Hard Disk Failure Warning

[king421]

Hi, I have a Samsung Spinpoint F3 in my computer for over a year. Recently, a warning from Windows 7 popped up saying that it detected some failures in my hard disk and tells me to back up files. I looked around and got HD Tune just to make sure. I'm not exactly positive on how to use HD Tune but when I look in the health tab, everything turns out to be ok.

Can the warning from windows be ignored or should I do some other test?

 

[tkrl26]

I would backup your important data, then worry about testing. Win 7 is pretty good about its warnings, if you ignore it, and lose all your important data... How pissed would you be?

 

[dakimaz]

like tkrl26 said, better safe than sorry, backup your important files first.
Then try to locate the failures, is it software or hardware, the info you provide is a bit scarce.
However, I would search the drive for the issues, and either update the firmware, or check if something is physically wrong with it.
And Win 7 may be "pretty good" but there still could be exceptions. I'd say if you haven't experienced issues while using it (ie. game lags, you have trouble retrieving flies, files get often corrupted etc), the just ignore the message, but still, backup your most important files.
hope this helps

 

[Paperdoc]

Win 7 could be wrong. But if it's right and there is an emerging problem with your Spinpoint, it could be either software (i.e., corrupted data bits in some HDD file), or it could be the hardware itself. Win 7 has some tools like CHKDSK for the software stuff, but very little for hardware. For that, your best bet may be to go to the Samsung website and look there for a free downloadable testing utility. Usually these can do thorough tests (sometimes both a quick and a long test) of the HDD without any risk to the data. HOWEVER, some of them also include tools to fix the problems it finds, and some of those DO re-write stuff and could damage data. In those cases the utility software usually will warn you of potential data damage before you do the task, so watch the prompts carefully when using it.

A full backup of your HDD before you start is ALWAYS the best first step.

 

[smartyn13r]

help me here

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/283805-32-cannot-format-samsung-sp4011n#t1923398