SMART disc error

[Oneeyedvic]

I am getting a SMART disc error and windows also gives me a pop up to tell me that the disc may well fail soon and to back up my data.

Everything appears to be running fine at the moment and I have been able to back up most of my work (rest tonight).

It is still under guarantee as it came with a 2 years manufacturers guarantee (from Argos).

I have phoned up Argos and they have told me to put the computer back to original settings and to see if that makes a difference.

I have no problem with doing this (in fact I would prefer as I then don't have to send it away) but don't want to just put off the problem of the harddrive.

Any advice?

[MarkRae]

Well, first things first: BACK UP!

Secondly, "I'm getting a SMART disc error" isn't very helpful unless you tell us precisely what that error is...

[ChuckFickens]

Don't see what returning to factory settings would do to help/stop a SMART error, SMART monitoring is totally independent of the OS.

The first step you should take it to back up everything (as you are doing), I'd then download a bootable linux cd and run the hard drive test tool a, if that reports the same errors (it will) then contact the manufacturer and insist it's repaired under warranty (i.e. a new drive is fitted)

Any bootable Linux CD will let you run smart tests on the drive (run smartctl from a terminal window) http://www.ubuntu.com/