Hard disk failure imminent?

[Jacks0n]

OK this keeps happening.

 

When I start up the computer it says:

"Hard disk failure imminent! Back up all your files immediately!"

 

Sometimes when I'm on playing Runescape it pops up with:

"Your hard disk could close at any time. Please back up all your files immediately."

 

OK I know what to do ;)

 

I backed up my files, but I got a few questions.

 

What is a hard disk?

What do I need to do to get it fixed?

How did the hard disk failure occur?

 

Thanks guys!

[Sbrideau]

What is a hard disk?

 

The hard disk is the device on which all your files are stored on your computer. The hard drive is also one of the only moving parts on the computer, making it more fragile.

 

What do I need to do to get it fixed?

 

There isn't really any other way than getting a new one, a hard drive failure is usually unrepairable. Nowadays though, the prices aren't too high compared to what they were before.

 

How did the hard disk failure occur?

 

There are multiple ways for a failure to occur, like moving the computer when it's on, or simply of old age. There are too many factors for me to name them all. All I can say is that sometimes the hard disk will make more noise before the actual failure. Or a simple cable not being connected all the way in, that can happen too.

 

Anyway, picture to show you what a hard drive is:

 

[hide]Should look like this for a desktop, pretty much the same but smaller for a laptop:

[/hide]

[Jernlov]

That sounds like some kind of malware. I've had a hard disk fail and Windows did not notify me at all.

 

Download this and post a logfile here.

[Racheya]

That sounds like some kind of malware. I've had a hard disk fail and Windows did not notify me at all.

 

Download this and post a logfile here.

I'd agree with this. Post a screenshot of the thing when it comes up too, if you can. It can be easy to spot malware pop ups if you know what you're looking for.

[Laura]

Actually, it could be a legitimate error.

 

1720 - SMART Hard Drive detects imminent failure. Your hard disk drive is detecting an imminent failure. To ensure no data loss, backup contents and replace this hard disk. Attribute Failed: #10^[1]

 

Although the HP site mentions nothing after boot, so...

[Will H]

It sounds legitimate, but consider yourself lucky that you were notified, normally they fail without warning for no apparent reason. Unfortunately, Hard Drives are almost always irreparable because the action of opening it to fix anything will destroy the disks inside, and have to be replaced. Consider this an opportunity to get a bigger and better one.

[Jernlov]

The wording of the messages alone is more than enough to set off some alarm bells.

 

Screenshots are necessary, I think.

[Bery]

The wording of the messages alone is more than enough to set off some alarm bells.

 

Screenshots are necessary, I think.

 

 

The wording is irrelevant. Malware is nothing more than a program(s), and you can make it say what ever you want. I suggest doing a full virus scan of your computer to check if this is the problem.

[Jacks0n]

I scanned and nothing came up. (I use Trend Micro if anyone cares)

 

And if this helps the hard disk failure has happened before but I had no warning. The warnings have stopped now, there is only the warning on start-up.

 

One time yesterday the computer shut down on me after "identifying a critical error" (I was in Kuradals dungeon lawl lucky I didn't die xD)

 

Thank you all for the help! <3:

[Jernlov]

The wording of the messages alone is more than enough to set off some alarm bells.

 

Screenshots are necessary, I think.

 

 

The wording is irrelevant. Malware is nothing more than a program(s), and you can make it say what ever you want. I suggest doing a full virus scan of your computer to check if this is the problem.

 

I think you have missed my point. I don't think a legitimate Windows error would be worded in the way those messages are.

[ClareJonsson]

This is NOT a legitimate Windows error, it is unlikely your hard drive is at risk of failure, unless the error is generated before your PC boots into windows, and then you would be told something like S.M.A.R.T. status bad backup and replace. But this would not appear in windows itself, it would appear very shortly after powering the PC on. I would personally run a good anti-malware/spyware solution on your system, something like Avast, AVG, Windows Defender or Microsoft Security Essentials and do a deep scan.

[indy500fan]

The wording is irrelevant. Malware is nothing more than a program(s), and you can make it say what ever you want. I suggest doing a full virus scan of your computer to check if this is the problem.

 

Wording is relevant, it is usually pretty easy to tell legitimate errors/messages apart from illegitimate ones. You shouldn't base everything off of wording but it is good indicator that further research is needed.

 

I've never seen a hard drive failure imminent error. Usually if they are going to die they just die.

[Sbrideau]

True, I just answered without thinking, but it's true that I have never seen a message come up before a hard drive failure.

[ClareJonsson]

HDDs don't always just die, I have quite often see a hard drive slow down to a snails pace but still to actually work. In fact I had exactly that on a laptop last week. I reckon it may have been an intermittent problem with reading the tracking surface or the on-board cache. I have also seen drives die slowly due to the firmware being intermittently read incorrectly until finally they died. we had a batch of Seagate drives that exhibited this problem and we had hundreds of PCs with that model in them. It must have cost Seagate a fortune to replace them all. Seagate even release a small utility that attempted to re-flash the firmware which may allow you to recover the data on a one off basis. Gosh I hated that.