So, yesterday when I booted up the laptop, I got the Smart failure predicted on Hard disc 2.
I have been busily backing up all my data since then, onto an external usb 2.0 drive.
So two questions go along with this…one how long does one usually have before the drive fails, and can this be fixed or should I buy a new hard drive for the computer?
Also, I only have one hard drive in this pavillion. Which drive is #2?
ta!
yancey
HD 2 is probably a hidden “recovery” partition that was set up by HP.
After doing the backup, your next action probably should be to call HP to determine if this is a real problem or not. And, there’s always a possibility that they know of the problem and silently extended warranty coverage for it. Not a big possibility, but it does happen now and then.
That is the plan. Getting in touch with HP has been an experience in phone tree’s that I am not relishing taking up again tonight.
Thanks for the info!
yancey
SMART fail is like credit reporting scores; probably a good predictor, but not 100% predictive.
You may experience a fail tomorrow, you may experience a fail in 45 days, you may make it another year.
In the servers I run at work, which average two 32K writes per second, a SMART fail usually means we’ve got 4 hours to 3 weeks.
Find the make of your hard drive and go to the manufacturers website. They usually have diagnostic software that you can download that should give a more accurate report of any problems.
Some manufacturers will then determine whether your drive is still under warranty and if you are really lucky send a replacement out to you.
So what’s a SMART failure?
-Kris
HA! drach.
I wonder if the failure prediction has improved since 2001.
(The movie.)