Windows does an auto check disk every time during booting up, but shows NO bad sectors. According to Disk Manager, the HD is "healthy", but "at risk" (yellow triangle with an exclamation mark) I've already backed the data up onto another disk, after which I did a reformat (twice actually). But it still shows that the disk is "at risk". What exactly does "at risk" mean? And what should I do to get rid of it? The HD in question is a new(ish) WD 500GB SATA II.

Cheers!

Start here http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServe...9a403f1033.mspx

This suggests that you have an iffy Dynamic Volume, is this drive part of a RAID or mirror configuration??

This suggests that you have an iffy Dynamic Volume, is this drive part of a RAID or mirror configuration??

No, the HD is not part of a RAID or mirror config.

Thanks for the link. It says click "reactivate volume", but after right-clicking on the volume, "reactivate" is unclickable.

the S.M.A.R.T function certainly reports a lot of malfunction as your software is reading this report you see the yellow mark.

errors are certainly mechanic malfunction, like head clicking but use hdd health to see if the result of this prg does confirm the one from the other prg.

the S.M.A.R.T function certainly reports a lot of malfunction as your software is reading this report you see the yellow mark.

errors are certainly mechanic malfunction, like head clicking but use hdd health to see if the result of this prg does confirm the one from the other prg.

Good point, it would be wise to download one of the many free SMART monitor programs such as hdd health http://www.panterasoft.com/ to see exactly what problem the drive is reporting.

Good point, it would be wise to download one of the many free SMART monitor programs such as hdd health http://www.panterasoft.com/ to see exactly what problem the drive is reporting.

Thanks for the link. Will DL and get back to you with the results.

Run HDD Health, but it says the drive is healthy. Still, according to Disk Management, it is still "at risk".

For the mean time, is there a way I could stop Check disk from checking this one particular HD? I have not scheduled it to do a check, but it does on every boot up.

Cheers!

For the mean time, is there a way I could stop Check disk from checking this one particular HD? I have not scheduled it to do a check, but it does on every boot up.

Cheers!

Run the Registry Editor (regedt32.exe)

To disable automatic disk checking at Windows startup through registry, go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager

In the right hand pane, double click BootExecute.

The default value of the key is autocheck autochk *

* means every drive is checked for consistency. Just add /K:C at the end before *. /K switch will disable autocheck on C: drive at Windows startup. So the final value should look like this:

autocheck autochk /k:C *

Run the Registry Editor (regedt32.exe)

To disable automatic disk checking at Windows startup through registry, go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager

In the right hand pane, double click BootExecute.

The default value of the key is autocheck autochk *

* means every drive is checked for consistency. Just add /K:C at the end before *. /K switch will disable autocheck on C: drive at Windows startup. So the final value should look like this:

autocheck autochk /k:C *

Cheers Tywais!

I just realized that the HD is still under warranty. Would it be wise to send it back , or is it even possible to have it replaced? I'm afraid they might do more damage than good.

The S.M.A.R.T. may pass all the tests but still consider it at risk in that its internal error counter is continuing to climb. Might look at this topic (specifically the chkdsk /r option) and if no solution then a warranty exchange is in order.

Soft32

The re-activate not being enabled is strange because that is one of Microsoft's solutions to the problem.

Tried chkdsk /r, but this is what I get. Is says the drive is being used

But it is impossible that it is being used by another application since the HD has just been reformatted, and does not contain any data.

But it is impossible that it is being used by another application since the HD has just been reformatted, and does not contain any data.

I suspect this is due to XP having mounted the drive in effect locking it. You need to boot up in Safe Mode Command Prompt only. Just hit the F8 key just after the BIOS messages clear, may have to hit it repeatedly until the boot options window comes up.

Disks are so cheap, and data loss so expensive.

Why not just replace the thing and have done with it?