1 Y.O. Laptop - suspected hard drive failure - help needed  

thomaseg1 said:

Good point. We have moved off topic quite a bit. Thanks Porthos.

Guys, post #18 this thread says thet the machine went back to the retailer for repair this morning.

... the laptop that has the failed drive ..... went back to the retailer this morning.

Also post #31

Can't check now as lappy has gone back to retailer.

Whilst the thread may have moved (in your opinion) off topic, I am trying to understand exactly how this machine is configured and whether my suspicion as to the m.2 SSD failing is correct.

All of the discussion to this point seems relevant to me.

I am seeking help and advice in order to further my knowledge and understanding. That's a good thing - yes?

This topic is also in the section 'Drivers and Hardware' of the forum. So how is this discussion not relevant?

Art

ArthurDent said:

(snip)

EDIT: Because the system has a small (16Gb) m.2 SSD and a large mechanical hard disk, surely this is a RAID 0 configuration (if indeed the system is configured as a RAID array)

(snip)

There are many configurations of the Legion Y530. What I think you have is one with a 16GB Intel Optane drive that is being used as a high-speed nonvolatile cache for the 1TB HDD.

Downloads for Intel(R) Optane™ Memory

That would not be a RAID-anything configuration, although it uses the Intel RST drivers.

I haven't used software (sometimes called "fake") RAID in years, but I believe that if two disks are combined in RAID 0, the size of the array is twice that of the smaller disk. (I'm not sure, but I believe that you could partition the larger disk of a mismatched pair and use the additional space separately from the array.)

Best of luck with your repair.

UPDATE TO THREAD ...

The retailer rang this afternoon to say laptop is back from repair (1 week - I'm impressed with the turnaround).

Picking the laptop up tomorrow morning and we'll see if everything is still intact on the 1TB hard disk or whether I have to reinstall stuff. Luckily, I have just come across the license key for the purchased copy of Office 2016!

Will update the thread tomorrow.

@Try3

Have created the batch file as per your instructions. Will try it out on this machine first after posting the file for your perusal.

Kind regards,

Art

For drive problems it's best not to make clones.
Instead make a backup images.

If you had already made a clone then after you restoration run: chkdsk /b /v
This can take substantial time so it's best to run overnight.

Code:

Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste: 
chkdsk /b /v
This may take hours to run so plan to run overnight.
Run on all drive using the syntax:  chkdsk /b /v C: or chkdsk /b /v D:  changing the drive letter to the applicable drive.

C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk /b /v
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Type: Y
reboot


Use the information in this link to find the chkdsk report in the event viewer.  Copy and paste into notepad > save to desktop > post into the thread using one drive or drop box share link:
Read Chkdsk Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10 Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials 
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/40822-read-chkdsk-log-event-viewer-windows-10-a.html

zbook said:

For drive problems it's best not to make clones.
Instead make a backup images.

I don't know whether you missed this but the machine with the problem drive has been replaced with a brand-new machine.

I'm talking about making a clone of the SSD after changing the Start Menu (to get rid of stuff like Microsoft Play and XBox), installing M$ Office, downloading Chrome, ensuring that the OS is the latest build and all updates have been applied and lastly that all of the manufacturer bloat/adware & associated crap (such as McAfee AV) have been removed - so that in the future, should the machine go belly-up, we don't have to go back to square 1.

Cheers,

Art

- - - Updated - - -

Try3 said:

Art,

Yes
The same way
Yes

You could consider using the SSD as the OS drive and the HDD as the data drive.

The new machine only has a 256Gb SSD - so this will contain the OS and any programs (such as Office) that I install

You could consider using one partition of the SSD as the OS drive and a second partition of the SSD as the data drive.

I intend to train my wife to use an external device for all data storage.

Your external storage could be your backup device in both cases.

All data will be stored initially on the SD Card (as per an earlier discussion in this thread) and then onto a 2TB external drive.

I've discussed 'cloning' by making then restoring a system image in your other thread.

Denis

Hi Denis,

I've since discovered that the SSD is an NVMe drive - don't know the dimensions yet so can't order a larger drive.

How easy is it to clone one of these onto another, similar SSD - I'm guessing that you have to copy the contents somewhere else first as there is likely only one NVMe slot in the machine *shrugs*

Art

- - - Updated - - -

Please consider this thread closed.

I have some new questions regarding cloning the SSD on the new computer (picking this up after 2pm tomorrow, Monday 17th).

The new thread is here: New computer with 256Gb SSD

Art