Hard Drive Bad And still pass all Test?

[HouseOfTechs]

i got a dell in today that would freeze and restart at windows start up when the 4 dots become windows.. Safe mode same thing freeze and restart..

i ran the drives hardware advance test came out fine..
s.m.a.r.t Was reading ok
dell diagnostics read everything passed

recovery console startup repair would fail..
system restore will go through and finalize but same results...
did chdsk and found no error
but sfc check would fail but could not be repair..

Ran a few live cds eliminated the viruses..
change ahci to ata in the bios
still nothing so i figured ill do a back up and restore from factory dell partition and i still have the same freeze and restart..

any ideas?

 

[TLE]

In which case it sounds as though the hard drive isn't the issue here.

Run the hard drives manufacturer diagnostic tools, I find them far more reliable.
I would also test the memory using memtest.

 

[PCX]

Always, always, always run a FULL diagnostics before trying to troubleshoot hardware issues. On the note of HDDs, do not run a short test, they are fairly worthless, unless it fails. Memtest86+ make sure you run it for 8 hours or 6 passes.

 

[HouseOfTechs]

i ran quick memtest but will run full..
forgot to mention before i did take out 2 of 3 sticks and after a freeze and restart i replaced the one with one of the two i took out..

 

[MobileTechie]

I don't see anything here that suggests the problem is necessarily the HDD.

 

[PCX]

I don't see anything here that suggests the problem is necessarily the HDD.

. . . . heres the problem with that mindset, it does not matter what you think it suggests. Hardware issues can cause software issues. I see this just about every day. Always first test the hardware so you can eliminate that as a possibility and then troubleshoot the software issues. Other wise, you are just wasting your time, if not on this computer, then possibly on the next. A diagnostics can always be run in the background while working on other computers.

 

[HouseOfTechs]

thats what im thinking... and if it was the mbr wouldn't the factory restore i did would have solved that?

 

[MobileTechie]

. . . . heres the problem with that mindset, it does not matter what you think it suggests. Hardware issues can cause software issues. I see this just about every day. Alway first test the hardware so you can eliminate that as a possibility and then troubleshoot the software issues. Other wise, you are just wasting your time, if not on this computer, then possibly on the next. A diagnostics can always be run in the background while working on other computers.

Eh?

The post is titled "hard drive bad and still pass all test?". I'm pointing out that it might not even be the HDD which, given the info provided, is just a simple fact.

But thanks for the basic advice on troubleshooting. I'm sure it will come in handy if I have a head injury and forget everything I've ever learned about computers

 

[HouseOfTechs]

also forgot to mention i connected another Hdd then installed windows 7 (not from the dell factory img) and everything was fine..

 

[MobileTechie]

also forgot to mention i connected another Hdd then installed windows 7 (not from the dell factory img) and everything was fine..

Given THAT info, then it very much sounds like the HDD!

In answer to the OP - yes they can pass all the tests we have at our disposal and still be bad because those tests test for a limited subset of the things that can go wrong with a drive.

 

[PCX]

Eh?

The post is titled "hard drive bad and still pass all test?". I'm pointing out that it might not even be the HDD which, given the info provided, is just a simple fact.

But thanks for the basic advice on troubleshooting. I'm sure it will come in handy if I have a head injury and forget everything I've ever learned about computers

lol, what is basic advice for you and me, is not basic advice for probably 70% of all the "techs" on this forum (sorry, but from the responses on many of the forums I see, most techs opt out of a full diagnostics). In any case, some HDD diagnostics tests are more accurate than others. Maybe I should have suggested a diagnostics test that is accurate, sorry. I suggestion gsmartcontrol which is a linux based utility.

 

[PCX]

Given THAT info, then it very much sounds like the HDD!

In answer to the OP - yes they can pass all the tests we have at our disposal and still be bad because those tests test for a limited subset of the things that can go wrong with a drive.

exactly my point.

 

[MobileTechie]

lol, what is basic advice for you and me, is not basic advice for probably 70% of all the "techs" on this forum (sorry, but from the responses on many of the forums I see, most techs opt out of a full diagnostics). In any case, some HDD diagnostics tests are more accurate than others. Maybe I should have suggested a diagnostics test that is accurate, sorry. I suggestion gsmartcontrol which is a linux based utility.

Hey that's funny you should mention gsmartcontrol. I just started using it off the Parted Magic disk and the second time it missed a fault that Seatools then found. Maybe the bad sector popped up AFTER the first test but I don't think so because the problem went away only after I fixed that sector.

 

[PCX]

Hey that's funny you should mention gsmartcontrol. I just started using it off the Parted Magic disk and the second time it missed a fault that Seatools then found. Maybe the bad sector popped up AFTER the first test but I don't think so because the problem went away only after I fixed that sector.

Yeah, if you do a short test or do not complete an extended test, you may not see all the bad sectors at first . . . which is why you should always run a full extended test. Anyways, I have noticed that on a lot of tools. I personally use disk utility to quickly check bad sectors, then gsmartcontrol for the extended tests. Its great for checking things like read errors. Also, its does not do well at identifying electrical mechanical failures, which is why I use a couple different tools. However, if you ever notice that it aborts a test, test it using disk utility or the manufacture utility and it usually will fail with an electrical or mechanical failure. Just gotta know how to use the tools. Each has their quirks.

 

[AlaDes]

also forgot to mention i connected another Hdd then installed windows 7 (not from the dell factory img) and everything was fine..

Believe it or not, the computer may still be infected. I have had 3 computers with similar problems and once I performed a complete factory restore using the recovery partition, they worked just fine. I don't know what type of infection in was but I ran everything under the sun I could think of and nothing was picked up, meaning the system should have been clean.
Although a factory restore fixed my problem, I didn't do it using the utilities provided by the manufacturers because when I used their utilities or the F8 repair option to do it, I got the same results trying to boot the system.
I ended up using imagex to extract the restore image and this fixed my problem.

 

[MobileTechie]

Yeah, if you do a short test or do not complete an extended test, you may not see all the bad sectors at first. I have noticed that on a lot of tools. I personally use disk utility to quickly check bad sectors, then gsmartcontrol for the extended tests. Its great for checking things like read errors. Also, its does not do well at identifying electrical mechanical failures, which is why I use a couple different tools. However, if you ever notice that it aborts a test, test it using disk utility or the manufacture utility and it usually will fail with an electrical or mechanical failure. Just gotta know how to use the tools. Each has their quirks.

It was the long test that missed bad sectors.

 

[HouseOfTechs]

Believe it or not, the computer may still be infected. I have had 3 computers with similar problems and once I performed a complete factory restore using the recovery partition, they worked just fine. I don't know what type of infection in was but I ran everything under the sun I could think of and nothing was picked up, meaning the system should have been clean.
Although a factory restore fixed my problem, I didn't do it using the utilities provided by the manufacturers because when I used their utilities or the F8 repair option to do it, I got the same results trying to boot the system.
I ended up using imagex to extract the restore image and this fixed my problem.

yea i did a facotry restore and same problem occurred...

 

[AlaDes]

yea i did a facotry restore and same problem occurred...

How did you do the factory restore? I kept having the same problem too, as long as I was doing the factory recovery by using the F8 repair option. Once I performed the factory recovery using the manual method of extracting the "factory.wim" file, which is located in the recovery partition, using imagex, everything worked fine.
One thing you can try is installing an OEM copy if Windows 7. When doing this, delete the partition you are installing it to but leave the recovery partition intact. If this fixes your problem then it's probably the same issue I had and I can probably walk you through doing a factory restore using imagex and the "factory.wim" file on the recovery partition. If it doesn't, then you know for sure it's hardware.

 

[Galdorf]

I have seen this before a bad sector that not quite bad mfg drive diagnostic util will pass it, chkdsk will pass it, running hdd regenerator will pick it up as a delay write sector down the sectors causing delays regenerate and bam it works properly again.

But if the customer need machine back fast and drive is under warranty best to put in a new one and send that one back.

Another possible reason for this is cache failure or a mechanical problem on the hard drive this can cause errors when running an OS or reading a file again best just to replace the faulty drive.

 

[hondablaster]

also forgot to mention i connected another Hdd then installed windows 7 (not from the dell factory img) and everything was fine..

Has this been traced to a bad HDD that did not fail a HDD test(s), or a funky DELL restore image on the disk. I think we are all assuming that your restoration partition is not infected or damaged in some way.

I find the DELL installation disks more reliable then restore partitions.

If this was answered I got lost in all the posts.

Thanks