Computation Error = Caused by Hard drive failure ?

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Profile Floyd
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Message 1354419 - Posted: 7 Apr 2013, 15:58:55 UTC
Last modified: 7 Apr 2013, 16:50:18 UTC

I had a "read error , click ctrl-alt-del to restart "

After I restarted , one of the wu's that finished after that, showed as a compute error , My primary HD is apparently going out.
I won't be able to get another one till after the first of May , So I have set to NNT and will empty the cache and stop till I can get the PC fixed , New HD and reinstall everything.

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=1204942674

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/result.php?resultid=2910657886
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Message 1354471 - Posted: 7 Apr 2013, 19:21:30 UTC

Floyd -

If it is your XP computer, go to support.microsoft.com/kb/315265 and follow the instructions to schedule a chkdsk on re-boot.

If it is your Windows 7 computer, search Google with "Windows 7 chkdsk"

If you just have a "few" bad sections on your hard drive, these may fix it.
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Message 1354548 - Posted: 8 Apr 2013, 3:54:45 UTC - in response to Message 1354471.  

Floyd -

If it is your XP computer, go to support.microsoft.com/kb/315265 and follow the instructions to schedule a chkdsk on re-boot.

If it is your Windows 7 computer, search Google with "Windows 7 chkdsk"

If you just have a "few" bad sections on your hard drive, these may fix it.


I can run chkdsk ,I know how to do that , The pc won't even boot sometimes now until I restart it sometimes more than once.
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Message 1354607 - Posted: 8 Apr 2013, 8:15:56 UTC - in response to Message 1354548.  

Sounds like not bad sector prob , more like motor not spinning up to speed or electronic board overheating eather way you don't have long till it stops completely

usually a bad sector is caused because the drive has been droped and is physically scratched
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Profile Cliff Harding
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Message 1354626 - Posted: 8 Apr 2013, 11:13:44 UTC

Whether you have XP or Win 7, you should be able to schedule the chkdsk to run at boot time. Had a similar problem with my system drive on 3/31. Ended up borrowing a spare from a neighbor until I can replace it with a SSD next week. Is there any way to move that drive to you other machine as an extra drive and run chkdsk from there. I don't know if you would have any problems since they are two different architectures.

GOOD LUCK!!


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Message 1354632 - Posted: 8 Apr 2013, 11:51:53 UTC - in response to Message 1354626.  

You should be able to do what cliff says . You shouldn't have a problem if you can set the drive to slave and connect to slave port if however you got a sata drive then i'm not shore
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Message 1354634 - Posted: 8 Apr 2013, 12:08:26 UTC - in response to Message 1354632.  

You should be able to do what cliff says . You shouldn't have a problem if you can set the drive to slave and connect to slave port if however you got a sata drive then i'm not shore


I don't think that the drive being SATA is a problem, as long as the drive is not in the system drive (C:) spot. Just slip it into any available slot and it should work. Both of my machines are SATA and I have no problem doing this. At one time one of the machines was mixed and I had no problem swapping between SATA or setting the jumpers to slave.


I don't buy computers, I build them!!
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Message 1354637 - Posted: 8 Apr 2013, 12:31:36 UTC - in response to Message 1354634.  

You should be able to do what cliff says . You shouldn't have a problem if you can set the drive to slave and connect to slave port if however you got a sata drive then i'm not shore


I don't think that the drive being SATA is a problem, as long as the drive is not in the system drive (C:) spot. Just slip it into any available slot and it should work. Both of my machines are SATA and I have no problem doing this. At one time one of the machines was mixed and I had no problem swapping between SATA or setting the jumpers to slave.

My old P4 was doing the same thing yors is doing now. Id have to restart it a few times before it would start up. In my case it was a failing powersupply coupled with a bad fan on the CPU and dried up thermal paste. But then a month or two later the hard drive did also die. So Im not sure I helped you much:)
[/quote]

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Message 1354638 - Posted: 8 Apr 2013, 12:56:30 UTC - in response to Message 1354419.  
Last modified: 8 Apr 2013, 13:39:16 UTC

I had a "read error , click ctrl-alt-del to restart "

After I restarted , one of the wu's that finished after that, showed as a compute error , My primary HD is apparently going out.
I won't be able to get another one till after the first of May , So I have set to NNT and will empty the cache and stop till I can get the PC fixed , New HD and reinstall everything.

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=1204942674

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/result.php?resultid=2910657886

Just for the record, as I am sure you have all the neccesary steps planned to salvage the data off the dying HD:

The boinc data directory can be transplanted wholesale to a new location, you don't need to start from scratch. Just make a backup copy of the data dir.

Install Boinc on the new HD (to get all the registry entries and premissions set properly) and then exit again. Take the backup data dir and copy/move to where the new (mostly empty) data directory was created. You should be able to pick up seamlessly.

The advantage is that you'll start with an established host ID and APRs and don't have to go through the hassle and shortcomings of a new attach. You also won't have to redo any of the optimisations (e.g. the trouble of finding an old copy of the Lunatics installer ;) )

Edit: I was advised that it is far, far easier to copy the data directory to the new location/HD FIRST and then make sure that the boinc installer picks up the right location.
check here for the default location of the data directory - it may be a hidden one.

BTW watching chkdsk work on a failing HD can be a bit like watching a setup of domino stones fall with a stroboskope...
A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read. (Mark Twain)
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Message 1354667 - Posted: 8 Apr 2013, 14:40:20 UTC
Last modified: 8 Apr 2013, 14:44:03 UTC

I ran chkdsk last nite , Took quite a few hours , It rebooted just fine after it finished , I have shut down and rebooted a couple times since then and it seems to be ok. I'm still going to get another HD asap , and use this one as a backup , I may try running a few WU's each day , and just watch close for any problems that may come up. I only had that one computation error so far , hope I can make this work till I can get another HD next month.

EDIT- I have cache set to 0.25 days work No extra max days work , I hope to get that much done each day without any more errors.
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Profile Cliff Harding
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Message 1354690 - Posted: 8 Apr 2013, 15:57:46 UTC
Last modified: 8 Apr 2013, 15:59:22 UTC

Just to satisfy my own curiosity, how many HDDs to you have on your machine? If multiple, do you have your data directory on a different physical drive? Many years ago I found that it is better to keep my data directory on a separate drive from the system drive, so that if I have any major problems with the system drive the data is safe. The current problems that I am having is on the system drive, so all I have to do is re-image the system. The only problem that I will have with the new drive is that I can't restore the system image from my backups because from what I understand there is a difference in the formatting of backups between HDDs & SSDs. So it will take the major part of a day to re-install all of the programs.


I don't buy computers, I build them!!
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Message 1354759 - Posted: 8 Apr 2013, 18:59:21 UTC - in response to Message 1354690.  

Just to satisfy my own curiosity, how many HDDs to you have on your machine? If multiple, do you have your data directory on a different physical drive? Many years ago I found that it is better to keep my data directory on a separate drive from the system drive, so that if I have any major problems with the system drive the data is safe. The current problems that I am having is on the system drive, so all I have to do is re-image the system. The only problem that I will have with the new drive is that I can't restore the system image from my backups because from what I understand there is a difference in the formatting of backups between HDDs & SSDs. So it will take the major part of a day to re-install all of the programs.


I have 2 HD's on this machine , #1 = 1.5 TB ( primary ) & # 2 = 2 TB (Storage)

all windows and boinc info is on my primary drive , only about 2 years old drive.

Both HD's are only about 2 years old , Seagate HD's Both of them , I have always had Good results from Seagate drives , some of the old drives are about 10 years old. ( old 40 gig and 60 gig ) and still work , one is an old 20 gig ) .


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Message 1354776 - Posted: 8 Apr 2013, 19:56:29 UTC - in response to Message 1354690.  

<snip>
The only problem that I will have with the new drive is that I can't restore the system image from my backups because from what I understand there is a difference in the formatting of backups between HDDs & SSDs. So it will take the major part of a day to re-install all of the programs.


When I made the move from hdd to ssd I made an image backup to a second hdd in the machine. Then I replaced the system drive with the ssd and restored the image.

Then I found out about 'alignment' after running a couple of ssd lifetime expectancy programs. A fresh install of newer OSs will look after alignment when installing by itself. A disk image restored to a ssd will not be aligned.

I found a free program that would, non destructively, align the partitions on the ssd. MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition.

Worked for me.
</Tazz>
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Profile Cliff Harding
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Message 1354782 - Posted: 8 Apr 2013, 20:07:46 UTC - in response to Message 1354759.  

Just to satisfy my own curiosity, how many HDDs to you have on your machine? If multiple, do you have your data directory on a different physical drive? Many years ago I found that it is better to keep my data directory on a separate drive from the system drive, so that if I have any major problems with the system drive the data is safe. The current problems that I am having is on the system drive, so all I have to do is re-image the system. The only problem that I will have with the new drive is that I can't restore the system image from my backups because from what I understand there is a difference in the formatting of backups between HDDs & SSDs. So it will take the major part of a day to re-install all of the programs.


I have 2 HD's on this machine , #1 = 1.5 TB ( primary ) & # 2 = 2 TB (Storage)

all windows and boinc info is on my primary drive , only about 2 years old drive.

Both HD's are only about 2 years old , Seagate HD's Both of them , I have always had Good results from Seagate drives , some of the old drives are about 10 years old. ( old 40 gig and 60 gig ) and still work , one is an old 20 gig ) .




May I suggest that if you have the space on your storage drive that you create a separate partition and move your data directory there. If you do, reinstall BOINC after the move and point to the new data directory. This way you will not lose any of the data, when and if you have to re-image without a restore. The advantage of this will be that you won't waste time waiting for lost files being d/l'ed. It would be even better to put your data on a physically separate drive.


I don't buy computers, I build them!!
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Message 1354843 - Posted: 8 Apr 2013, 23:45:59 UTC

Seeing as you did a chdsk and it seems to have fixed the prob .

i'm wondering and yes this is probably reay stupid but

could the error be caused because the drive hasn't been defragd in a while and just got lost trying to find the place it needed to store the info it was writeing

First rule of a help desk it's usually something realy dumb like , "have you checked the power switch is turned on at the wall "

if you realy wish to see if there is a problem with bad sectors you'll have to do a deep scan disk in dos but that mite take a freaking long time with a drive that big
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Message 1354867 - Posted: 9 Apr 2013, 1:40:38 UTC - in response to Message 1354843.  

Seeing as you did a chdsk and it seems to have fixed the prob .

i'm wondering and yes this is probably reay stupid but

could the error be caused because the drive hasn't been defragd in a while and just got lost trying to find the place it needed to store the info it was writeing

First rule of a help desk it's usually something realy dumb like , "have you checked the power switch is turned on at the wall "

if you realy wish to see if there is a problem with bad sectors you'll have to do a deep scan disk in dos but that mite take a freaking long time with a drive that big


It hasn't been that long since I defragged the drive , I checked it the other day and it is only about 19% fragmented , almost all of that is in Files that cannot be defragged , Like music and Video files . and Games like halo , etc.

I ran chkdsk with the option to check for and recover any bad sectors.
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Message 1354874 - Posted: 9 Apr 2013, 2:09:02 UTC - in response to Message 1354867.  

If you move those files to the other drive and then scan disk but don't bother to fix errors i'm shore the graphic will show you if you have any faulty sectors even the 1's that chdsk patched and then at least you can be certain it is stuffed as I said tho it will take a long time to do

wow 19% fragmentation ops

I had a bet a long time ago with someone about defrag he reakoned it didn't matter so I bet him 100 bucks it does , 8mths later the system crashed and I could not recover it I couldn't even defrag it gave up after 48hrs and just reformatted it and reloaded the system
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Message 1354878 - Posted: 9 Apr 2013, 3:07:31 UTC - in response to Message 1354874.  

Sorry Gary I relised after that you may have been offended when I put

First rule of a help desk it's usually something realy dumb like , "have you checked the power switch is turned on at the wall "

Sorry about that I wasn't insuting you I meant it as a joke

That's why I also put that this is probably a stupid thing to say .

Please don't take me to serious I often put my big feet in my mouth
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Message 1354879 - Posted: 9 Apr 2013, 3:10:05 UTC - in response to Message 1354878.  

See I did it again your not Gary your Floyd sorry again

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Message 1354888 - Posted: 9 Apr 2013, 4:30:57 UTC - in response to Message 1354878.  

Sorry Gary I relised after that you may have been offended when I put

First rule of a help desk it's usually something realy dumb like , "have you checked the power switch is turned on at the wall "

Sorry about that I wasn't insuting you I meant it as a joke

That's why I also put that this is probably a stupid thing to say .

Please don't take me to serious I often put my big feet in my mouth


LOL... No problem , I laughed because a lot of the time it is usually something like that , I had a friend whose computer broke down and I had to replace the PSU , I got a call a couple days Later , that it was broken , she didn't know how to turn it on ...
In no way was I offended , at all... LOL
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Message boards : Number crunching : Computation Error = Caused by Hard drive failure ?


 
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