fdisk reaches 4% then resets

philo wrote:
"Alberto" wrote in message
news
I have used "Wipe" to clean it off, then tried the latest version of
Fdisk (has a 2007 date on the file) but I was still able to only get
to 5% running it overnight.
I will try the mfg's diagnostics next.


No matter what the diagnostic says...
the drive is bad !

They _can_ be bad and yet still report no errors! A friend had a system
which was running amazingly slowly - 15 to 30 minutes to boot (into 98SE),
and sometimes many tens of seconds (or even a minute or two) to respond to a
keypress, _but no errors_ or other signs of distress (apart from when you'd
acted impatiently). At other times it would behave perfectly satisfactorily,
and quite fast enough for my friend (or me).

I eventually pinned it down that the slooooow behaviour was only when
accessing the HD; I'd dismissed disc problems until then, because of the
total lack of the normal symptoms I associate with a failing disc - odd
clicking noises, occasional "cannot read/write" messages, corrupted files,
and so on. If you waited long enough, it _always_ succeeded - it just took a
VERY long time about it.

When we got a new disc, I used (that manufacturer's) utility to transfer the
entire system across (old one was something like 8 or 10G, though I think
well under half full at that stage - new is 40G); this took some time (at
least an hour - I can't remember, it might have been several), but the basic
utility (booted from a floppy) did give some sort of progress indication,
which went through steadily (just very slowly). Since then, the system has
worked fine!

I _presume_ it _was_ failing, but the error-correcting algorithms were
working their socks off, and faultlessly; I guess the manufacturer's
low-level diagnostics would say, but I didn't bother.

I left the old drive in as secondary or similar, and I think it did fail, as
it disappeared soon after - though it could just be the plug's come out of
course. The PC has started clicking a lot after a long period of on, so I
suspect something has finally failed noisily on the old drive (no symptoms
of unwellness, just the clicking noise as of bad drive), so I'll have to
open it up and remove it one of these days; I just don't like to worry the
friend by doing so (but the noises will worry him once someone tells him
they're a disc failing).
--
--
J. P. Gilliver | Tel: VNET 791 3298 (+44 1634 203298)
BAE SYSTEMS Electronics and | Fax: VNET 791 4831 (+44 1634 204831)
Integrated Solutions, Airport | Email: john.gilliver#baesystems.com
Works, Rochester, Kent, ME1 2XX, UK| (replace "#" with "@")
See http://www.eis.na.baesystems.com/pla...ions/index.htm

"J. P. Gilliver" wrote in message
...
philo wrote:
"Alberto" wrote in message
news
I have used "Wipe" to clean it off, then tried the latest version of
Fdisk (has a 2007 date on the file) but I was still able to only get
to 5% running it overnight.
I will try the mfg's diagnostics next.


No matter what the diagnostic says...
the drive is bad !

They _can_ be bad and yet still report no errors! A friend had a system
which was running amazingly slowly - 15 to 30 minutes to boot (into 98SE),
and sometimes many tens of seconds (or even a minute or two) to respond to
a
keypress, _but no errors_ or other signs of distress (apart from when
you'd
acted impatiently). At other times it would behave perfectly
satisfactorily,
and quite fast enough for my friend (or me).

I eventually pinned it down that the slooooow behaviour was only when
accessing the HD; I'd dismissed disc problems until then, because of the
total lack of the normal symptoms I associate with a failing disc - odd
clicking noises, occasional "cannot read/write" messages, corrupted files,
and so on. If you waited long enough, it _always_ succeeded - it just took
a
VERY long time about it.

When we got a new disc, I used (that manufacturer's) utility to transfer
the
entire system across (old one was something like 8 or 10G, though I think
well under half full at that stage - new is 40G); this took some time (at
least an hour - I can't remember, it might have been several), but the
basic
utility (booted from a floppy) did give some sort of progress indication,
which went through steadily (just very slowly). Since then, the system has
worked fine!

I _presume_ it _was_ failing, but the error-correcting algorithms were
working their socks off, and faultlessly; I guess the manufacturer's
low-level diagnostics would say, but I didn't bother.

I left the old drive in as secondary or similar, and I think it did fail,
as
it disappeared soon after - though it could just be the plug's come out of
course. The PC has started clicking a lot after a long period of on, so I
suspect something has finally failed noisily on the old drive (no symptoms
of unwellness, just the clicking noise as of bad drive), so I'll have to
open it up and remove it one of these days; I just don't like to worry the
friend by doing so (but the noises will worry him once someone tells him
they're a disc failing).
--



Yep.
if the diagnostic says the drive is bad...it's bad ...

but I've had a few drives pass the diagnostic that were definatly *not*
good!