I think that Arcturus, my torrent machine, is dying. Ten days ago Deneb, the Windows Home Server, complained that it couldn't back up Arcturus because of disk problems.

At the time I assumed it was just a file that was busy, so I deactivated the error, assuming it would get fixed the next day. But this afternoon I was logged into Deneb, and it said that it had been ten days since it had been able to back up Arcturus.

So per its recommendation, I tried doing a disk check. And it told me it couldn't be completed. I did some messing around and finally figured out how to get it into safe mode, but even there the disk check couldn't completely. Finally I figured out that after it fails, if you tell it again to do one, it will schedule a disk check during the next boot.

Well, it found some bad sectors. And fixed some things. And then it rebooted, so I tried another disk check from within WinXP -- which failed again. Another reboot and disk check there, it fixed some other stuff. And after XP came up, disk check still failed.

As I write this it's trying yet again. This time, though, I told it to look for bad sectors.

This isn't a catastrophe. There isn't anything on that computer I care about -- except my torrent program, and all the records about which torrents it is currently supporting. I don't have the slightest idea where uTorrent puts that. (For all I know it's in the registry.)

But it probably means that the HD is dying, and I'm going to have to get a replacement.

Or maybe not: this check isn't over yet, but it hasn't found anything wrong so far. Maybe, just maybe, this time it'll get it right.

UPDATE: Man, a bad-block scan sure does take along time. 72% and still going. But it's stage 4 of 5, and it hasn't complained about anything yet, so that's a good thing.

UPDATE: Four hours it took to complete an absolutely full disk check. And after the reboot, the XP disk check said the drive was fine.

So I tried the backup again, and it failed again. Looks like I need to get a new computer.

UPDATE: This isn't really a disaster. If I was going to pick one piece of equipment around here to be the one to die, that's the one I'd choose.

UPDATE: Order placed for a replacement machine.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Computers at 02:31 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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