2011-05-24 06:49:00 Hard Drives are funny things, sometimes they give a lot of warnings, other times its :yuck: dead, with no warning at all.

Have a read of This article (www.lifehack.org) and This article (ezinearticles.com) - they both give a brief insight, as to some of the possible symptoms.

All HDD's can and will fail, its just a matter of when, it could be days old or many years.
wainuitech (129)
1204505 2011-05-24 07:19:00 Thanks very much Trev and Wainuitech; I will do the reading , (great to have the direction) and look into the bios/smartdrive diagnostic idea..see if I've got it..so much to learn. Thanks so much for helping. I'm not sure of the best way to back up in linux mint as the installed system I tried refused to co-operate. I'll try again..maybe an update has fixed the problem. jwig (15664)
1204506 2011-05-24 07:50:00 Had a hdd die at work last week pc started freezing and going slow. clone it before it got totaled. bluezone (12434)
1204507 2011-05-27 00:40:00 What is the most effective way to clone? I've been looking at dual drive docking stations on Trademe and wondering if that was the best way...any ideas or experience with these anyone? jwig (15664)
1204508 2011-05-27 10:33:00 thats a old school HD fault right there.

Maxblast (download from Seagate) or the equivelent from Western digital
are about as good as free clone software gets, for Win. Not sure about Lin, should work.
Just burn the ISO to CD & boot off the CD, with the new HD installed & the old HD connected via some USB device.

the cheapest are just a cable converter from sata/ide to USB, & work really well.
sroby (11519)
1204509 2011-06-12 01:35:00 This is late but thanks indeed Sroby, this is really helpful...( been offline in de orrible orspital...worst sympton was internet withdrawals ..): I believe the usb cables have to be special ones for data transfer? jwig (15664)
1204510 2011-06-12 01:36:00 This is late but thanks indeed Sroby, this is really helpful...( been offline in de orrible orspital...worst symptom was internet withdrawals ..): I believe the usb cables have to be special ones for data transfer? jwig (15664)
1204511 2011-06-12 05:50:00 SMART is pretty useless, I would never trust it. Alex B (15479)
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