Hi. I decided to ccheck for dust bunnies in my Cyberpower pc and it had plenty of them! When I rebooted the pc I got this message: We strongly recommend that you backup your computer to avoid possible data loss and to print this information to help the hardware technical support person diagnose the hard disk with errors.
Disk Name: Hitachi HDS721010DLE630
Volume: C\
Apparently there is more than a coincidence that I got this message after I cleaned the pc. What could I have done, or was there a problem in the making and I just pushed it?
I wrote to Cyberpower and have not yet heard back from them. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Terri

It might be from electrostatic damage.
How did you clean the dust out?

Oops. I used the canned air but then I did use the vacuum at the bottom of the case. I knew better, can't believe I did that.

It might be a bit difficult to find this particular hard drive, several places say out of stock. Which HD could I use to replace it?

Have you shut down and rebooted?

I have and it looks great (I have gone into my mail) but then I get that messsge again and I'm told it's best not to reboot until it's fixed or replaced. So, I'm a bit afraid to try to use it. My granddaughter is going to be unhappy when she finds that she can't finish her ND game tonight.

Perhaps do a chkdsk and see if it finds anything. Just scroll down past the stuff until you get to Option one.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/6221-chkdsk-check-drive-errors-windows-8-a.html

It's possible one or more of the SMART counters have hit a threshold. The utility below will analyze the drives health for you, as well as report back the current counter values.

Crystal Disk Info

Try Drac's suggestion first, it can resolve a number of drive issues.

And of course, make sure your backup is up to date.

When I booted up I got the messagea again.
I did the chkdsk and so far no problem. I went ahead and ran the scan even though it said there was no problem. (Event ID 26226 None) Details: Windows has scanned the file systen and found no problems. No further action is required.
Now what? Should I run the utility that Inland has recommended?

Yes run the utility Inland recommended.
That should tell you if the drive is on the way out.
chkdsk doesn't check for remapped sectors or any of the things a modern drive does to extend its life.

Jenny100. Which edition should I run? Needless to say I have no idea what I'm doing.

I'd get the CrystalDiskInfo 6.5.2 "portable" version without the ads from here
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

Maybe Inland can give you more information on how to use it.
I'd just go by the "How to Use" instructions on the website
http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/manual-en/MainWindow.html

Look at the S.M.A.R.T. information.
http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/manual-en/SmartInfo.html

Ok d/loaded it and so far I see that I have a caution on the HD because of temp. Caution 30 degrees Celcius/ Good 31 degrees Celcius. ID 05 Reallocated Sectors Count current, worst, threshold all 5's, Raw value 000000000756.
I have no idea waht this means other than the yellow caution temp. Oh, if I click on the yellow button there is more information there. Help Inland!

I'm leaving the house so going to shut it down for now. The reason I cleaned the darned thing is because I thought it was running entirely too hot, according to Wise Care it's now 90 degrees F.

90° F should not be too hot in a desktop computer. I'm working on a laptop right now that was having crash dumps and shutdowns where the HDD temp was running about 59°C! Now THAT'S too hot!. I openen up the back and blew out the fan and the temps are back down in the 30°C range which is OK for a laptop.

One thing to be sure of is that all your fans are operational. But definitely run that utility Inland pointed you to.

Just got back, booted-up and noticed that the mainboard is running 68 degrees and it was 136, that's the one that made me do the dusting. Right after I dusted it out the mainboard went down to 48 and I figured I really done number on the pc.
Drac, girl you of all people know I haven't a clue what to do. Did you see the caution notation above for the HD? Perhaps it too low!

That doesn't look good if it's the "worst" rating.
That may be what triggered the warning.

It had 5's for current, worst and threshold. I have no idea what any of this means.

The "Raw" value is specified in hex, 0x756 = 1,878 relocated sectors. It sounds like the drive has been having issues for some time.

I'd have it cloned and replaced as soon as possible.

Ha, ha! And I've told you, Terri, that compared to some of the people whose computers I work on, you're an IT genius!

That 30°C looks perfect to me. What software are you using to monitor the temps?

Inland, cloned? Which HD can I replace the Hitachi HDS721010DLE630 with? It seems these are out of stock with several vendors.

Drac, Wise Care 365. I've used another in the past, can't remember which one.

If you are to have the drive cloned and replaced, this is something to have a tech or computer shop do.

What! You're kidding right? Why can I not just replace the HD and transfer the information onto it. I have no idea what Cloned is but I'm thinking if this is expensive, I would just as soon purchase another PC. Putting 60 or 70 dollars into the cyberpower is one thing but not hundreds. This time however, I think I'm going back to HP.

When you purchase an OEM drive, they generally come with cloning software. If not, the drive manufacture has them available on their web site.

Cloning takes care of the copying of one drive to another, all files folders etc... Once the cloning process is complete you just destroy the old drive and plug in the new one. Make sure you tell it to make the new drive bootable.

Any 7200 RPM 3.5" 1TB drive (or larger) can be used to replace your drive.

Cloning a drive should not be expensive.
You are cloning the operating system and files -- not the hardware.

You can't just copy all files on a drive to a different drive with copy/paste and expect the 2nd drive to boot Windows and run properly. There are parts of Windows that are not accessible through copy/paste.

Here is one way to clone a drive using free Clonezilla software.
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-use-clonezilla-to-clone-a-hard-drive/

I'd agree with Draclvr that it's probably something you should have someone do for you, though maybe not a tech shop if you have a friend or family member who can do it.

But if you understand the Clonezilla instructions, or can follow along, there's no reason why you couldn't clone the drive yourself. Just be sure to test it before destroying the old drive.