How windows 10 on one of my HDD's trashed ITSELF after just a couple of months

[BigBadBeef]

I got 3 hard drives:
- M.2 prototype from 2015 with a 128GB capacity,
- Western Digital Black edition 2TB hard drive from 2014,
- 512GB SSD from 2020.

The M.2 contains pop!_os and utilizes the SSD for extended storage, while the 2TB HDD Contains windows.
Barring the details aside, lets just say I've kept them completely separated to the point that each contains their own bootloader and cannot see the other OS at all, with the exception that pop!_os can transfer files to and from the windows drive.

This has proven a wise course of action because my windows installation just wrecked itself. And I've done nothing, literally nothing! I couldn't have gotten any malware on whatsoever because I haven't even downloaded anything aside from the drivers from their official websites.

I used the windows installation for VR and nothing else, because I don't need it for anything else. I also have the habit of leaving my computer on 24/7. At nights, when I go to sleep, if I run Linux, the computer is dead quiet, not a beep.

But if I run windows, I just keep hearing the HDD crunching, the are fans spooling up and down, indicating sporadic processor activity, and all kinds of stuff.

Well, recently, one of it's standard nonsensical update shenanigans took place, and for some damn reason, windows decided that there is something wrong with the hard drive, forcing me to use its repair utility.

Well, the repair utility failed, the update failed, and the windows 10 installation is completely wrecked. it boots, but it takes forever, zero hard drive activity. But the drive is fine, I have drive health utilities active on linux that also monitor the windows disk, and other than some age related reports, the drives are completely healthy!

So yeah, windows 10 trashed itself, and now I'm stuck with salvaging data on mangled drive contents. THANK THE LAAAAAAWD didn't set up a single bootloader, who knows what that Microsoft garbage would have done to it.

It just further reinforces my animosity towards that proprietary cancer.

 

[Brickwizard]

Sounds like the HD may have crocked

How To: Check A Disk For Errors • Linux Tips

In today's article, we're going to learn how to check a disk for errors. We'll be using a multi-pronged process to thoroughly check a disk for errors.

linux-tips.us

 

[BigBadBeef]

Sounds like the HD may have crocked

How To: Check A Disk For Errors • Linux Tips

In today's article, we're going to learn how to check a disk for errors. We'll be using a multi-pronged process to thoroughly check a disk for errors.

linux-tips.us

Uh oh... you're right. The last SMART data I pulled was less than a week old. Can it really croak that quickly?
No matter, I still blame windows. The disk is from 2014 & the villainous operating system kept pestering the drive every night until it's poor old bones gave out.

Quite an undignified way to go if you ask me.

 

[KGIII]

Can it really croak that quickly?

Oh yes. They can fail in an instant - especially if they are the old spinning platter HDDs and suffer an impact. It causes a head collision and fails instantly.

You might have had SMART warnings during the boot process. Otherwise, you might want to check that now and again.

 

[BigBadBeef]

No SMART warnings, no impacts, no crashes. Just one late afternoon windows said it needed to perform drive repairs. Booted on Linux for several days with no issues and the HDD, for all intents and purposes, slept the entire time.
Today I went back to windows for some VR, and suddenly - hell!

 

[KGIII]

Yeah, it really sucks when disks die. I see from another thread that you're likely to lose data due to this. That really sucks, but hopefully it's something you can recreate.

 

[bob466]

Over the years I've had HDDs fail without warning...run test and says Drive is OK.

Because of that...I always keep a spare Drive and and Image of it...you never know what could happen.

 

[BigBadBeef]

Yeah, it really sucks when disks die. I see from another thread that you're likely to lose data due to this. That really sucks, but hopefully it's something you can recreate.

Oh, uh, well, its over 100 hours of casual artistic expression. The reddit community liked it, but its certainly not something I would slash my veins over. But I'm still

over the sudden death. I will keep trying to save the file.

 

[kc1di]

Hopefully you can save the data you want. I've had HDD's die in an instant and some were not that old. I now use SSD's exclusively. Won't go back to Mech. drives. And always keep everything that is important to me backed up some where. The Cloud can be your friend in this or an off computer drive media.

 

[ML_113]

Windows 'auto updates' got you ?
Also Windows 'page files' can shorten the hell of life of your HDDs, SDDs.
It's been a while, I forgot about most of these things.

 

[bob466]

Windows 'auto updates' got you ?
Also Windows 'page files' can shorten the hell of life of your HDDs, SDDs.
It's been a while, I forgot about most of these things.

If I was still using windwoes...I'd be dead too or in the nut house.

 

[BigBadBeef]

If I was still using windwoes...I'd be dead too or in the nut house.

Think of it this way - If i HAD TO use windows then the allocation of resources would be something like this:
Linux got the royal treatment, while Windows got put in a deep, dank stinkhole on some edge of a hard drive, only to be used on a need that Linux couldn't provide.

 

[bob466]

I use SSDs now...stopped using HDDs in my Tower 3 years ago and they are so much better.

I don't dual-boot either...use Virtualbox...much safer. Don't have internal storage Drives either...I don't see the point these days.

 

[MikeWalsh]

I, too, have largely switched to SSDs.....only got one HDD still "in the mix", and that's a data drive that isn't accessed that often.

Thankfully, backing Puppy up is a simple copy/paste operation on the save-file/save-folder, so that gets done around once a week; it can be done while I'm online, or whatever else I might be doing.

Multi-booting is fine when you're using all Linux, and especially in my case where I'm just using a "kennels" of different Puppies. Windoze, however, is a beast of an entirely different colour.....if I had to run it for any reason, it would be on a completely different machine, dedicated to it, and it alone. Which, let's face it, is the way MyCrudSoft expect you to use it anyway...

They don't like "sharing"!


Mike.