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    Replace M17xR1 Hard drive?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by aneroid, Aug 23, 2011.

  1. aneroid

    aneroid Notebook Evangelist

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    For the past few days, my laptop has been freezing up. I downloaded and ran the HD Tune Pro trial version and it found a couple of bad blocks.

    Running "chkdsk e: /f /r" stalls during "stage 4 of 5" - at "1919 of 82xx" files. Stalls = 4 hours of not going ahead with the checking.
    Running "chkdsk e: /f" (without the /r) says my drive is ok, which is clearly not the case.

    Q1. Is there any other way to get the drive to mark out bad blocks so they don't get used? Coz everytime one of those files is accessed, instead of just getting a disk read error, the laptop just freezes (still on Vista).

    Q2. Should I just call to have my drive replaced? (Still under warranty)
     

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  2. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    Try to run a defrag application.
    But if you're still under warranty don't think twice and call them to have your HDD replaced.

    Keep US posted.

    Cheers
     
  3. aneroid

    aneroid Notebook Evangelist

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    Yup, I've run a defrag app already, I do that about once a month. And also yesterday coz of this problem. It reduced the 'clicking sound' my primary drive always makes (since day 1 of getting this laptop).

    I've backed up most of my data already. Will call Dell first thing tomorrow.
     
  4. aneroid

    aneroid Notebook Evangelist

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    Got the replacement drives today - Toshiba MK5061GSYF 500GBs.

    How do these compare to the Seagate ST950042 500 GBs?
    Should I replace both my seagate drives with the toshiba's or just one? (2 yr old drives now)
    (Got two replacements because my original spec says raid0)