Download Hitachi's diagnostic utility. It's called Drive Fitness Test. Burn it to a CDR, and boot from that. It should "fix" (ie mark) the bad sectors.

http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/#DFT

There's a link on that same page to check warranty expiration date. Key in the serial number, and it shows the expiration date. The serial number is printed physically on the hard disk. There are also utilities that will show the serial number. (Seagate's Seatools for Windows and WD's wdlg both do, and they also sometimes works on other brand's hard disks. It's usually better to use the manufacturer's own utility though, if it's available).

I also use this free utility that can do surface scan reads, and shows the time it takes to read each block. Blocks that takes a very long time to read might have problems.

http://hddscan.com/

A few years ago, before SATA existed, IDE's advantage is that it exists and SATA did not.

A short while after that, you can get SATA hard disks, but all CD/DVD drives were still IDE.

If you have a very old m/b, with one IDE + 2 SATA sockets, and you already have 2 SATA hard disks, then the advantage of IDE is that you already have a free socket, which can support 2 devices.

Otherwise, there's no reason to buy new hard disk / DVD / CD drives with IDE instead of SATA.

1 year with Viewnet. But have you gone to Seagate's website and check the warranty status on your hard disk? You key in the serial number and it tells you the expiry date.

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Added on January 29, 2012, 8:20 pmDec 2013 is nearly 2 years away. Still a long time.

No idea if it's bad or not. But I know what you should do. Go to Seagate's website, download Seatools for Windows. Run the long test on your hard disk. It should clear any errors. (If there are too many errors, it will say so, in which case you can return the hard disk). Otherwise, wait a few months, check again. if no new problems develop, you're fine.

BTW: IINM, the new Seatools just silently "repair" bad sectors. The old version tells you if there are bad sectors, and then ask you if you want to "fix" them. WD's Data Lifeguard diagnostic for windows also works on Seagate drives, and does tell you if errors are found, before repairing them. You might prefer to use that instead. Or the free HDD scan utility's surface scan.

This post has been edited by dkk: Jan 29 2012, 08:20 PM

*DO NOT RMA*. Your's is a Windows problem. Use Google. This problem is described in so many different places.

http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-suppor...y-computer.html

http://forums.techarena.in/windows-xp-support/662850.htm

To know whether you should RMA a hard disk, first download the diagnostic utility from the hard disk manufacturer. Then run it.

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Added on January 30, 2012, 5:09 amIn that case, go ahead and RMA.

This post has been edited by dkk: Jan 30 2012, 05:09 AM

Spoken like a person who has never had to reformat and reinstall his OS every 3 months or so because of virus, worms, etc.

Anyone knows if Buffalo manufactures their own hard disk, or buys it from another manufacturer?

I just put the HD in the bag m/b comes in. If you don't have any, I suppose you could go to computer shops and see if they have any in the trash from the new computers they've assembled for other customers.

Then put the whole thing in a DVD drive box. HDs are a lot smaller than DVD drives, so the built in padding is not enough. So I just pour in lots of packing peanuts. There are lots of those in my office, arrives every week from when suppliers sends us stuff. You could also use bubble wrap, newspapers, trash from the paper shredder, etc.

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Added on February 17, 2012, 10:01 pmThanks. When I was looking for an external HD last month, I saw that Buffalo was cheaper than WD and Seagate. I would have bought it if I had known it was Samsung. But when I asked the shop, they said "don't know". So I bought Seagate instead.

This post has been edited by dkk: Feb 17 2012, 10:01 PM

usually no. just removing the board would not break the airtight seal. i've done a few myself. it's only worked twice.

1) it only works if it's the board that is damaged. Not the internal mechanism. Usually it isn't the board that's faulty. That only happens in some special instances, eg power surge, or technician's error accidentally shorting it out while connecting the hard disk without shutting down the power supply.

2) the board must be identical. This means it's not enough to just match the hard disk model number, as each model typically goes through a few revisions. It's practically impossible in a home environment. Where are you going to find another identical hard disk. It's sometimes possible in an office environment, where there are many computers lying around. Especially if you usually buy a number of hard disks at the same time. They will probably have the same board.

There's nothing to it. You just remove the screws. It comes straight off. The trick is in finding a matching board.

I agree. It's practically impossible to find. Just send for RMA.

My experience was from office. In our office, we usually buy a couple of hard disk at a time. The twin was already in the office.

And it still is a data-recovery thing. We're not actually fixing the hard disk here. Just getting the data off. Because even after we found the matching board on another hard disk, we now have 1 board, and 2 hard disks ...

Desktop hard disks don't need casing. They install inside the computer casing. You may already have the power cable. All desktops have. It's just a question of whether you have an available (unused) one. You'll probably need a SATA cable. Some desktops have extra ones as well. Open up your computer casing and check.

There's always theft and fire! Nothing beats off-site backup.

My off-site backup is in my house. It's a very good location.

There's a couple of km separating the two locations. It is far enough apart that a fire could not destroy both locations (other than airplanes bombing us).

It's close enough to easily make copies of the backup and bring it to the office.

Our country do not suffer from building-destroying earthquakes.

And the location of my house is such that it is impossible for it to be flooded.

Seagate lands Samsung's hard drive unit for $1.37 billion: It's duopoly time

Note the time, it was from April 2011.

There is absolutely no benefit to being born in west malaysia, as opposed to east malaysia. In fact, there are some advantages to being born in east malaysia.

Living in west malaysia though is a different matter. But that is something you can fix.

Assuming it is already correctly connected, it probably needs to be initialized (partititioned) and formatted.

Control Panel > Admin Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management

It's printed on the hard disk on the label. Take it out of the computer and you can see it. There are also many programs that will read it electronically. Like WD's own diagnostic program. http://support.wdc.com/product/download.as...6&sid=3&lang=en

If you don't already have those programs on your computer, it's much easier to just take out the hard disk and eyeball the number.

2GB limits are from the previous CENTURY! Is this some ancient computer?
Or did you accidentally make the partition type FAT16?