Oh noes I thought... (random musings)

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Siphorous

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...not again.

After woes with the delightful vista (system restore messed up my install), I finally installed Win 7.

All went well, but then one day recently - it appeared to become extremely unresponsive whilst trying to access a folder. On a reboot, I got a BSOD on the oh so reliable Windows 7! I couldn't believe it.

BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO. Last known good didn't help, only the repair from the dvd sorted it out.

I had just purchased a new WD scorpio blue (ide) HD for more space for my lappy so immediately I suspected that.

So, squinting at the HD, I ran it through a chkdsk to check for bad clusters.

Lo and behold - 192kb worth magically appeared (320gb drive).

I'm hoping it's a one off and that there won't be loads more. Once a week for a check should be ok I guess for about 4 weeks then once a month to see if it settles to that amount.

I did think about going back to xp.. but I guess 7 is nippier than vista, even if it does use 2-300mb more memory by default than xp.
 
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Brujahpriest

Brujahpriest

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I've been trying Windows 7 in a VM. So far it still appears to be fairly stable over here (mind you I tend to corrupt an OS and/or hardware on my machine once ever 6-8 months, so stable with me is a relative term.)

Actually got really luck at the begining of the year, had two RAID-1 Arrays go south thanks to a short frying the drives (luckily got most of my data right before the drives gave up the ghost. )

If you just purchased the drive is it maybe still under warrenty? Honestly disk checking is fine and dandy, but if you are seeing these issues this early you may be facing a dieing drive no matter what you do.
 
Siphorous

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Lord Stanley said:
if wish you well

(hides under desk not having understood a word)
Click to expand...

Summary, vista on laptop went bad and /me is having headaches with getting stuff sorted :)

Brujahpriest said:
I've been trying Windows 7 in a VM. So far it still appears to be fairly stable over here (mind you I tend to corrupt an OS and/or hardware on my machine once ever 6-8 months, so stable with me is a relative term.)

Actually got really luck at the begining of the year, had two RAID-1 Arrays go south thanks to a short frying the drives (luckily got most of my data right before the drives gave up the ghost. )

If you just purchased the drive is it maybe still under warrenty? Honestly disk checking is fine and dandy, but if you are seeing these issues this early you may be facing a dieing drive no matter what you do.
Click to expand...

Windows 7 isn't too bad (except for this BSOD that was so unexpected). It feels quicker than Vista even if it's not as quick as xp was for me.

Most fortunate then with getting most of your stuff off on your RAID-1 setup before they died on you. I used to RAID - like a fool, I used RAID-0 - with the infamous IBM Deathstars 75gxp. Both developed more and more bad clusters. I too was fortunate. Never RAID-0 again :p

As for my lappy drive, aye - very recent purchase so there's no doubt I can send it back if it fails as I only got it last week. I'm just not sure I can if there's only 192kb of bad clusters and the drive still functions though. It's why I'm going to do fairly frequent bad cluster checks with chkdsk to see if they increase.

I tried using the WD diag tool and it moaned that there were too many bad clusters to repair. I guess there are not enough spare sectors for 192kb eh.
 
Siphorous

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Still using it at the moment but RMA'ed it with Western Digital today. I had enough last night when I discovered a little over 1mb more of bad clusters and even after sorting those, windows was still slow responding to things.

I ran the western digital diag tool thing again and the quick test kept failing with a S.M.A.R.T error of 07 which apparently means you need to replace the drive.

Just waiting for the replacment to come through. In the meantime, I'll format this one as best I can to remove my data and then plonk the Seagate xp drive back in which was functioning just fine and had been for a few years.
 
Brujahpriest

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Siphorous said:
Still using it at the moment but RMA'ed it with Western Digital today. I had enough last night when I discovered a little over 1mb more of bad clusters and even after sorting those, windows was still slow responding to things.

I ran the western digital diag tool thing again and the quick test kept failing with a S.M.A.R.T error of 07 which apparently means you need to replace the drive.

Just waiting for the replacment to come through. In the meantime, I'll format this one as best I can to remove my data and then plonk the Seagate xp drive back in which was functioning just fine and had been for a few years.
Click to expand...

Sad is the day when Seagate outperforms a Western Digital (at least in my limited experience.
 
Siphorous

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Brujahpriest said:
Sad is the day when Seagate outperforms a Western Digital (at least in my limited experience.
Click to expand...

It is sad, I've never personally had trouble with a Seagate and the 250gb backup drive I have (external) is a WD and no issues with that so I'm willing to give them a chance as it were :)

Drive was manufactured 13 July 2009 so a 3 year warranty and plenty of time to RMA any replacement drives if (hopefully not :p) needed.
 
Siphorous

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Replacement drive arrived from Western Digital. Appeared to have been shipped all the way from the U.S. of A.

Anyway, the drive manufactured date was only two weeks after the old one so I wasn't hopeful. I was even les quick s hopeful that it would be fine when I noticed a bent pin.

I carefully straightened it and installed 7. Ran the 'quick' 2 min S.M.A.R.T. test and that passed unlike the previous drive. Time will tell though... intend to run the full bad sector check at some point.
 
PoopaSwoof

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Looks like I'm next.
My vista based laptop has a rather rude BSOD problem.
I have suspected the HD for some time and tried to ignore it.
Now It BSODs right after logging in, consistently.
I'm gonna nuke and pave the thing but am considering 7 this time rather than Vista.
I have a spare 30gig notebook drive laying around for testing purposes.
I'm getting too old for this shit.
 
Siphorous

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Dana said:
Windows 7 isn't on the market yet is it?
Click to expand...

Full release has been on M.S.D.N. subscriber downloads for a while which is where I got it from. ;)

PoopaSwoof said:
I would if I could find a decent wireless driver for XP for my laptop.:(
Click to expand...

I'm not sure Windows 7 will be any better there.

With XP and service pack 3, it didn't find either my lappy's onboard network controller (Broadcom) or the onboard Intel wireless 2200BG. Had to use the dell/intel drivers.

With Windows 7, it found the normal network controller but not the Intel wireless 2200BG. A driver download from Intel sorted that though.

What lappy or integrated wireless controller do you have Poopa?
 
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