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I had Windows installed on my laptop and suddenly one morning Windows couldn't start. Then I tried after formatting and for once it became possible.

I also installed Ubuntu as logical drive (deleted all HDD partitions) and then tried to install Windows but in the middle of the installation process (after expanding Windows files) it showed an error and stopped.

I'm using Ubuntu with live CD. In the Ubuntu disk utility, I see all HDDs as unallocated free space. The following points are being shown:

----smart status: disk failure is imminent

>>>results of selt-test
--self assessment-failing
--power cycles-1834
--bad sectors-2047
--overall assessment-disk failure is imminent(backup all data and replace the disk)
>>>Attributes
for reallocated sector unit
-assessment is failing
values---
        normalized-1
        worst-1
        threshold-50
        value-2047 sectors
>>>

Now I'm using the badblocks command.

sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda

But it has been running for 106 hours, and still continues.

I don't want to replace my HDD. Please help me so that I can use Windows on my laptop.

user30171
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    "smart status: disk failure is imminent" - this means the disk is about to die (or has essentially died). Get that laptop to a repair shop and have the disk replaced. There's nothing else you can do about it. – Mat Jan 12 '13 at 11:01
  • You want to continue having problems? Replace the disk. That's the solution. – Michael Hampton Jan 12 '13 at 19:36
  • The desire to not replace the hardware is commendable, but misplaced. It's a dead hard drive, you need a new one. THERE IS NO FIX! – Michael Kohne Dec 03 '13 at 17:58

2 Answers2

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sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda

but it has completed 106 hrs till now and still continue...

Hard disks do not have an unlimited life span, and it is not possible to predict exactly what it will be. If badblocks ran for that long, it is probably because of serious hardware failure. On linux, this can manifest itself at first as sudden system freezes due to processes falling into uninterruptible sleep, meaning they cannot be stopped and the kernel keeps spinning its wheels trying to handle them, maxing out the processor. This is due to disk read failures, which will be reported in syslog.

Running badblocks in that case can work but take a very long time, because it can fall pray to uninterruptible sleep too when it finds the bad blocks; if it comes out of this and logs the blocks successfully, the disk can be used, but if you reformat again that bad blocks list is gone too.

If you can't take the hard drive out yourself and examine it by plugging it into another computer, you should take it to someone who can. Taking it out is probably not that hard, which will save you a bunch of service charges including replacing the drive if necessary.

goldilocks
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  • ohk...but after connecting it with another pc what process should be carried out...bcoz i think i can do it.. – user30171 Jan 12 '13 at 14:07
  • @user30171 : I guess you can perform whatever further analysis you want, if there is something that you can't do via bootable CD, using whatever tools you can get your hands on for whatever OS you like, until you are satisfied that the disk really is defunct. You could also take it to a shop and ask them to verify your diagnosis. If it is wrecked, the next question is whether you need to salvage data off it... – goldilocks Jan 12 '13 at 14:21
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You might want to try analyzing the HDD with HDAT2 or possibly Spinrite to see if there is something physically wrong with the HDD.

slm
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  • as i'v mentioned that at present i have no OS installed in my lappy so still can i use it...also guide me if possible – user30171 Jan 12 '13 at 10:29
  • These are applications that you burn to a CD and boot the computer with them. Do you have access to a computer that you can download and burn a CD from? If not further debugging and fixing is going to be tough. – slm Jan 12 '13 at 12:53
  • ohk...i can try them....i can send u snapshots also regarding condition for better analysis ..if u can give me ur mail id..min is [email protected] – user30171 Jan 12 '13 at 14:06