Lots of Cyclic Redundancy Check errors!

[hudson]

Please can anyone help me. I'm find a lot of scattered files on my HDD resulting in Data Error : Cyclic Redundancy Check thingymebobs when attempting to copy or open them. Is my HDD on the brink of death?
I'm close to just backing up what I can salvage (all important files are safe) and then do a re-install of XP (or back to Vista that came on Laptop).

Is there anything else I can do? Is it dying?

Thanks

[sj33]

Is the HDD making clicking sounds too? It's worth taking the case off and listening. If it is, the HDD is dying. If not, it might just be a corrupt partition and a repartition/reformat might suffice.

Either way, back up ASAP. If it's the former (i.e a head crash), then the data corruption will get worse the more you turn on the machine.

[hudson]

Aah yes, almost forgot... when using the laptop in general, I ocassionally get freezes on screen. My hardrive light is on constantly and at this moment I can hear it doing a normal sounding click every couple of seconds or so. After a short while it will resume.

[sj33]

Bad news then I'm afraid, I've had plenty of HDD's do that over the years. It's a head crash, it's a physical malfunction and there's no way to fix it I'm afraid. Back up all you can and get a new HDD. Luckily the HDD is the simplest thing to replace.

[VR46]

Technically, sounds like it is indeed fooked, back it up and bin it mate, not worth the risk with HD's so cheap nowadays.

EDIT: beaten to it by SJ33

[hudson]

Cheap for a Vaio laptop?

[kernow]

it'll just be a standard hard disk, so yes.

[sj33]

Yeah it's just a standard 2.5 inch (presumably) SATA hard drive, same as what is in the PS3 in fact.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?store=2&cat=4&subcat=2274

[hudson]

Aah, good. Easy to install? I've done many a big PC in the past, like. Well, them IDE ones

[sj33]

There should be a little compartment at the bottom that you can unscrew, containing the HDD. It's designed to be removed, so it should be no problem.

[hudson]

Yes there is, cheers. Thanks everyone.

Just looking for the best prices for a decent 120GB HDD if anyone has any good ideas?

[Taka]

You may as well go for the largest disk that you can reasonably afford since you're going in there to do a swap over. I picked up a 320gb Seagate from ebuyer for my MacBook Pro for around £50 or so just a few weeks ago.

[randombs]

Careful with disk sizes, though. I installed a 500gb hard drive in a mate's vaio (SZ3) and it was slightly too big, so when closing it up there's a bit of a gap and probably quite a bit of pressure on the drive. From what I've seen, 320gb and under are pretty much the same thickness.

Taka's right, it's probably a false economy going for a 120gb nowadays.

[Taka]

Careful with disk sizes, though. I installed a 500gb hard drive in a mate's vaio (SZ3) and it was slightly too big, so when closing it up there's a bit of a gap and probably quite a bit of pressure on the drive. From what I've seen, 320gb and under are pretty much the same thickness.

That's right, you want the 9.5mm height for guaranteed compatibility. I think only Western Digital and Samsung possibly have 500gb drives with 9.5mm height but most other companies will be on 12.5mm due to using 3 or more platters.

If your laptop has any fancy drive parking or energy management utilities, you may also want to consider sticking with the same brand and possibly model family of drive if this is of importance to you. Also, worth noting that if you opt for a 7200 rpm drive, the performance gains will be significant but may also have an impact on your battery life.

If you want to go really posh and high-tech, you could always move into a solid state drive if you're worried about mechanical failure. Quite a premium on them, though...

[hudson]

Thank you, Taka.

If I mainly run my laptop plugged in, is it worth taking the plunge for the 7200rpm HDD?