[SOLVED] Help Diagnosing A Desktop

metaschima · 01-13-2014, 02:38 PM

Quote:

A logical — or soft — bad sector is a cluster of storage on the hard drive that appears to not be working properly. The operating system may have tried to read data on the hard drive from this sector and found that the error-correcting code (ECC) didn’t match the contents of the sector, which suggests that something is wrong. These may be marked as bad sectors, but can be repaired by overwriting the drive with zeros — or, in the old days, performing a low-level format. Windows’ Disk Check tool can also repair such bad sectors.
...
A few bad sectors don’t indicate that a hard drive is about to fail — they can just happen. However, if your hard drive is rapidly developing bad sectors, it may be a sign that your hard drive is failing.

I agree with this. I also agree that "soft" errors can be repaired, so if you believe these to be soft errors then maybe it is worth trying to zero the drive.

See Reallocated Sectors Count:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

Ztcoracat · 01-13-2014, 03:01 PM

A zero fill may take a few days so I will return with the news when it's complete.

metaschima · 01-13-2014, 04:19 PM

Also see "Current Pending Sector Count". If this is consistently high, then you probably have hard errors, as soft errors would have been corrected and the count would be decreased. "Uncorrectable Sector Count" would also be high for hard errors.

If you can, run a SMART long test (smartctl -t long /dev/sda) and post the results (smartctl -a /dev/sda) after it finishes. I guess after you zero the drive.

Ztcoracat · 01-16-2014, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ukiuki

It maybe a problem with the installation disk, how about run the installation from a pendrive just to avoid lost of CDs?
Also would be better to wipe the HDD with dd just to make sure absolutely nothing is there before install the system.

I was writing while you also was writing the second post and I didn't see it until now;

So now it is clear that your cd drive have a physical problem and is not able to read all the data on the disks. So go with a bootable pendrive with the installation files or ISO to be able to intall the desired system.

Regards

I purchased a new 16GB pendrive today.
Went into the BIOS and set this machine to boot to usb-
So far the distribution that I put on the pendrive just hangs.

Ztcoracat · 01-16-2014, 01:24 AM

Ok it's been well over 30 min's and the distro on the pendrive finally booted to the first screen of the installer to choose English but now it's been stuck on the wireless screen for an additional 20 min's.

ukiuki · 01-16-2014, 11:49 AM

What distro are you running from the USB? Go with the really light ones for diagnose, like Slitaz, Tinycore, Puppy and alike.

And did you do the memtest yet? What are the results?

Regards

Ztcoracat · 01-16-2014, 01:51 PM

Voyager 12.04 is one the usb pendrive.
I'll download Puppy, try that and get back to you.

I'm having trouble finding the Memtest DVD that I burned.

I found an article that gave me some evidence about a hard drive going bad.
It mentions a grinding or screeching sound which I heard several times last week.
Freeze and lock ups were mentioned as well. The DE locked up on 3 start up events.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com...ard-drive2.htm

I tried one more time using the Recovery Disc that came with this box.
First attempt it locked up at 77% and hung. The second attempt it locked up at 37% and hung.

ukiuki · 01-16-2014, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ztcoracat

...
It mentions a grinding or screeching sound which I heard several times last week.
...

Ugh that doesn't looks good, try also unplug the cd drive, then switch, plug it back and unplug the hard drive, to see hows things goes, I have seen bad drives causing those kind of behaviors your machine is having.

Regards

Ztcoracat · 01-16-2014, 07:35 PM

Using Puppy on the pendrive is working.

DMESG gives me bus error after bus error.
If it's the front bus it could be the mobo too-

Code:

frozen
ata1:.00 irq_stat 0x8000000 interface fatal error
ata1: SError:UnrecovData
Host Int 0B8B Bad CRC

I looked up CRC it's Cyclical Redundancy Check.

I think your right ukiuki, this hard disk drive is done for.
Kaputt!

The only thing left to do is call the manufacturer and see if they will replace the HDD.
This machine is under warranty for 5 years and it hasn't been the whole 5 years yet.