Failing Drive: SATA 3 (Orange)

[Tom Saurus]

I had to take my computer up to town yesterday for it to be worked on. I have a new 2 TB boot drive that has Windows XP on. The tech was able to put the other drive back in and I have been copying data off of it to the new drive. I probably deserved this breakdown of the hard drive because fool that I am I had it crammed full of video files and such and there was only 60mb left on the hard drive. I kept putting off buying another USB portable hard drive to put stuff on. Well anyway I will write down here exactly what the screen says when I restart my computer:

Failing Drive: SATA 3 (Orange)
Faling Attribute: #5
To minimize the risk of data loss, backup the
contents of your hard drive and run DPS Test
in F10 Setup.

I am copying all the data I want to save to the new drive. I doubt this drive can be saved. I would appreciate any advice on this issue. Thank you in advance.

I was really stressed last night getting the Hauppauge 150 set back up. I wish there was a way to put the Hauppauge 150 into a new more powerful computer with Windows 7 on it. Unfortunately these PCI cards don't fit into the new computers. Thankfully the capture card is up and running again.

[jman98]

There is some risk with this error code, but some have reported it as a false error. Many have said that they had weeks or months after seeing it before the drive died. So most likely you do have time to get your stuff off the drive, but do this as soon as you can. Some have reported being able to use diagnostic tools on their drives in this condition AFTER copying all their important stuff of it and being able to fix the problem and reuse the drive, but based on what I read you shouldn't count on this although there is a small chance it could happen.

I still feel that USB flash drives by good manufacturers like Patriot are VERY reliable storage devices. As long as you eject the device before removing it, I've never had any data loss with a good USB flash drive. Anything with moving parts, like a disk drive, will eventually fail. You may have a lot of stuff where buying a boatload of USB flash drives isn't reliable. In that case you may wish to burn stuff to good quality BluRay data discs for backup. Or buy an extra hard drive just to serve as an emergency backup of your important stuff, but leave it mostly disconnected and powered off and store it safely in a closet somewhere.

There's nothing magical about the Hauppauge PVR-150 and its size, but it is kind of long in the tooth dude. The Colossus is a better card. If you build your own PCs (I don't know if you can do this) or just buy from a smaller manufacturer who does custom builds like for gamers, you can get a motherboard and a case that can easily take this card. I built my own PC last year and my case is a gigantic tower, but I have room in my house for it and it's great because I have tons of space to easily add cards to it, like the Colossus, if I need to.

[jagabo]

That error indicates the reserved relocation sectors are being used up because the drive is developing too many bad blocks. Modern drives reserve a portion of the drive to relocate bad sectors. When they detect a sector is going bad they stop using it and move the data to one of the reserved sectors. This is invisible to applications and the operating system. This is also why drives appear to have no bad blocks when they are new -- all the bad blocks were relocated before the drive got to you. As more bad blocks develop the reserved blocks get used up. That may or may not spell impending doom.

When I see problems like that I immediately copy everything to a new drive. Then I use the drive as secondary storage. I run a full surface scan every now and then to see if it's getting worse. If it hasn't gotten worse in a few months it can be trusted again.

[Tom Saurus]

jman98: Thank you for your advice. I checked out the Hauppauge Colossus at the Hauppauge Website, if I can get some money scratched together I want to get that. I do have a Hauppauge HD PVR that I haven't used yet; I have been hesitant because it works via the USB and I have thought that isn't a fast enough interface for the video to turn out right. I am glad there is this Colossus option as well. My HP i5 has room for one expansion drive so I was thinking of getting a 2 TB drive installed and testing out the HD PVR. The Windows XP computer only has a Pentium 4 chip and now that I am used to the i5, it seems like a dinosaur.

jagabo: Thank you for your advice. I would like to use that hard drive for some additional storage, but I don't think I can really trust it. I am transferring stuff and I am grateful it gave me a warning. I also am grateful I haven't run across some redundacy errors like I have on other drives that were failing. Maybe redundancy isn't the right term, just those errors that mean the files is practically corrupted and you have to just delete it and move on.

I hadn't realized that the Colossus was in the marketplace. I believe my tech could get me on and install it. I am also saving for a 32 inch TV that I can use as a second monitor and my regular television.

[ranchhand]

If you want to test the drive for imminent failure, use the (free) Seagate Seatools for DOS CD: go to the link, click on Downloads, and d/load the ISO, burn it to a CD, and boot with it in the DVD drive (make sure your BIOS is set to CD=1st boot device. When it loads, choose Short Scan from the upper left section and let it run. It will give you a Pass or Fail notice. This utility may be used with any drive, not just Seagate.
http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/#

[jman98]

The Hauppauge Colossus and HD PVR are based on the same chip. The Colossus has an input for unencrypted HDMI that the HD PVR lacks, but otherwise they seem similar. The Colossus has a hardware TBC you can turn on with a Windows registry check. You might want to search and see if the HD PVR has that too. I'm not sure that you'd really gain anything by using the Colossus instead of an already purchased HD PVR. Try using the HD PVR first in case it meets your needs.

[Tom Saurus]

ranchhand: Thank you for your advice. I think I will pass that information along to the tech guy who works on my computer. He is the type who is willing to keep up to date on this kind of thing and I am sure it would be of great use to him as well.

jman98: Thanks once again for your input. That hardware TBC is an attractive feature. When I used to tape stuff on VHS tapes at EP I came to regret not having a TBC to help stabilize the video as it can be very jumpy. I am going to try the HD PVR someday soon just to test it out. I was hoping to have that additional drive in first, as per my stupid habit, I have far too much stuff on the main drive.

[jagabo]

Anyone have some samples with and without the Colussus' TBC?

[Tom Saurus]

SHS: I want to give a special thanks to you for your unofficial Hauppauge PVR website. I must of misplaced my Driver/Software CD for the HD PVR and found what I needed on your website. It was quite stressful realizing that CD was not in the box with all the other stuff. It was so terrific to find what I needed at your website.

[jagabo]

And is it a line TBC? A full frame TBC? Or both?

[nic2k4]

One thing with this kind of error, sometimes a drive using up its reserve sectors is the result of a bad cable or a dying controller. I've had drives making odd sounds, I would run Crystal Disc Info on them and find the Reallocated Sector Count was yellow. I'd replace the cable and keep checking the drive and the count would stop increasing.

I just got a powerMac to fix, I figured the drive controller died a horrible death and took the HDD with it. Crystal Disc Info only showed a yellow Reallocated Sector Count, but nothing would boot anymore (tried a cloned drive and the installation DVD).

If you replace your drive and want to make sure it's secure enough as a secondary storage, run Crystal Disc Info on it regularly and see if changes (the threshold value can be reset).

[Tom Saurus]

nic2k4: Thank you for this additional information. I have cleared out all my vital files off the failing hard drive. I got some instructions on the internet to save all my Outlook Express Messages and import them back into Outlook Express. On my Windows 7 computer I have been thinking of activating the Windows Mail Program that has taken over from Outlook Express. I have always used Outlook Express for personal email. I better get back to the hard drive. I am still getting the warning message, but my computer has improved speed wise when I started moving files off that hard drive.

[Tom Saurus]

I cleared off all the vital files. I decided to do a disk defrag on that drive today. This turned out to be a mistake. Disk Defrag got hung up, and I had to force a shutdown with the Windows Task Manager. I ended up with a "Delayed Write Fail" message that kept popping up. I restarted the computer and it told me it recognized the other three drives and the failing drive no longer shows up. So I suppose I might be able to disconnect the failing hard drive myself inside the case. The technician put it on the bottom. It only had System Files and Windows XP files about 9.8 GB worth, I am glad I got everything important backed up.

I think I might bring the hard drive up to have him dispose of it for me and perhaps he can test it out and see if it is worth trying to save.