Is my hard drive OK... ??

**forrest44** · 21-12-2009, 10:49 PM

I've got a laptop with a 30gb Htachi Travelstar hard drive. Recently I took the laptop apart in order to look inside and remove dust/dandruff/etc. In the process I took out the hard drive.

After reassembling I got a lot of errors on boot about missing files/folders and other filesystem errors (was running linux). I reinstalled linux and everything seemed to work OK.

After this I installed Windows 98, which seemed to work fine as well. I did a thorough scan (checking the disk surface for errors) in scandisk which found no errors.

Question is, is the hard drive OK? What would have caused the filesystem corruption when I pulled it out? ???

**gary67** · 22-12-2009, 06:43 AM

Scan with Hitachi's HDD tool from their site

**12steps** · 22-12-2009, 08:44 AM

First step run chkdsk in safemode with /r /x switches
Drive wasnt dropped? nothing that would cause static discharge while working on it?

**forrest44** · 22-12-2009, 09:46 AM

Hmm will have a look for the hitachi tool

It wasn't dropped, but it did say on the cover not to press on it, maybe I pressed to hard on it?

I was grounding myself every 5min or so by touching another computer chassis. And I was wearing cotton. And it was pretty humid, so I figure static discharge isn't the problem (if it was, wouldn't the drive have stopped working completely?)

**ronyville** · 22-12-2009, 09:48 AM

well I cant say if your HHD is dying or not. BUT if you are having doubts than backup all your files regularly just in case.

**forrest44** · 22-12-2009, 12:38 PM

Did a scan with the hitachi Drive Fitness Test tool - no errors

So I guess it's OK

**KarameaDave** · 22-12-2009, 01:01 PM

Maybe, I'd still do a backup/image if it was me.

**Blam** · 22-12-2009, 02:53 PM

Yea, HDD Diag tests are right most of the time, but not always..

Originally Posted by 12steps

First step run chkdsk in safemode with /r /x switches

AFAIK Win98 doesn't support /x ?

**Agent_24** · 22-12-2009, 04:07 PM

I assume the HDD was reconnected properly?

Did you take the RAM out? Did you put it back in properly? Have you tried running Memtest?

**forrest44** · 22-12-2009, 05:42 PM

HDD connection was OK, I even pulled it out and replugged it in but still the errors remained. I tried with RAM and without RAM (sodimm sockets). No difference.