L3 - T3C - S4 - Troubleshoot Drive Availability

True

• Alternatively, SSDs are more reliable than HDDs but have a maximum expected lifetime

True or False: A HDD is most likely to fail due to mechanical problems either in the first few months of operation or after a few years

• Damage and/or file corruption

• Write operation

Fill the blanks

• With any fixed disk, sudden loss of power can cause ______

• Especially if power loss occurs in the middle of a ______

• Unusual noise (HDD only)

• No LED status indicator activity

• Constant LED activity

• Bootable device not found

• Missing drives in OS

• Read/write failure

• Blue screen of death (BSOD)

7 typical failed disk symptoms

• Make a data backup/replace the disk asap to minimise risk of data loss

Unusual Noise

Failed Disk Symptom

• Typically a sign of a mechanical problem with the disk

No LED status indicator activity

Failed Disk Symptom

• Could be a sign that:

  • The whole system might not be receiving power

  • The individual disk unit could be faulty

Constant LED activity

Failed Disk Symptom

• Could be a sign that there is not enough system RAM

  • This means the disk is being used continually for paging (virtual memory).

• Could also be a sign of:

  • Faulty software process

  • System is infected with malware

Bootable device not found

Failed disk symptom

• Could be a sign that:

  • The disk is faulty

  • There is file corruption

Missing Drives in OS

Failed Disk symptom

• Occurs when system boots but an expected second fixed disk or removable drive does not appear in e.g. file explorer

Things to check:

• Check that it has been initialised and formatted with a partition structure and file system

• Check if the disk is detectable by a configuration tool such as Windows Disk Management

Likely due to:

• Hardware or cable/connector fault

Read/Write Failure

Failed Disk symptom

• Occurs when you are trying to open or save a file, an error message such as "Cannot read from the source disk" is displayed

  • HDD Causes

    • Bad sectors/sector damage — power failure or mechanical fault

  • SSD Causes

    • Bad blocks — SSD circuitry degradation or all spare blocks used up

True

• You can check by running a test utility, such as chkdsk

  • If more bad sectors are located each time the test is run, it is a sign that the disk is about to fail

True or False: It is possible to detect when a HDD is close to failure

Bad Block

A part of the SSD that is damaged or corrupted and can no longer store or retrieve data (Google)

• Causes:

  • SSD circuitry degrades over the course of many write operations

• An SSD is manufactured with “spare” blocks and uses wear levelling routines to compensate for this

  • If the spare blocks are all used up, the drive firmware will no longer be able to compensate for ones that have failed

Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)

Microsoft status screen that indicates an error from which the system cannot recover (also called a stop error)

Failed Disk Symptom

• Alternatively, file corruption may cause a particularly severe read/write failure, resulting in a system stop error