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

[TygerTyger]

Give that dog a bone! Excellent stuff James thank you.

What's not so excellent is that my 5 month old hard drive is already at breakdown threshold level. Nice to see that it's not my imagination that my computer has slowed down too, performance is at threshold level too. Well if they are replacing the hard drive, maybe they can replace my flickering screen while they are at it.

Charge a fortune then use cheap components mumble mumble complain angry kill them all spare no-one shove laptop right up mumble mumble.

Does anyone know, do they give you a courtesy laptop when you send yours in? And would a report showing probable imminent faliure hold enough to weight to get a replacement do you think?

[kee-lo_]

They don't give you any courtesy laptop
Hopefully it'll only be 4 days at most....

As for reports, the more you can give the better for them.
I should hope Sony use Everest anyway!

[TygerTyger]

I used the second one, James was right it is better. But damn it's depressing. All these little statistics that say 'This will worsen over time' and seeing just how low they have gotten in 5 months. And not through fault either, just through wear. Phew.

Thanks anyway, I guess I'll print off a copy and go rant about my screen and hard drive. With that much wrong I'd half expect a new one.

[kee-lo_]

Heh knowing Sony they'll slip in a new Tosh and give you a new screen and inverter....

[jammold]

 Woah thanks for the info James, very handy post.

You and Tyger are both welcome!

As for reports, the more you can give the better for them.

True - more reports is more ammunition for diagnosing disk related errors.

Thninking about it the same happened to me Tyger, with my machine reaching the 5 month point a few months back. What happened was the Help file for Adobe Photoshop Elements (on SP1) crashed the system. I ran CHKDSK as a matter of course, and reinstalled the application and it worked!

As an additional recommendation, use Everest to get the manufacturer of your hard disk - as IC25N040ATMR04-0 doesn't mean anything to a mere mortal like me LOL!:smileygrin:
Once you know who made the disk, follow the links in Everest to get the Hard Disk manufacurers proprietary tools for disk diagnosis - this may reset your SMART values. Run this at least every month to check the disk drive and more often if the hard disk displays unusual symptoms.

Symptoms:
1. Long seek times
2. Very noisy operation (i.e. above normal)
3. Very slow operation (i.e. OS hardly appears to start)
4. Certain files cannot be accessed
5. You get SMART Failure: Disk failure imminent messages on OS boot.

This is not an exhaustive list, but if your hard disk meets one or more of the above, then run diagnostics software ASAP and backup your data immediately!

Sorry I omitted this from the original post - but this may help newbies out there.

[kee-lo_]

Ah I see

[jigme]

well,

thanks for your help. i've done about as much HDD diagnosis and maintenance as i can - i've run both Everest & Drivesitter (both of which, as far as i can tell, return OK status in all categories), i've wiped my freespace using Eraser, i've run CHKDSK - no problems, i've defragged...
as far as i can tell - and i'm no hacker - i'm getting a clean bill of health here...

...but i'm not convinced! SOMETHING caused this machine to refuse to boot up - OS not found, HDD not found (no HDD light...) - for several hours, before returning to (apparently) normal. weird...

any ideas?

cheers,
j

[jammold]

If its under guarantee, speak to Sony by phone first (more reliable IMHO) and explain the problem fully. You may incur repair charges, but the turn around time apparantly varies from 4 days to 2 weeks.

If its out of guarantee look here at VAIOVillage.com who specialise in DIY repairs and how-to's.

[TygerTyger]

Well nobody has mentioned a very thorough virus check, so I guess now would be the time. Unexplained hard drive crashes and missing OS's and distinctly virusey, especially if the hard drive is ok in all your tests.

Bear in mind though that the hard drive diagnostics may give you the 'OK' green light even though some parts of the dignostic say it's on the way out so check em if you didn't already.

[jammold]

 Well nobody has mentioned a very thorough virus check

Glad to see someone is on the ball - I feel like a complete now.