Bad blocks encountered on read

[nibblesandbits]

So I was just copying files from a client's laptop (WITH A BOOT DISC) to a external hard drive and encountered the error "bad blocks on read do you want to continue"? I said no, and also this computer has been freezing up randomly for the past two days since I turned it on. Would you all say the hard drive is done for? Getting ready to do some more research on the subject. Just wondering if this is the point at which you all say, "buy a new hard drive, customer".

 

[kagman]

I would try to do a check on the hard drive. People here on the forums use HDtune. I use a program called spinrite that is pretty good on hard drive errors but it costs $89 US dollars. You get can get it at grc.com. If you look in the forums here you will find threads here on the subject.

 

[NYJimbo]

This is where I clone the drive (real clone, arconis or other boot disk, copy sector by sector,whatever etc..) to a new drive and then run the new drive on the clients machine for as long as it took to produce the freezes. If its obviously better I tell the client "YOUR HARD DRIVE IS DYING", its not an option to buy a new drive, it MUST be done.

Of course this is after doing the appropriate diagnostics to be sure of what I have found. But the live drive of the customer gets cloned right away.

 

[nibblesandbits]

I would try to do a check on the hard drive. People here on the forums use HDtune. I use a program called spinrite that is pretty good on hard drive errors but it costs $89 US dollars. You get can get it at grc.com. If you look in the forums here you will find threads here on the subject.

Thanks, I'll look into HDTune first! I forgot to mention I have already ran chkdsk /f a few times.

This is where I clone the drive (real clone, arconis or other boot disk, copy sector by sector,whatever etc..) to a new drive and then run the new drive on the clients machine for as long as it took to produce the freezes. If its obviously better I tell the client "YOUR HARD DRIVE IS DYING", its not an option to buy a new drive, it MUST be done.

Of course this is after doing the appropriate diagnostics to be sure of what I have found. But the live drive of the customer gets cloned right away.

I will try this method as well afterwards if the freezes continue.

 

[NYJimbo]

I will try this method as well afterwards if the freezes continue.

Ha ha ha, have fun !

 

[DarDar]

Clone clone clone clone
I would do it now before anything worse happens! It can make you look real smart if you can say you rescused the data in the nick of time. You'll look like a right eejit if you lose it though

 

[purple_minion]

I would clone/image it immediately. You might even consider that the pros do and go right for the most important info first (docs, pictures, taxes, business files) and then clone it. This way you get the important stuff if it dies during cloning. The clock is now ticking, could be an hour, could be a year.

 

[xxenon]

If chkdsk shows errors more than once, clone and replace the drive. With new hd's costing $50-60, you're saving the customer time, money and (possibly) data by putting in a new drive immediately. Run chkdsk on the new drive after cloning in case you copied errors.