Should I replace the hard drive?

[cotswoldcs]

My neighbour has asked me to take a look at her computer. The computer didn't boot into Windows yesterday -she said it mentioned "something about a corrupt file". The PC now boots into Windows fine.

I ran a test on the hard drive a Maxtor PATA 30Gb drive using Seagate SeaTools for DOS v2.07. The basic test passed fine but a long test passed AFTER repairing over 100 errors. Whilst the hard drive has now passed I'm tempted to replace the drive as I suspect the hard drive might be failing.

Would you automatically replace a drive in such a scenario?

[staffsMike]

If it is an important computer I probably would.

Certainly make all teh necessary back ups now and probably order a hard drive even if it doesn't break for a while it certainly sounds as if it's on the way out.

[TheReaFireblade]

I agree. It's past its 'sell by' date by the sounds of it... certainly as a primary drive

[peterb]

Maxtor didn't have the best reputation in the world (except for being cheap!) and as hard drives are so cheap now, there really isn't any reason for not replacing it as the primary drive.

[Mithrandir]

I'd replace it. You can grab a pretty cheap HDD, even the smallest capacity ones will be more than the 30gb in their system.

[Lourdes]

Most definitely, 100 bad sectors....

[cotswoldcs]

Thanks everyone. I've replaced the 30Gb Maxtor for a 400Gb Samsung (£41.70 from Scan a while ago). I've copied the image sucessfully and all is now working well. Better to be safe than sorry.

How come Scan no longer stock Samsung PATA hard drives?

[CaptainCrash]

How come Scan no longer stock Samsung PATA hard drives?

I guess the fact that Samsung don't make them any more is a bit of a showstopper. Some dealers will still have some left, but when they're gone, they're gone.

I suppose the demand for new PATA hard drives is disappearing fast anyway, even as a replacement for a failed drive - if a PC has no SATA connectors, it's probably reached an age where many people will chuck it into a skip if/when the HDD fails.

It seems a shame, but such is progress...