It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to replace the drive but, before you
do so (and even if you do so) you might give SpinRite6 a whirl.
SpinRite (by Steve Gibson, Gibson Research Corp) has been around since
the early days of the PC. I first applied it to a 10GB Seagate drive
about 1987. It will work its arse off to recover data that is
ostensibly unreadable. It does this by reading the same sector perhaps
hundreds or thousands of times and watching each bit that's returned.
Bits that are weak may be read incorrectly sometimes and correctly at
others. By building a statistical profile of the sector data based on
repeated reads it can often figure out what's really there and then
rewrite the corrected data to restore the signal strength.
Whether it's worth $89 if you're going to replace the drive anyway and
especially if all the data is already backed up is up to you. But I do
know that if anything can restore what you've got to good health this is
it. <http://www.grc.com/intro.htm>
Even if you don't decide to buy SpinRite6 you should at least try
"ShieldsUp" at this site. It will give you a good idea of your
computer's internet security situation and it's free.
Chuck Norcutt
Marc Lawrence wrote:
> Ewww. I've just been setting up Google's Picasa 2 as a stop-gap solution
> to managing my images, when all of a sudden it started locking up when I
> opened some specific images. Since I've not long started using it, my
> initial thought was "ARRRH! Picasa!" but, well, a check of the relevant
> images showed that the problem wasn't Picasa - nothing would open them.
> What's more, any attempt to move or copy them (or even delete them) got
> a "Cyclic Redundancy Check" data error. Eeek!
>
> So, I looked some more, and there seems to be a few images that way,
> scattered across a few directories, and some Googling seems to indicate
> hard disk problems and that it will "only get worse". I'm currently
> running a 'chkdsk /r'. After quite a few errors messages, scrolled up
> past the top of the screen, I'm up to "stage 4 of 5" at 43% at this
> point in time, and wondering what the result might be.
>
> Anyway, my first point is...well, it's not a point but a question: In
> the experience of others out there, is this going to "only get worse",
> and do you have any advice or suggestions (note, I am running Windows
> XP, and this box is a few years old now)?
>
> My second point is, I have my images backed up on two external hard
> disks, my laptop and my iPod (all but the scans on that last - I really
> just use the iPod as a transfer device between my laptop and PC, but
> leave the images on there while there's space). So, I haven't lost
> anything from this.
>
> If this begins to look ugly, it might be time for a new PC (or iMac if
> Peter gets his way), so I may have more questions later. So, thanks in
> advance for any advice.
>
> Cheers,
> Marc
> Noosa Heads, Oz
>
>
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