hard drive dead? help!

[jigme]

hi - sorry if this has been covered, i'm new to this forum, there's no search tool (!!!), and i've looked thru' A LOT of thread topics without finding anything relevant...

anyway - got home tonight to my pcg-grv616g, which suddenly won't boot - i get sony logo, then os not found. tried the recovery disk to see if i could get into safe mode and at least back-up my data before taking any further steps (as is traditional in these situations, my data is NOT currently backed-up...), but it wouldn't work - hard disk not found.

HELP!

please tell me my hard drive hasn't just died - warranty ran out last month (how do they do that? that timing's uncanny.), i doubt i can afford sony repair, and i NEED that data (and a working notebook...).

like i said, please HELP!

many thanks,
j

[Twisted-Rizla]

Sounds like your hard drive is on the way out.

[jigme]

hmmm...

it's suddenly started working again now, though something doesn't sound 100% - hard drive? fan?

seems a bit early for a piece of kit i'd assumed was fairly reliable (coming from a reputable manufacturer, etc.) and was going to last me a few years to start coming apart. it gets daily, fairly intensive use, but still... it's less than 18 months old!

what d'you reckon - would you look at buying a new hard drive? any tips on how to go about it relatively cheaply? there's no way i can afford a new notebook...

also, is this kind of lifespan common among VAIO components, and can i expect other stuff to wipe out soon? 😞

cheers,
j

[TygerTyger]

Well this is a bit of a long shot, but my hard drive was going a bit batty so I used my last resource tactic and to my surprise it worked. Turned out it was just a few important data sectors had gone bad, preventing start up half the time. Run XP's scandisk utility (Right click on your C:\ drive and click properties. Choose the Tools tab from the top and then click 'Check Now') Make sure both recovery options are ticked. And then do a scan, you will probably have to restart. It's a bit of a sellotape job but you never know. Worked for me.

[kee-lo_]

If that fails your yellow pages should have some good repairers, get some quotes.

[famanad]

I had exactly the same problem a few months ago and sent my laptop to Sony. They said that there was nothing wrong but renewed the hard disk anyway. Guess what? I have exactly the same problem again and will contact Sony Customer Support

Frank

[TygerTyger]

Twice in one row is bad bad luck. I wasn't very amused at my hard drive problems, I've only had it a few months.

Speaking of which, is there a limit to how many bad sectors there can be on a hard drive before you get a replacement? I mean, like the number of dodgy pixels in an LCD before you get a replacement?

[kee-lo_]

Don't think it works like that Tyger...

[jammold]

Speaking of which, is there a limit to how many bad sectors there can be on a hard drive before you get a replacement? I mean, like the number of dodgy pixels in an LCD before you get a replacement?

Nope. You can look at your S.M.A.R.T statistics to see how often this is occuring. Most hard drives will automatically reallocate dead sectors to new live sectors on-the-fly. Occasionally this needs external help, by using CHKDSK (Check Disk) for Windows XP for instance.

To view your SMART statistics, use Lavalys EVEREST Home Edition. Look under STORAGE > SMART and pay attention to the "Reallocated Sector Count". If the value drops below the threshold value, the disk is in trouble and data backup is urgent. However, since the SMART status for each disk is proprietary, you still need to remain alert for any changes in the way your hard disk works.

You can also try DriveSitter which is shareware software, but it can provide more unambiguous results and generate reports.

[kee-lo_]

Woah thanks for the info James, very handy post.