Problem: Spinrite does not have access to SMART data

[caribouuu]

Hi everybody

I am using Spinrite to do some work on a 160gb Seagate Barracuda (it's actually doing it right now, so I can't get the technical data on the drive atm), but the S.M.A.R.T. System Monitor screen tells me:

SpinRite does not have access to SMART data published by the current physical drive. The drive may not be publishing SMART data, or the drive's controlling BIOS may not be publishing the drive's hardware address.

Hard Disk Sentinel reports my drive's alarming temperature of between 42-45 degrees successfully, so I suppose I need to configure my BIOS to publish the drive's hardware address. I couldn't find any information on this when I googled it; can a guru on here kindly give me the answer, please?

 

[GhislainG]

Is SMART enabled in the BIOS? 42-45 degrees is not alarming at all.

 

[caribouuu]

Is SMART enabled in the BIOS?

I don't know how to check that. Can you tell me what to look for? I do see that hard disk sentinel and some other DOS disk monitors can read it.

42-45 degrees is not alarming at all.

What is a safe operating temperature range? HDS displays temps over 40 in yellow, and over 47 in red. The disk would sometimes play dead when over 47 until HDS re-tried, and it would also display erratic temperatures from 9 to 36 back to 47.

New problem: the disk no longer is accessible from Windows. It tells me, "E:\ is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable." I have the only copies of my artwork on the disk and need to find a way to repair it.. will try some disk repair tools like dos partition magic but not sure what to do here.. SpinRite level 2 scan revealed no surface damage. Disk is super noisy now too.

 

[caribouuu]

I used a program on my hiren's boot cd to access the disk files- it's all there, but Windows still gives me an error even after rebuilding the partition table. i don't know.....

 

[GhislainG]

It's time to save the data and replace the disk. Newer hard disks usually run cooler than that, but the disk shouldn't have problems even at 47°C.

 

[caribouuu]

lol but I can't afford to replace the disk and don't have a place to save the data (well maybe i'll try saving some of it to a freeagent drive but i'll have to make room since it's all mac partitioned and blahhh)... thanks for the information thou "Mr G" ... I will listen to you. i guess that i can keep using the drive if i fix this problem and get a fan in there if you say 47 degrees should run ok.. i bet i just have to play catch with the thing and it'll work again someday.

 

[GhislainG]

Given that it's noisy, I wouldn't take a chance, but it's your data, not mine. Only you knows if your data is important or not. The hard disk certainly won't improve over time; at best you'll keep it running until it finally dies and all data is lost.

 

[caribouuu]

if anyone knows how i might get windows to access it, kindly shoot me a message... i'm just gonna take it to the computer shop for now and see what they think

 

[caribouuu]

apparently, i might try putting it in the freezer first .. now why can't spinrite access my hardware ..