Hard Drive Long DST Check failed

[stevien]

My computer would not boot up, I ran a Hard Drive Extensive Test and received the message below:

Hard Drive SMART Check: Passed

Hard Drive Short DST Check: Passed

Hard Drive Optimized DST Check: Passed

Hard Drive Long DST Check:  Failed

Failure ID: GGDA23-000902-PXPAWJ-61A403

Hard Drive 1

Component Test: Failed

Please explain what this all means and if it is a serious problem. Do I need to take to a computer repair person? 

Thank you so much

[mdklassen]

> My computer would not boot up

This is a serious problem.

> I ran a Hard Drive Extensive Test and received the message below:

> Hard Drive Long DST Check:  Failed

The "long" test takes a "long" time -- many times.

> Failure ID: GGDA23-000902-PXPAWJ-61A403

> Hard Drive 1

> Component Test: Failed

> Please explain what this all means.

It means that the disk-drive is "failing", and must be replaced, before it TOTALLY fails.

Compare to an automobile tire with a leak -- you may drive on it to the nearest tire-store, but you should not try driving across the country.

> Do I need to take to a computer repair person? 

It depends on your computer skills, especially on the ability to disassemble & part-swap & reassemble your computer.

If you're not confident, then do take it to a computer repair technician.

They will replace the disk-drive, reinstall Windows on the new disk-drive, and try to "rescue" your Personal Files from the current disk-drive, and copy them onto the new disk-drive.

Or, ask them if they can use "disk-cloning" software to copy the disk-drive, block-by-block, from "old" to "new".

This method will preserve all your installed applications, and your Personal Files.

[stevien]

Thank you very much for the information. I was afraid tbis was not good. I will need to take it to a professional. Just one last question, do you know what could have caused this?

[mdklassen · Accepted solution]

> Thank you very much for the information.

You marked your own posting as the "solution".

You should "unmark as solution", and "accept as solution" for the reply that helped you the most.

Contributors to this forum appreciate collecting status-points for each solution that they give.

> I will need to take it to a professional. Do you know what could have caused this? 

How old is the disk-drive?  How old are the tires on your automobile?

Those tires do wear out, and lose their tread.  Similarly, your disk-drive does wear out.

That is why manufacturers of disk-drives only offer 1 or 2 year warranties on their products.

They expect them to "fail", but not within the warranty period.

There are a few spots on your disk-drive that get updated absolutely every time that you delete or write a file -- that is a lot of usage.

Since the disk-drive "passed" some of the tests, it still has some remaining "life".

So, ask the professional to first try "disk-cloning", to try to copy everything, block-by-block, from "source" to (newly-purchased) "target" disk-drive. 

This "cloning" is much faster than:

* making a backup of your Personal Files to an external disk-drive

* installing a brand-new disk-drive

* installing Windows

* running Windows Update

* installing anti-virus software

* reloading from your backup

* installing all the applications (MS Office, Adobe, Audacity, et cetera) that you previously installed.

The above is a lot of work by the professional, and thus, more expensive, than disk-cloning, which will produce a "ready-to-run" system in less than 2 hours.  

[stevien]

Thank you again. I will also unmark my answer. Sorry about that, trying to figure this out.