Hard Disk Failing?

[Kent10]

Hi:

About a week ago I heard some louder than usual noises from the hard drive on my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. I restarted the computer and received a hard disk error on bootup. I booted again and it worked. The computer continued to work without apparent problems for the last week so I thought maybe it was all a coincidence.

Last night, however, I turned on the computer and received the same error. I tried it a few times without success but on the 5th or 6th try the computer finally booted and again I could use it normally. I restarted a couple more times and all seemed well again.

This morning I received the error again and wrote it down. I think it may be slightly different but this is the error:

Internal HDD soft error: fixed by retries
Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility

I pressed F1 and am using the computer normally.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be. Is the hard disk failing? It seems since I heard the clicking noise I am guessing it is the most likely problem. But what is the "soft" in the error message mean and why does everything seem normal when I use the computer if the HD is failing.

I don't want to buy a whole new laptop if I can avoid it. I am thinking I should just buy a new hard disk and try that out first. I have an image of this drive so as long as the problem is a physical one and not software related then the image should be OK, correct?

I have never worked on a laptop before but I have built my own desktop twice before. I am assuming it is not difficult to replace a hard drive.

Thanks for any ideas. Kent

[screwballl]

if thats whats reported then that would be a very good indication of a failing hard drive.. look for a SMART program like "SpeedFan" and look at the hard drive listing... it most likely is failing.

[Jokerswild]

Run ScanDisc. Here's a section that I copied that will tell you how to and at the bottom explains what you can do for soft errors. You might have to format your HDD and reinstall windows.

"
ScanDisk
If you've ever turned off your computer without properly shutting down the system (or had to restart after a crash), then you’ve probably seen your computer run a utility called ScanDisk. ScanDisk checks the hard drive for errors and, if it finds any, marks the cluster of sectors containing the error as unusable, so that no data can be written to or read from that portion of the disk.
You can also run ScanDisk from within Windows. This allows you to do a more thorough scan of your hard drive and detect errors that might make it difficult or impossible to read or write to the disk.
To run ScanDisk in Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Millennium:

1. Click Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > ScanDisk.
2. Select Thorough under Type of Test.
3. Click Start to begin the scan.

Windows XP refers to ScanDisk as an "error-checking" tool; to perform error-checking, follow these directions:

1. Open My Computer, then select the local disk you want to check.
2. On the File menu, click Properties.
3. On the Tools tab, under Error-checking, click Check Now.
4. Under Check Disk options, select the “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors” box.

ScanDisk should take only a few minutes to run, and should probably be done every two or three months. It will give you a report of the number and types of errors it has found, and can even automatically repair some of these errors. More serious errors can be repaired by reformatting the drive, if the errors are "soft" errors (which means that the magnetic signal on the disk is weak or the formatting is bad)."

[Kent10]

Thanks guys. I have to go out now but will look at this later. I did try a scandisk after I received the first error but I guess it didn't do much or any fixes were only temporary. Kent

[One4yu2c]

Clicking or grinding noises are never a good thing, and it usually means that your hard drive is on its way out. If nothing else, be sure to back up any important data right away. After that, I'd recommend replacing the drive.

[Jokerswild]

Originally Posted by One4yu2c

Clicking or grinding noises are never a good thing, and it usually means that your girlfriend or wife has chained you to the back of the car and is dragging you down the road.

[screwballl]

soft errors almost always lead to hard errors and it is typically better to get a new hard drive than to fight it for that extra few months. Save and backup your files now while you have a chance.