I always relate that message to before they were actually putting that message in the firmware, to my college professor saying "save and save often", "its not a question of if the hardware will crash, but when"!

"Noel Paton" wrote:

That IS dangerous!! - the problem there is that you have no idea when the
disk really IS going 'kerbluie', and so are less likely to have a recent
backup (at least if you're like me, and don't back up until you feel an
urgeg)


--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's

"Dallasdcc" wrote in message
...
I agree, my point was that because the specs can be overly tight I would
not just backup then replace, I would just backup, turn off the smart
reporting tool if possible
and use as normal if no other problems exist.

"Noel Paton" wrote:

....exactly - and such changes are what the SMART utility is designed to
seek, as it's frequently a sign of either a bearing going off, or the
whole
disk going 'kerbluie'. Some of the utilities are set with overly tight
specs
(a firmware update may fix this - but I have never seen such yet), which
report low voltage conditions effectively as HD errors.
My thoughts are that if the errors coincided with a significant change
in
hardware, then it's possibly a PSU problem - otherwise it's 'backup and
replace' time....

YMMV!

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to
NG's

"Dallasdcc" wrote in message
...
The harddrive could indeed be on the verge of collapse, but the smart
drive function will report an imminent failure if the seek time or the
spin
up time change.

"Noel Paton" wrote:

Have you tried resetting the SMART utility - it may be looking at
the
'wrong' system!!

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to
NG's

"Dallasdcc" wrote in message
...
I have had this message on my computer for almost two years now,
it
does
not always mean that the hard drive is bad, just not reporting to
factory
specs, but always a good idea to backup. some bios will let you turn
off
the
error message and not have to jump through the hoops of "press f1 to
boot".

"Noel Paton" wrote:

The message means exactly what it says - your HD is dying.
Back up your data NOW - then go out and buy a new HD.


--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post
messages to
NG's
or

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/f.../Mar27pmvp.asp

"Jan" wrote in message
...
Everytime I shut down to restart my computer I get this
error message . 1720 Harddrive detects imminent failure .
It then has two boxes to choose from . One says F1 boot
the other F10 Computer setup. It seems to be running
pretty good and boots up okay . I have a Compaq with
Wimdows me. Is my harddrive on it's way out ?? Any help
wil be appreciated . Thanks