* A Disk error has occured *

[Pvppuduker]

Hey guys !

having some issues here by suprise! I read up that this error is common but is still not very comprehended ?!

Well, what happend is that i was playing Starcraft II and at some points my game would just freeze up for a good amount of seconds, and it could happend at the begining like mid game, or late ( heavy amount of units ). But the freeze would pass and this has been happening for maybe the last 4-5 days thinking it was my internet connection.

Then, today i get a major freeze up ( same contexte ) and it never recovered like before. i waited a good 10 mins. I Alt+Tab to close the everything that was running, when i was able to close everything, i noticed a HUGE slow down on my PC`s speed at opening well anything. Leading finaly to just rebooting the system. Now, booting up again i get the * A Disk error has occured * Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.

At first i did not know what to do, so i just pressed the commands. i got back to my log in screen and thought i was just a hick or something. entered my log in info to access my PC, and it stayed there for a good while, just saying *Welcome* and loading and not doing anything. Rebooted for a 2nd time ( with the reset swtich ) and all in all it gave me the same error. I can acess my BIOS and all, and i have googled it a bit and never got to a choke point to help me.

Saw it could be temps, but i highly doubt it, so i really hit a wall here and hoping you guys could help me out. Wishing not to lose any data as well =P

Thanks a lot in advance.

*EDIT* :Several minutes after posting this i got this message as well. `` Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and pres a key `` and i CAN see my HDD in my BIOS

PS: My specs are down below ! And im using the new UEFI BIOS if it changes anything

I
I
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V

 

[hafa]

It sounds as if your hard drive is breathing its last. If you have any important data on the drive, pop it into an external enclosure and make a copy before doing anythings else.

Following that, see if there are any smart errors, and run the drive manufacturer's boot disk (download from their website) to check the drive for issues. Chances are it will have them, given your description.

 

[Pvppuduker]

Really hafa !!? it has barely 6 months of normal gaming usage nothing intense =O

And is there a way to see the Drives manufactuer from BIOS ?

 

[Janus67]

You can generally see the model# on the POST screen when you are rebooting the computer (assuming you have the Boot Picture/Image feature turned off).

In your BIOS you should be able to see a page that shows what drives you want to boot to, the model# should be listed there as well

you can also look in the case at the top of the drive

You can also find it under disk manager (but if you can't get into Windows this one isn't very helpful)

 

[ShadowPho]

If you have ANY data that you want recovered then IMMEDIATELY do a image copy to another hard drive. Every time you try to access [read, spin-up, write] the disk the chances that it will completely fail rise exponentially. [ymmv, google study of their data centers drives.]

 

[midlight21]

+1 to ShadowPho's advice. Backup your data and THEN start troubleshooting.

 

[CaNsA]

Grab hdtune and it will tell you most of what you want to know about the drive, including make/model

 

[Janus67]

Grab hdtune and it will tell you most of what you want to know about the drive, including make/model

works great when you can get into windows (or can set the drive as a slave drive somewhere) but if you can't boot to the drive (as it was the boot drive) it is pretty hard to run hdtune

 

[CaNsA]

Hirens + mini windows + hdtune = sorted

All on the same disc too.

 

[hafa]

Really hafa !!? it has barely 6 months of normal gaming usage nothing intense =O

And is there a way to see the Drives manufactuer from BIOS ?

As I always say, it's not a matter of IF your hard drive fails but WHEN. I've lost count of the number of new drives that I've seen fail right out of the box.

While the drive model will usually show in the BIOS, I often find the easiest way to definitiely determine a drive's make and model is to look at the label on the drive.

I'll also reitterate my first bit of advice that's been echoed by others: If you have any important data on the drive, pop it into an external enclosure and make a copy before doing anything else.

 

[Pvppuduker]

ok well !! got myself a HDD enclosure, but the only one i got is USB 3.0 ( As in Sata - USB 3 ) !!?? Is that a problem, or will it just drop the speed to a normal USb 2.0 port &

Im using my laptop right now, and will transfer the important stuff on to here ( even took the liberty to buy myself a SSD ( OCZ Vertex 3 SataIII hope you gusy approve =p for BOOT now, and a new HDD ) and if anything goes well, il just keep the old HDD for external use, and if it IS DEAD DEAD ! i should still be under waranty, so going to go under the process of getting it fixed or just a replacement, ( Seagate btw )

... what do you think ?! il be trying to transfer ASAP tonight we shall see what happends, and get back to you guys, thanks alot for everything so far !

 

[hafa]

USB 3.0 is backwards compatible, so no problem using it with your notebook.

After you've backed up your important data, run the Seatools utility for the offending drive and let us know what it says.

 

[Pvppuduker]

Ok well, everything was set, ì pluged the HDD via USB it was on and everthing booted did the normal sound, but at some point, it just started to do a loud vibrating sound, and the casing and the cables itself were shaking. Not a HUGE vibration but enough to notice and feel on the wires and case. Also, it never showed up in ``My Computer`` nothing prompted up, so im just going to swtich up the HDD for the new 1 i bought today and i will see if just in case, the case has some problems, just so i can eliminate options now and now have question and hesitations later ...

EDIT* and i forgot add that my laptop does see that there is a external HDD but i cant access anything

EDIT2* After i ran the *short generic test* i was now able to acces my data and it appered in my computer, backing up my files now ... and i also forgot to ask, because i got myself a SSD and am going to re-install Windows7 on it, will i run into any issue regarding my serial key or something ? keeping in mind that i already used that key for that DVD i have of windows 7 ( its a legit hard copy )

 

[Janus67]

you shouldn't have any issues with using the serial#. worst case you just call a phone# that Windows tells you to call to get an authorization number (fully automated)

 

[Pvppuduker]

ok sweet Janus ! thank you for that little bit of information.

Alright guys, so i left overnight the SeaTools runnning, for the Long Generic test, and it passed, woke up came to take a look and it sayed it passed. So it passed the 2 tests.

i was not expecting this so ... what do i do now??

 

[hafa]

It's possible that the drive had a sticking actuator that was freed up during the course of testing and moving the drive about. Although I'd still hesitate to use a drive like this for anything of great importance, it may be able to serve some purpose as a spare or backup drive.