Data Error Reading Hard Drive ( Win98 SE )

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion (More info?)

"Rob" <rhendy@sympatico.ca> wrote in
news:VOH9e.11433$Jg5.883214@news20.bellglobal.com:

> My Sister, who has an old computer of mine, called me last night and
> described her situation as follows.
>
> She had turned on the computer, and gets thru to Windows spalsh
> screen, but receives the message
> " Data Error Reading Drive C, (a)bort, (r)etry, (i)gnore.... "
> Relevant specs of comp are:
>
> MidTower Case
> 200W PSU
> AMD K2 - 400mhz CPU
> ChainTech AGM 2 - Motherboard
> Fujitsu 13.6 GB HardDrive
>
> The motherboard has been there since Oct 98,
> Tower is original,
> CPU & HardDrive were upgrades in March 2000
> Did a clean install of Windows98 SE in 2002,
> before giving comp to my sister.
>
> Everything has worked well for the 5-8yr period of this comp.(It began
> life as a Pentium 133mhz comp)
> I think the problem is a toasted HD, or is it as simple as a reinstall
> of SE? Any constructive help/advice appreciated.
>
> Rob
>
>
>

The error is triggered by an unreadable sector. Don't think a reinstall
will help for a long time. Try booting to dos, start scandisk and do a
surface scan. When it finds bad sectors which weren't bad before, the
disk is dying.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion (More info?)

"Rob" <rhendy@sympatico.ca> wrote in
news:3bR9e.18832$Jg5.939054@news20.bellglobal.com:

>
> "Ingeborg" <a@b.invalid> wrote in message
> news:Xns963F69470806Fabinvalid@216.168.3.44...
>> "Rob" <rhendy@sympatico.ca> wrote in
>> news:VOH9e.11433$Jg5.883214@news20.bellglobal.com:
>>
>> > My Sister, who has an old computer of mine, called me last night
>> > and described her situation as follows.
>> >
>> > She had turned on the computer, and gets thru to Windows spalsh
>> > screen, but receives the message
>> > " Data Error Reading Drive C, (a)bort, (r)etry, (i)gnore.... "
>> > Relevant specs of comp are:
>> >
>> > MidTower Case
>> > 200W PSU
>> > AMD K2 - 400mhz CPU
>> > ChainTech AGM 2 - Motherboard
>> > Fujitsu 13.6 GB HardDrive
>> >
>> > The motherboard has been there since Oct 98,
>> > Tower is original,
>> > CPU & HardDrive were upgrades in March 2000
>> > Did a clean install of Windows98 SE in 2002,
>> > before giving comp to my sister.
>> >
>> > Everything has worked well for the 5-8yr period of this comp.(It
>> > began life as a Pentium 133mhz comp)
>> > I think the problem is a toasted HD, or is it as simple as a
>> > reinstall of SE? Any constructive help/advice appreciated.
>> >
>> > Rob
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>> The error is triggered by an unreadable sector. Don't think a
>> reinstall will help for a long time. Try booting to dos, start
>> scandisk and do a surface scan. When it finds bad sectors which
>> weren't bad before, the disk is dying.
>
>
> Can it be saved, or is it just time to upgrade & say goodbye?
>
>
> In general, approx. how long could a HD last, after being newly added
> to a computer. IOW, is 5yrs of use considered a short period, normal
> or a long period of time for an IDE HD lifecycle?
>

When it's dying it can't be saved. You can keep on using it, but the
number of bad sectors will increase. When it starts getting bad sectors
it's not reliable anymore.

I don't know how long a HD should last. When you google for 'MTBF
harddisk' you will find 250000 - 2500000 hours. That's about 25 - 250
years. But I have had several disks that died. I also have a 15 years old
486 which I still have in use as printserver, which runs it's original
HD.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion (More info?)

Warranty periods can be as much as five years, and MTBF figures can be that
much or more, but it's quite meaningless when applied to a single hard
drive. Any particular unit could last from a few hours to decades.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Rob" <rhendy@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:3bR9e.18832$Jg5.939054@news20.bellglobal.com...
>
> snip <

> In general, approx. how long could a HD last, after being newly added to a
> computer. IOW, is 5yrs of use considered a short period, normal or a long
> period of time for an IDE HD lifecycle?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion (More info?)

"Rob" <rhendy@sympatico.ca> wrote in message newsU7ae.22579$Jg5.1135352@news20.bellglobal.com...
>
> "Rob" <rhendy@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> news:VOH9e.11433$Jg5.883214@news20.bellglobal.com...
>> My sister, who has an old computer of mine, called me last night and
>> described her situation as follows.
>>
>> She had turned on the computer, and gets thru to Windows spalsh screen,
> but
>> receives the message
>> " Data Error Reading Drive C, (a)bort, (r)etry, (i)gnore.... "

>> Everything has worked well for the 5-8yr period of this comp.(It began
> life
>> as a Pentium 133mhz comp)
>> I think the problem is a toasted HD, or is it as simple as a reinstall of
>> SE? Any constructive help/advice appreciated.
>>
>> Rob
>>
>
> So I guess there isn't much point to saving the HD or the files on it
> and instead look to possible mini - upgrade options.

Whether or not you want to recover data files is of course up to you.
But, just because Windows won't load due to one reported disk read error,
doesn't mean that most? data isn't recoverable.

You might also want to try running a "scandisk /surface" from DOS, and/or the
drive manufacturer's disk checking tools. Usually found on their respective
web-sites. If you have a SMART capable drive and it's enabled, you should
also check what it has to report.