When buying or selling a used pc, is ther a way to tell if the hard drive is healthy or about to fail?

Question

I know someone who has just bought a used pc privately, and the hard drive failed soon after. An engineer has told them the seller would have been aware of the problem, the seller insists not. Please help as this dispute is getting ugly!

Answer 1

Fundamentally, hard drives can suffer one of two classes of failures:

Predictable ones, when some failure modes, especially mechanical wear and aging, happen gradually over time. A monitoring device can detect these, much as a temperature dial on the dashboard of an automobile can warn a driver — before serious damage occurs — that the engine has started to overheat.
Unpredictable ones, when other failures may occur suddenly and unpredictably, such as an electronic component burning out.
Mechanical failures, which are usually predictable failures, account for 60 percent of drive failure(source). The purpose of S.M.A.R.T. is to warn a user or system administrator of impending drive failure while time remains to take preventive action — such as copying the data to a replacement device. Approximately 30% of failures can be predicted by S.M.A.R.T.[1]

pctechguide's page on S.M.A.R.T. (2003) comments that the technology has gone through three phases:

"In its original incarnation SMART provided failure prediction by monitoring certain online hard drive activities. A subsequent version improved failure prediction by adding an automatic off-line read scan to monitor additional operations. The latest SMART III technology not only monitors hard drive activities but adds failure prevention by attempting to detect and repair sector errors. Also, whilst earlier versions of the technology only monitored hard drive activity for data that was retrieved by the operating system, SMART III tests all data and all sectors of a drive by using off-line data collection to confirm the drive's health during periods of inactivity."

Answer 2

for starters, if it was bought/sold privately face to face then i think you will find it's "sold as seen" and the seller is under no obligation to return your money or fix the problem, however if it was through eBay or similar service then you have (i think) 14 days to return it under the distance selling directive 1997 or other law depending on where you live. give trading standards a ring they may be able to advise. or citizens advice. oh and yes there are tell tale signs of hdd failure which include noise when accessing files etc(whirring) clunking(sometimes) screen freezes, overheating to name a few, obviously if you only saw the PC for a few minutes then you may not get to notice the symptoms, but the previous owner would have no doubt. how did the computer get home? was it in the boot of a car!! cars are NOTORIOUS for killing pc's, put them on the seat on their side and even strap it in if you can!!

Answer 3

Microchipper's got it. Most hard-drive failures do give warnings, often strange noises, but in my experience about 30% don't. Like said, they don't like being jolted around in the boot of a car, either, I always do the "strap in the back seat" thing.

Sorry to say I doubt if your friend will have much luck. I'd cut my losses and get the "engineer" to fit a new drive, and maybe give it a check-over while you're at it.

Answer 4

the seller is bound to have known there was something wrong with the hard drive like the lack of things that could be written to it or any start up problems. tell him to give back ur cash especially as uve obviously got the word of this engineer.

Answer 5

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

Download this , you want diskette creator for windows OS.

Once downloaded insert blank floppy drive then run the downloaded file and follow onscreen instructions.

You now have a bootable diskette that will run diagnostics to most HDDs.

All you do now is insert the diskette into the machine you want to test, switch on , the machine will now load of the diskette and Bingo......you can now run diags to the hard drive!

hope this helps.

Answer 6

open my computer right click drive c open properties click hardware on the tab bar click undo bad errors on drive c but dint click automatically install them.tick the second square down witch will only restore it if its worth it.at the finish it will give you a report.it takes a while but its worth it

Answer 7

easyest way it's to use AIDA32 software for windows. will make a full diagnostic of the sistem. For hdd problems look for "SMART" problems, this software will tell exactly what it has and how bad is it.
here u can download it http://www.sofotex.com/AIDA32-download_L9326.html or use google..

Answer 8

a used car salesman wont addmitt to selling you a bad car either

Answer 9

I've used this and is a good little program!

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

Answer 10

if its noisy its usually a bad sign ... harddrives are cheap anyway i'd just replace it ..