utorrent: the request cannot be performed because of an I/O device error

From what i googled, this error is hardware related. But i'm a noob so what do i know

I also used HD tune, and here is the health report:

HD Tune Pro: Hitachi HTS723232L9A Health

ID Current Worst ThresholdData Status
(01) Raw Read Error Rate 86 86 62 10158104 ok
(02) Throughput Performance 100 100 40 0 ok
(03) Spin Up Time 212 212 33 1 ok
(04) Start/Stop Count 100 100 0 626 ok
(05) Reallocated Sector Count 100 100 5 0 ok
(07) Seek Error Rate 100 100 67 0 ok
(08) Seek Time Performance 100 100 40 0 ok
(09) Power On Hours Count 83 83 0 7725 ok
(0A) Spin Retry Count 100 100 60 0 ok
(0C) Power Cycle Count 100 100 0 536 ok
(BF) G-sense Error Rate 100 100 0 0 ok
(C0) Unsafe Shutdown Count 100 100 0 35 ok
(C1) Load Cycle Count 96 96 0 44658 ok
(C2) Temperature 127 127 0 1310763 ok
(C4) Reallocated Event Count 100 100 0 15 warning
(C5) Current Pending Sector 100 100 0 4 warning
(C6) Offline Uncorrectable 100 100 0 0 ok
(C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count 200 200 0 0 ok
(DF) Load/Unload Retry Count 100 100 0 0 ok

Health Status : warning

Addt'l info:
320gb hd wd scorpio black, stock hd of the p7805u.
im running a second storage as the OS drive, ocz agility 2 60gb ssd(which was recently replaced bec it prevented me from booting even fr the bios GUI)

 

Your drive may be starting to fail; sections of it are starting to become unreadable/unwriteable. This may be a one time event (sector count is still pretty low), but you'll want to keep an eye on those values and see if they go up. What I find odd is that you say it's a WD Scorpio Black, but HDTunePro reports it as a Hitachi Travelstar 7K320. Are you sure it's a WD?

 

hmmm...this laptop is only 1 yr and 3 mos. so probably the HD is the same age.
When i bought it; it was advertised as a scorpio black...i think, i bought this at compusa bnew not refurb'd...

*is there anything i can do to save this hd?

and the error report came out:

HD Tune Pro: Hitachi HTS723232L9A Error Scan

Scanned data : 320 gB
Damaged Blocks : 0.0 %
Elapsed Time : 18:29
1 Error at 234120 MB (LBA 479478545)

 

Well, brand doesn't matter much, it's just an oddity. The error report says it's just a single damaged block, so you're probably alright; hard drives keep a supply of extra blocks for just this sort of thing. They mark the bad block and just stop writing data to it, using a different block instead. I'd run another HDTunePro in a few weeks and make sure the SMART counts haven't gone up to make sure. Oh, and backup your data now, just in case.

In terms of "saving" your HDD, it really depends on why the block is bad, and that's difficult to tell. If it's physical damage, such as suddenly moving or bumping the HDD so that one of the heads hit the platter surface, then there's nothing you can do, and it may worsen over time. It may also just be a slight manufacturing defect, covering this one block. The point is, there really isn't much you can do about it without knowing what caused it. At this point, as I said, make a backup, and run HDTunePro again in a few weeks and see if it's gotten worse. If it hasn't, count yourself lucky, and it's probably just an isolated incident. If it has, then you'll probably have to replace the drive.

 

Okay, thanks for the fast replies and advice judicator.

But wait, re: my original problem about utorrent's "I/O device error" problem, can you also give any advice or solutions for that?

*and that result was from a quick scan, im trying a normal scan now, if that will make a difference.

 

I found this on google, which I presume you looked at? I'm not familiar with utorrent or torrenting myself, so I can't say from personal experience, but it sounds like if that bad sector happened to be in the middle of your torrent, that would have caused the error (post #17). If that's the case, after a full scan of your hard drive (so all the bad sectors are marked), then as long as the problem doesn't spread, you'll probably be fine. Either that, or else another part of your system is failing, but hopefully that isn't the case.

 

yup i have looked at that link earlier and didn't even bother reading his wall of text

his solution is okay ,but not good enough. as he's suggesting to limit my ul/dl rate to 100kbps or choose torrents with multiple files; when im used to dl speeds of 1mbps++ and not choosing if its a single or multiple file.

but still i would like "not" to buy an hd if i can still save this one, does windows "Scan for and Attempt Recovery of Bad Sectors" help or can you suggest another software?

 

That should work fine, although it'll take a while (couple hours, more than likely).

 

that windows scan never did fully complete, took too long like more than a day...anyway after normal scanning it with HD tune it had more than 5 bad sectors. windows also predicted a SMART failure that i should backup.

i already ordered the scorpio black hd, thanks again judicator!

 

Sorry to hear that your drive seems to be bad. Luckily, new hard drives are pretty cheap.