[Aly Jean]

Earlier today my computer shut itself off, all by itself. No problem with the battery or anything, and no suspected problems. The other day, I got a virus, but Kaspersky cleaned it out. I checked out my hard drive using Speedfan S.M.A.R.T and it told me I had a read failure, and I did an in-depth analysis and it told me this:
Warning: Current Pending Sector looks critical.
NOTE : your hard disk has 1 pending sectors. Those are sectors that couldn't be properly read and that the hard disk logic is waiting for a write operation to try to remap to a spare sector (if available). According to the Reallocated Sector Count attribute, your hard disk seems to have available spare sectors. A simple disk surface scan won't be enough to force the remap operation. You need a read/write surface scan to remap the sector. The best option should be a tool that knows about what should be read from that sector so that it has some option to apply the best fix to the missing data.

I don't know how to fix this. If it needs to be replaced, I don't know how - I don't know my motherboard type. My operating system is Windows 7, 3GB RAM, 250.1GB HDD, and the type of hard drive is ST9250410AS with firmware 0006HPM1. My computer is a laptop.
Please help! Appreciated in advance.

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Edited by Aly Jean, 17 February 2012 - 09:22 PM.

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Aly Jean

First suggestion is for you to back up all important data on the HDD, use Puppy Linux for this; http://www.geekstogo...over-your-data/

Then;

Run the HDDs diagnostics tool; http://www.tacktech....tid=287#seagate
Make sure you select the tool that is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program it'll create a bootable floppy or a bootable CD.
If the downloaded file is the .iso type use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn the .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option) and make the CD bootable.

Let us know how the above goes.

[phillpower2]

Aly Jean

First suggestion is for you to back up all important data on the HDD, use Puppy Linux for this; http://www.geekstogo...over-your-data/

Then;

Run the HDDs diagnostics tool; http://www.tacktech....tid=287#seagate
Make sure you select the tool that is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program it'll create a bootable floppy or a bootable CD.
If the downloaded file is the .iso type use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn the .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option) and make the CD bootable.

Let us know how the above goes.

[Aly Jean]

Okay, I burned them onto disk using ImgBurn successfully.

[phillpower2]

What were the results of the HDD testing please?

[Aly Jean]

I couldn't figure out how to get into the bios.

[phillpower2]

Not all computers are the same http://www.hiren.inf...bios-boot-cdrom

[Aly Jean]

Thanks! I think I've solved the problem, using the Seagate tool. After running it, it repaired the bad sector, and Speedfan (and another program called Active SMART) reported no problems and my hard drive fitness went back up to 98% as did performance. I managed to remove a virus the last time I was in Safe Mode so hopefully if that was the cause, this doesn't happen again.
Thank you for the help! Greatly appreciated.

[phillpower2]

As a precaution I suggest you read the 'Start Here' topic found here. With these self-help tools you have a high chance of fixing the problems on your own. If you are still having problems after following Step 3 of the guide, continue with Step 4 and 5 and post in the Malware Forum. If you are unable to run any programs, Please create a topic stating what you have tried so far and that you are unable to run any programs. Also, Please do NOT post the logs in this thread.

Like I say it is a precautionary measure but best to be safe, good luck.