SMART Error 301

[linw]

Got a Presario CQ57 here that is constantly squealing about the HDD SMART error. I have imaged the disk no problem so have the fallback.

HDTune sees no errors when it does a full scan but this is probably because the crook sectors have been re-allocated?

CrystalDiskInfo shows 34 Reallocation errors, limit 36, and also 34 Reallocated event errors.

The HP disk check just jumps straight out with a Fail.

It's 3 years old on the 20th of June this year so guess it is outside any warranty/CGA claim. (bought from Warehouse Stationery).

At this stage I am thinking new cloned drive at owners expense.

Comments?

[linw]

Must say I am not too well up on this SMART stuff. Just looked at my main PC's 1TB drive and it shows the Reallocated Sector Count as 100 with threshold 10 but Health status is Good.

What does the Threshold mean if the Reallocated sector count can go to 100 with a threshold of 10 without giving an error while the CQ57 has the figures above with big red flags?

Note:- in the first post I used the word limit. Should have been Threshold.

[linw]

Mmmm, installed HDDGuardian and it found 1358 bad sectors! That makes more sense than the other tools.

New disk time for sure.

[wainuitech]

Error 301 is specific to HP, basically the drives failing. Any Drive that has bad sectors will be replaced under warranty (as long as its within Warranty still).

I got a couple of drives that show a few failed sectors * but I wouldn't trust them with important data, its when the Uncorrectable sector count starts moving that's asking for trouble and you usually get it if you don't act.

It's 3 years old on the 20th of June this year so guess it is outside any warranty

If its the original HDD, as supplied by HP, then it wont generally have a 3 year warranty anyway, they usually only carry 1 year as they are not the same type of drives you would buy from a shop.

[Alex B]

New drive at your expense is correct. Purchase an SSD if you don't need huge amounts of storage.

[linw]

Thanks for input, guys.

Not my cost, Alex. It ain't mine. But the owner doesn't store anything much so even a 120GB SSD may well be a goer and it would be very close in price to a bigger spinner. Will put it to her.

[linw]

If I recommended the 120GB SSD, these are my thoughts.

The C: drive is 63GB but there is a Recovery drive of 17GB and a HP Tools drive of 3GB. If I just slapped the C: image onto a 120GB SSD, the total is just 63GB giving headroom of 57GB. Any recovery would be from the current C: image.

There are no photos or other big data files. This is just browser and email so no great growth in sight.

Can anyone see any fish-hooks here, like ramifications of heaving the Recovery and Tools partitions?

[wainuitech]

The only real disadvantage is if the recovery etc is not there then in the future if its needed to be reinstalled again it would need to be done manually. I do that sort of thing all the time, wipe the recovery partition and every thing else clean then fresh install using the COA on the computer. (doing a vista like that right now). One thing I do do is copy out the original Driver Folder, as sometimes the ones from the sites dont contain everything.

If you think you may need to reinstall in the future you can always make an image of the drive when its completed, minus any data, and that way when its required simply dump that image back again. Saves hours of work

Just curious -- Whats taking 63GB ? A fresh install with drivers is a lot smaller than that ? A default install + Drivers should be around 20GB give or take a GB

[linw]

Thanks, WT. Yea, I had to do a bare bones Win 7 install once. Used the prod code and it went fine. Bit of a worry as one letter of the prod code was badly damaged!

Yes, sort of added up but may still be able to reduce the size later.
Progs 6GB, Prog Data 8.4GB, Users 6.4GB, Windows 29GB, Pagefile 5.8GB. That's 56GB so a few more rats and mice to push it up a bit.

Doing a trial C: image restore to a spare 2.5" disk as we speak. Will know the result in a while! Hope it boots.

The owner is OK with a SSD drive so up to me. Only negative I can see is maybe lower potential to re-sell with a small drive. She's not really worried about that, though. It's not a bad machine, actually. I3 with 6GB RAM. Pity about the HDD!!

Cheers.

[wainuitech]

If it doesn't boot you may have to run the Windows DVD to it, and tell it to repair the startup. HP have some weird partitions and they can cause all sorts of problems if not there.


Bit like this Vista, fresh install, but windows update wont work till IE is upgraded from 7 to 8 and of course cant download IE8 directly From MS, as IE7 is to old. joy of joys