Vista Tutorial - Time for a reformat, or new hard drive?

I noticed my system getting rather sluggish over the past several days and giving errors at boot-up.


I ran a disk cleanup and Check Disk with both options selected.


The problem persisted, and CPU utilization was normal, so I started going through the event logs and found a slew of the following errors even after having done everything above :

Log Name: System
Source: disk
Date: 1/6/2009 2:13:54 PM
Event ID: 7
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Warroom
Description:
The device, \Device\Harddisk0\DR0, has a bad block.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="disk" />
<EventID Qualifiers="49156">7</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2009-01-06T19:13:54.956Z" />
<EventRecordID>13066</EventRecordID>
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Warroom</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>\Device\Harddisk0\DR0</Data>
<Binary>030068000100000000000000070004C0000100009C0000C00000000000000000003EBF9109000000B019100000000000FFFFFFFF00000000400000840200000099200A1242072000000000003C00000000A0718EC8E20B8400000000E04B0D84000000009FDFC804280004C8DF9F00000800000000000000F00003000000000B00000000000000000000000000000000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>


---------------------------------------------------------------------

Log Name: System
Source: nvstor32
Date: 1/6/2009 2:13:54 PM
Event ID: 5
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Warroom
Description:
A parity error was detected on \Device\RaidPort0.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="nvstor32" />
<EventID Qualifiers="49156">5</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2009-01-06T19:13:54.956Z" />
<EventRecordID>13065</EventRecordID>
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Warroom</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>\Device\RaidPort0</Data>
<Binary>0F0018000100000000000000050004C0010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000050004C00000000000000000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, do you think it's time to replace the drive, or would a reformat/reload help this? I've heard bad blocks spread like a virus - just wanted to get other's opinions!

Thanks!

Hi JWhipple,

Over time with use, computers can gradually slow down. This is due to programs being installed and uninstalled, files being created and deleted, drivers being updated, together with the associated registry changes. To counteract that, I usually perform a fresh install on my system on a yearly basis. It does wonders, and my computer feels as though it has a fresh lease of life afterwards, quicker and more responsive. When I do this, I use the latest WHQL drivers.

If you even suspect that your drive is going bad I'd move the data to another drive or DVD asap if the data is important.

Having said that. I'd download WD diag (since you have wester digital drives) and make the bootable floppy and run the HDD tests to see what the health of your drive actually is. After that, if it passes with no problems and you feel like reformatting and reloading your OS then I'd run the "write zeros to drive" process and then format it and start over. It might be overkill but that will insure that your MBR and everything is written correctly as it wipes everything on the drive corrupt or not.

Before testing back your data up though as the tests are pretty exhaustive and could break something if it's on it's way to dead.

Dwarf,

No insult intended but, I already knew that :-) LOL In fact I just reloaded about a month ago. I don't use images - I prefer to hand-load and go from there.

My concern is that the drive is going south, especially since there are bad blocks being reported.

Is this a valid concern?

Again supporting what Dwarf has said.... its always good to do a fresh format when you feel it needs one... generally within a years time of use
I have been on the same install for almost 2 and half years and i really have noticed several time that my computer is getting really slow and i know i need to do a format...
I'm just a little to lazy right now to do one
To be honest unless you know your hard drive is failing i.e unhealthy sounds and continual random data loss then there is no real reason to replace you hard drive as a full format will generally recondition your drive back to the time it was new
If yet you still want to replace your drive then make sure you know what you are getting so as you don't end up replacing your drive for one that may be bigger in capacity but transfers data really slow
The best hard drive on the market to date so im lead to believe is the Samsung Spinpoint F1 but don't quote me on that

take a moment to view the link below

Benchmark Results - Review Tom's Hardware : WD's 750 GB Hard Disk Sets New Records

If you are getting bad block errors. Get a new hard drive and use Acronis to image the old one to it.

Welp - fate came knockin... By the time I got up this morning I couldn't get windows to boot. I used a few utils that I have on a bootable DVD to test the drive - a huge chunk of it was showing as bad... so... glad I backed up anything important last night!

I replaced the drive and all is well now.

oh that was lucky.... what drive did you go for in the end?

Picked up a 1 TB Seagate over at Best Buy that was on sale. The old drive was a 160GB Samsung.