# Windows detected a hard disk problem



## wishing

Recently everytime i turn on my pc, before the windows loading screen, it pop out a message
"A problem with the hard drive has been detected. Press the enter key to continue"

Although i can start windows by pressing enter key, but after i enter windows it pop out another message.
"Windows detected a hard disk problem"
"Back up your files immediately to prevent information loss"

Hard disk : Seagate ST3200827AS ATA Device

Anyone could please tell me the solution, I really appreciate it.
Thanks


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## sobeit

sounds like your drive is going bad. before you do anything, backup any files you cannot afford to lose. 

Once you backup the drive, download and run seatools  and see what it says.


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## wishing

Thanks for the reply.
Yesterday i just finish scanning using seatools. It fixed 4 errors on my hard disk.
But this problem is still there even though i delete & recreate my partition.


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## sobeit

then the drive just may need to be replaced before it totally crashes.


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## wishing

Means there is no solution for my drive already??


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## sobeit

wishing said:


> Means there is no solution for my drive already??


Once a drive starts getting errors then its normally downhill. It may run a day or so or it could be a year or more. IMO, its now unreliable you can still use it but be sure to keep backups or install it as a slave so nothing critical can run on it. 

One thing you can try is to do a scan disk and let it fix errors. Who knows maybe it will help.

Theres could be other possible solutions - like doing a low level format but its risky. I really do not advise doing it. Someone else may have other advise.


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## wishing

Erm.. Did u know how long is the warranty for Seagate hard drive?


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## wishing

If anyone still have the solution, please tell me..
Thanks Thanks ~


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## Deleted090308

To check if the drive is under warranty:
http://support.seagate.com/customer/warranty_validation.jsp


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## wishing

Thanks


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## kevin419

i just started getting that msg also. the thing is i just boughtthe computer a little less than a month ago from best buy. could i have bought a "bad comp"?


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## raptor_pa

More likely this is an error generated by the SMART handler of the drive. Not likely a bad computer, but could be a bad drive. Like cars, or anything else, some of them just fail in a very short time. What is the make and model of the drive? ( this should be reported in device manager )


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## MichaelHalladay

I have a good hard disk, been working great under Vista Ultimate, now Windows 7 says I have an error. This is not any of my hard drives that I use a lot. So I used CHKDSK - says it's fine. Copied the few files I used off it and did a complete format. Left it empty and Windows 7 still says I have a hard disk problem. I turned off the message, but not sure why it thinks it's bad. I have 3 SATA drives and one EIDE - it's the EIDE one it says I have a problem on. Any ideas? It's now sitting there empty and Windows 7 says it's got a problem. Or is it Windows 7 that has the problem?


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## raptor_pa

The message you are seeing is due to a SMART parameter being out of normal specs. SMART values can indicate some pretty minor problems, or some pretty major problems. SMART analyzes the physical drive and has nothing to do with the windows file system, so chkdsk and formatting will not correct the kind of errors SMART is designed to detect. SMART is designed to give you enough warning to get your data safe. So yes a completely blank disk can have the physical errors that are being reported. Download MHDD or hddscan from www.hddguru.com and post the results of the smart test and we'll see what you have.


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## MichaelHalladay

Thanks for the quick reply. HDDSCAN which I think is the HDD Capacity Restore program won't work as there are two devices on the channel. Also at HDDGURU are Partition Find and Mount; HDD Wipe Tool; and HDD Low Level Format Tool; So have I found "HDDSCAN" as you mentioned or is it somewhere else. Also I'm not sure that MHDD is. I was wrong in my previous post. There only 3 SATA drives now on-line. I've got the EIDE drive unplugged right now. I have two 320 gig drives and one 1.5 tb one. It's the 2nd 320 on channel 0 (address "1") that is giving the problem.


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## raptor_pa

No hddscan is different from capacity restorer. http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2006.01.22-HDDScan/


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## MichaelHalladay

Wow, Steve Gibson. Haven't used his expertise in quite some time. Thanks for the reminder. His stuff has always been good. Here's what HDDScan says. Number 5 is an explanation mark and number 10 is an X. I assume that's bad. This disk has 3 partitions. I was thinking of reformatting to 1 partition and doing a low level format. In the old days, I thought a low level format would flag bad tracks and when I did a normal format, that bad areas would be ignored. Is this true? Ideas? thanks,

Model: ST3320620AS
Firmware: 3.AAJ
Serial: 9QF21RWD
LBA: 625142448

Report By: HDDScan for Windows version 3.1
Report Date: 10/28/09 2:44:52 PM


Num Attribute Name Value Worst Raw(hex) Threshold 

001 Raw Read Error Rate 105 095 00000093-BA31 006 

003 Spin Up Time 096 095 00000000-0000 000 

004 Start/Stop Count 093 093 00000000-1FDE 020 

005 Reallocation Sector Count 100 100 00000000-0001 036 

007 Seek Error Rate 041 041 370A0B05-797F 030 

009 PowerOn Hours Count 075 075 00000000-57CD 000 

010 Spin Retry Count 062 026 00000000-0000 097 

012 Device Power Cycle Count 098 098 00000000-0910 020 

187 Reported Uncorrectable Error 100 100 00000000-0000 000 

189 High Fly Writes 100 100 00000000-0000 000 

190 Airflow Temperature 065 048 35 C 045 

194 HDA Temperature 035 052 35 C 000 

195 Hardware ECC Recovered 063 055 000007C1-5E57 000 

197 Current Pending Sector Count 100 100 00000000-0000 000 

198 Uncorrectable Sector Count 100 100 00000000-0000 000 

199 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 200 00000000-0000 000 

200 Write Error Rate 100 253 00000000-0000 000 

202 Data Address Mark Errors 100 253 00000000-0000 000


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## raptor_pa

There is no true low-level format like the old days. On older drives with stepper motors, as the motor wore, the heads would not stop directly over the tracks, so a LL format would remark the track areas so they were under the heads. When the Voice coil motor came out, which could move to any area on the disk not just the 'steps' defined by the motor, the heads could now move to any area where the tracks happened to be marked. So now at a low level, when the disk is manufactured, 'servo sectors' are written tot eh disk surface to align the heads over the track, rather than having to align the tracks under the head. What is commonly referred to as a low level format now is to write a 00 patern to the disk, or pseudo random data, to every user accessible bit on the platter. ( The servo sectors can't be overwritten, nor the drives service area - else the drive would fail to function ). This has the benefit of allowing any bad sectors to be added to the g-list by the drive's firmware and remapped, since the drive will only remap a bad sector on a write operation. Both quick and full format uner Windows ( the exception being Vista's full format ) do not write to the entire disk surface so therefore can't necessarily trigger the drives internal sector re-allocation routines.
And HDDScan isn't from Steve Gibson  He does spinrite, which in a lot of cases is too aggressive trying to read a drive before marking a sector as bad - at least in my opinion.
The reallocated sector count isn't really good - but not that bad either, the spin retry count is so - so. I'm sure tho those are where your warnings are coming from. Windows7 is probably doing an on the fly SMART read and perhaps using it's own parameters to decide when to warn. Probably a good idea to make sure you have good backups of critical data.


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## MichaelHalladay

Great response. Thanks for the lesson - I'm impressed and have some new knowledge too. Thanks again. I thought when I went to HDDScan page, I saw Steve's name. No problem. Again, thanks for the education. I suspect what I should be doing is running HDDScan periodically, noting the results, and then replacing the drive when it the numbers get too high.


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## jresin_1983

Hello to everyone. Having the same problem, I've downloaded hddscan in order to perform a smart test but it says unknown disk, so cant do anything....help


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## TheSnakeEater

Hi Having the same problem here on my Toshiba Laptop

Here is the scan from the HDDScan:

Model: TOSHIBA MK2546GSX
Firmware: LB013M
Serial: 88KLT9FAT
LBA: 488397168

Report By: HDDScan for Windows version 3.1
Report Date: 1/14/2010 12:18:13 PM


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## raptor_pa

Please start a new thread with a complete description of your problem including error messages so we can provide individual support. Looks like some bad secotrs developing from the SMART re[port.


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## mukimukiki

Hello to everyone.I'd bought a new hdd of Western digital and i install a win 7 on it.after two days win 7 detect a hdd problem and it says to backup my files and to replace or repair my hdd with new.What is the problem?What should i do?


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## s30yavash

Hi !!
i have same problem with my NEW Pc that i bought 3 month ago !
now windows 7 Alert this :









Seagete Barracuda Green
Model: ST1000DL002-9TT153, Serial: W1V0LJ1K, Firmware: CC32

HDD regenerator Report :









one time when i Turned on my pc before Windows start , this altert appear on the Black Screen:

SATA Port 6: ST1000DL002-9TT156 S.M.A.R.T status Bad , Backup and Replace
Please F1 to Run Setup

When i change Sata Socket This Eror disappeared !

This Link : 
https://community.mcafee.com/message/208125
Said this problem Caused by Malware !
is this true ?

i deleted my C Partition and Reinstall Win7 But i have Same Problem


(sorry ! my ENGLISH is bad ... i can talk EN Correctly)

Thankyou


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## MichaelHalladay

I now have multiple Sata 2 TB drives and some old EIDE drives and am running Hard Disk Sentinel Pro. It finds all the errors on all drives. As time goes on it tells me if I'll have to replace the drive. Now I'm at peace in this area.


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