Windows 7 C-Drive Failing? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 24, 2024, 11:15:37 am
content: Over the past few weeks, CHKDSK has run during boot twice, most recently this morning. Unindexed files and corrupt attribute record errors are detected and fixed. Most of my SSD's are Samsung V-NAND EVO or PRO. I believe C-Drive is an 850 256GB with 167GB free.Windows 7 Pro 32/64 was installed in about 2015 and has been reinstalled at least once since when I had a bad disk. Acronis 2015 runs for backup. Quite a while ago, I went to clone the C-drive and Acronis said that was a bad idea, so all I do is a backup.What are your thoughts on cloning the C-drive to a new SSD, shutting down, and replacing the current C-drive with the new one? In other words, I am not sure of the sequence to replace that drive without having to reload all of the software and emails. When one clones, is the clone bootable and with the same drive identifier?

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 24, 2024, 11:44:46 am
content: Look at the SMART Values with a program like Crystal Disk Info. I don't know if they still have a version that supports Windows 7 though.Samsung also has their Magician software, that can also show SMART values. Again, no idea if that still works with Windows 7.That will give you an indicator of the general health of the disk. A Samsung 850 is quite old, depending on your usage it is not inconceivable that you exhaused the flash cells.I have no experience with Acronis, i use VEEAM Backup and Recovery to backup my disk to a NAS. Using a dedicated USB stick, i can use that backup to fully recover Windows.A clone made "offline", so not from within Windows but rather for example a Linux live medium, should be bootable.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 24, 2024, 12:59:07 pm
content: IIRC, Acronis' backup is a disk image. So you can restore the backup image to a new disk. Or you can boot the PC from the Acronis boot medium and clone the old disk directly to a new one.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 27, 2024, 05:52:41 am
content: Are you getting unexpected or unclean shutdowns? Check Windows event log as to what the reason might be. It might not be a failing disk, rather something else is causing the system to be unstable.But yes, also check SMART values as@Ranaynapointed out for signs of disk failure.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 27, 2024, 10:13:47 am
content: While backing up C on the 24th one of the disks in my RAID 1 drive failed. I had a spare and that problem was addressed. I have ordered new SSDs and an external SSD from Amazon and they will be here tomorrow.There have been no problems shutting down that I have noticed.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 27, 2024, 06:27:15 pm
content: I downloaded CrystalDiskInfo, crossed my fingers and installed it. All of my drives except C are 99 to 100% The C-drive is 93%. I don't know whether that is high, low, or a warning. On a physics test that might be high. At Total Wines & More that means the wine might be palatable.Here's the full text:----------------------------------------------------------------------------(01) Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB----------------------------------------------------------------------------Model : Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GBFirmware : EMT01B6QSerial Number :Disk Size : 250.0 GB (8.4/137.4/250.0/----)Buffer Size : UnknownQueue Depth : 32# of Sectors : 488397168Rotation Rate : ---- (SSD)Interface : Serial ATAMajor Version : ACS-2Minor Version : ATA8-ACS version 4cTransfer Mode : SATA/600 | SATA/600Power On Hours : 48337 hoursPower On Count : 7825 countHost Writes : 27080 GBWear Level Count : 145Temperature : 26 C (78 F)Health Status : Good (93 %)Features : S.M.A.R.T., NCQ, TRIM, DevSleep, GPLAPM Level : ----AAM Level : ----Drive Letter : C:\

author: Peabody
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 27, 2024, 07:02:44 pm
content: I wonder if just writing to the drive to refresh everything would improve things. So you would make an image from outside of Windows, then immediately restore it back to the same drive. And I guess then do a TRIM. All active sectors would be rewritten. Or I guess written to new physical sectors because of wear leveling. I dunno. Just seems like it might refresh files that have been sitting in the same place for years - OS files and such.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 27, 2024, 07:17:24 pm
content: Tomorrow I get my new drives. I plan to make an image, confirm it was made, reinstall Windows 7 (That has some broken registry items and doesn't automatically close most 32-bit programs.), and see what happens. My license is supposedly perpetual, but I have heard getting it registered/activated can be a problem. If that's the case, I will reload the image and try to fix the registry problems.