Bitcoin Wallet on Windows 7 fails hard after a year of no problems.

[dooglus]

"-A" could also give you away. E.g. you'll have "G-Sense Error Rate" high then its a proof of a dropped laptop. Same things with "Power On Hours", "Power Cycles" and "Temperature Celcius" if you were fiddling with the computer.

I don't know how to read the information.  What does this tell you?  I really don't think the computer has ever been dropped or even bumped.

chris@chris:~$ sudo smartctl -A /dev/sda
smartctl 5.41 2011-06-09 r3365 [i686-linux-3.2.0-25-generic-pae] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000b   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  2 Throughput_Performance  0x0005   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   100   100   001    Pre-fail  Always       -       1064
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       100
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000b   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0005   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   098   098   000    Old_age   Always       -       837
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0033   102   100   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       94
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       15
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       2
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       823
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       42 (Min/Max 20/51)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       16
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       2
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
220 Disk_Shift              0x0002   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
222 Loaded_Hours            0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       625
223 Load_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
224 Load_Friction           0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
226 Load-in_Time            0x0026   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       256
240 Head_Flying_Hours       0x0001   100   100   001    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0

If that's saying I've turned the computer on and off 94 times, then I find that hard to believe.  I would expect something less than 20 to be the true figure - possibly even less than 10.  Unless it's counting when I close the lid and it goes into a suspended state, in which case I can quite believe the number.  I often have uptimes of over a week, and never reboot into Windows.

Edit: weird how bold spaces are narrower than regular spaces, messing up the table layout

[1714167398]

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[1714167398]

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[2112]

I don't know how to read the information.  What does this tell you?  I really don't think the computer has ever been dropped or even bumped.

The health is almost everywhere at 100%; 98% being the worst. If you really think that you haven't jostled the laptop itself, then continue to monitor the G-Sense counter every day or several times per day, until you'll identify the problem. Maybe its a window striking the table you keep the laptop on? Maybe you are slapping the lid shut sometimes?

You have 16 "Current Pending Sectors"; those are awaiting remapping/fixing.  This correlates with 15 "G-Sense" warnings: some vibration problem or unstable workspace.
 

If that's saying I've turned the computer on and off 94 times, then I find that hard to believe.  Unless it's counting when I close the lid and it goes into a suspended state, in which case I can quite believe the number.

Yeah, probably aggresive power saving. The Start-Stop count is at 100 with 94 power cycles.

[2112]

What is going to last longer?

For current bitcoin{d,-qt} definitely spinning drive will last longer. As it is right now bitcoin{d,-qt} is a worst-case load for the solid-state drives:

1) it writes a lot of data that is never read: the database/log.* files
2) it has bad write amplification behavior: writes too small chunks of data that aren't properly aligned.

So you'll need either a spinning plater or a high-end SSD. Better ask your wife than me.

[Diapolo]

- run "cmd" as Administrator
- run "chkdsk C: /f /v /x /r" and reboot
- take a look into the Windows eventlog under Application - wininnt

You can replace C: by every partition you have on that Laptob to check the filesystem intensively!

This is a bad advice. It gives you false negatives: chkdsk only scans inside partitions, but doesn't scan partition headers and various boot and recovery files.

Also chkdsk will be fooled with extended retry algorithms that are used in modern drives (with the exception of the most expensive enterprise drives). It will be silent about all the marginal sectors that are barely readable after many seconds of trial reads. You especially want to know about those in advance.

smartmontools are the best friend of smart disk drive users.

Sorry, but no ... on Windows this is the standard for checking filesystem problems. To diagnose further I would use a bootable tool from the HDD/SSD vendor. As SMART tools on Windows get often blocked or show wrong results due to IDE/SATA/AHCI drivers blocking the SMART commands. Also SSDs vendors use often non-standard fields in their SMART state, which are often not recognized by SMART tools.

Dia

[dooglus]

I wiped Linux off my laptop before returning it to the manufacturer and reinstalled the Windows 7 MBR so it would boot straight into Windows.  Before sending it off I installed smartmontools for Windows to check that it shows the same error as its Linux counterpart, and it did.

I've never tried smartmontools on Windows before.  I use Windows as little as possible generally, but this time it worked for me.

[Diapolo]

Okay, it seems I should replace the hard drive. Now should I get a HDD just like it or solid state? What is going to last longer?

I back up data that I find very important often.

In a mobile device, which will get shocked more during normal use, I would go SSD. Nowdays I would even got SSD with normals PCs, but perhaps add a normal spinning HDD here for data-storage.

Edit: The point with the Bitcoin client and many writes to the disk is true, which wears out a SSD faster. But really, a current SSD should do it's job at least for the warranty period, which is 3-5 years + Bitcoin is soooo much quicker with a SSD!

Dia

[Diapolo]

Okay, it seems I should replace the hard drive. Now should I get a HDD just like it or solid state? What is going to last longer?

I back up data that I find very important often.

In a mobile device, which will get shocked more during normal use, I would go SSD. Nowdays I would even got SSD with normals PCs, but perhaps add a normal spinning HDD here for data-storage.

Dia

most laptops do not have two hdds right, do any?

That's right, sometimes you can place a second disk where an optical drive resides, but I would not consider this standard. Get a decent external USB-HDD for backup and enjoy a SSD (that's what I do).

Dia