1720-SMART Hard Drive detects imminent failure
Failing Drive: SATO O
Failing Attribute: #255
Probably. I would back up your data to something else like dvd's or external drive, just to be safe. You do not mention if the computer still boots. If the computer still loads windows seatools has a windows based program to download and test hard drives, works on most all of them, or you can check the make on your hard drive and go to the manufacturer's website and follow the directions to using their disk testing utility. Many times you download and ISO file and make a bootable cd (cause windows no longer loads in many cases), you boot to the cd on start up and run the short generic test and then the long, if it fails you know it's time is about up.
HopperRox, no the system will not boot up at all. I've tried pretty much everything with no satisfactory results. I guess I was just looking for a little hope. I can't even back anything up, so any data will be lost. So, now from what I've been reading, I need to replace the drive with the same thing or larger, is this correct?
I can't find an attribute 255, but if it says failure is imminent you need to stop using the drive until all your data is backed up. An backup image of the whole drive might be a good idea as well.
You may be able to rescue data by using a linux boot disk, so you're not relying on the bad drive booting.
There are companies that do data recovery on defective HDDs. http://computing.net/hardware/wwwbo...
How not to recover data from a harddrive
Really, I'm not so much worried about saving any of the data. I have a smaller system which has most of the same on it. So would be a matter of downloading & transferring. Not a real big deal I guess. Upon installing a new hard drive, do I just use the boot discs that came with the PC to reinstall everything?
Maybe, some recovery disks require you have the same hardware, size hard drive, and some do not. But you have nothing to lose trying them. I would go with the same size or larger. When you get the new system up and running you can try hooking the old hard drive up as a slave and use a program like PC Inspector or Recuva if you wish to attempt getting any data off it. both are free and work good depending on the cause of the failure. http://www.snapfiles.com/get/pcinsp...
http://www.piriform.com/recuva
Very good. Thank you all for all of the input. Guess I will be making a trip to Office Max tonight. Thanks again everyone. PS-sorry I didn't reply earlier. Am from Ohio & had to get some shuteye before work today!
Why would you go to Office Max for a hard drive? We need to know the capacity of the current hard drive. You indicate WinXP as your OS. If your system is extremely old you may not be able to use a hard drive larger than 137GB.
Also, if your WinXP CD is the original version it is not 48 bit LBA compliant, which means you can't install WinXP to a partition larger than 137GB, even if your motherboard IS 48 bit LBA compliant.
Post the model of your computer for help with those possible issues. If your original hard drive is larger than 137GB then you have no issue with using almost any capacity hard drive. The exception may be if you have a laptop. Posting some specs would have been helpful.
Sorry, it is a HP Compaq 7700, dual core, 320GB, WD hard drive. Where else can I get my hands on one this weekend without ordering one?
Your system may have RAID. http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/...
Since you need to replace the HDD, it might be a good time to upgrade to Windows 7.
"Where else can I get my hands on one this weekend without ordering one?"
Do you have a Micro Center near you? Columbus?
Sounds like I might be biting off more than I can handle. Not sure about the Micro Center. So, how do I distinguish between a HHD & a RAID?
If you only have one hard drive in the case then you don't have RAID. I am not sure why riider thinks you may. Googling for your raw model number shows WinXP and 80GB hard drive. Obviously you have a variation or the drive was changed once.
Ok, well I drive truck & won't be back til late tonight & then have a short hop tomorrow. I will be back on here late tomorrow afternoon.
Thank you Othehill.
