I'm having some difficulties solving a problem that I believe is related to my HDD, and I would appreciate some help. This is what happened:
I was using my laptop (DELL XPS L502x/750Gb HDD/ 6Go RAM/ Running windows 7 x64) a few days ago, until it unexpectedly froze for a few seconds and showed the blue screen of death. I think I should also add that this happened maybe 2 or 3 times during the last 2 months. Anyways, I turned off the laptop using the power button, I hadn't realized that it was loading something (I can't really remember what was written) until it was too late and the laptop was already off. I turned it on again and after the windows loading screen it flashed the blue screen for less than a second and restarted.
So I started searching online about possible causes and what I could do to solve this, and this is what I tried:
I tried running windows in safe mode/ launch startup repair/ other windows options, but it didn't work, either it freezes when loading files (safe mode) or it keeps showing the windows loading screen for a few minutes then restarts the laptop, sometimes showing th eblue screen briefly (startup repair).
I used the windows installation disk and used the repair option, it took an extremely long amount of time to show the next window each time, but I finally got to the command prompt, and tried running chkdsk /R, which didn't work because it was running in F:/ (CD drive), so I used chkdsk c: /R, chkdsk d: /R, and chkdsk e: /R (I have 3 partitions) and it reported 0 errors. Now that I think of it, i believe it didn't work as it should have, because while on the screen where I'm supposed to choose my OS, it couldn't find my windows installation, I only had the option to choose F:/ .
I restarted the laptop, ran dell diagnostics, which reported error 2000-0142, an error that usually means the HDD is failling/has already failed. but according to one of dell support team, he advised to run advanced diagnostics and choose custom tests for the HDD, tests that all failed: -COnfidence test=>Error code: 0F00:1332 -Device quick check=>This one was skipped for some reason -drive self-test (long)=>This one was skipped for some reason -drive self-test(short)=>Error code: 0F00:0632 -Read test=>Error code: 0F00:0232 -Seek test=>Error code: 0F00:0432 -SMART test=>Error code: 0F00:1232 -Verify test=>Error code: 0F00:1A32
I started unbuntu from a live usb (which is what I'm using right now to write this), my partitions E:/ and D:/ are working fine, I can access their files, copy, delete from them. However, the partition with windows is called "404 GB Volume", I can't mount it, I get the following error:
Unable to access “404 GB Volume” Error mounting /dev/sda3 at /media/ubuntu/E23A559D3A556F91: Command-line mount -t "ntfs" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=999,gid=999,dmask=0077,fmask=0177" "/dev/sda3" "/media/ubuntu/E23A559D3A556F91"' exited with non-zero exit status 13: ntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output error Failed to read NTFS $Bitmap: Input/output error NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g. /dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation for more details.
I have tried using testdisk to check for bad sectors, and it returns that everything is ok.
I ran sudo fdisk -lu:
Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x07f2837
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 208844 104391 de Dell Utility
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 208896 925695 358400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 925696 789305343 394189824 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 789307392 1465145343 337918976 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 789309440 1178425343 194557952 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6 1178427392 1465143295 143357952 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
Disk /dev/sdb: 3932 MB, 3932160000 bytes
22 heads, 32 sectors/track, 10909 cylinders, total 7680000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1504 7679999 3839248 b W95 FAT32
Then I used sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdaX(with X being a variable from 1 to 6)
sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda1:
Mounting volume... NTFS signature is missing.
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors... NTFS signature is missing.
FAILED
Failed to startup volume: Invalid argument
NTFS signature is missing.
Trying the alternate boot sector
NTFS signature is missing.
Unrecoverable error
Volume is corrupt. You should run chkdsk.
- sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda2:
Mounting volume... OK
Processing of $MFT and $MFTMirr completed successfully.
Checking the alternate boot sector... OK
NTFS volume version is 3.1.
NTFS partition /dev/sda2 was processed successfully.
- sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda3:
Mounting volume... OK
Processing of $MFT and $MFTMirr completed successfully.
Checking the alternate boot sector... OK
NTFS volume version is 3.1.
NTFS partition /dev/sda3 was processed successfully.
- sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda4:
Mounting volume... NTFS signature is missing.
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors... NTFS signature is missing.
FAILED
Failed to startup volume: Invalid argument
NTFS signature is missing.
Trying the alternate boot sector
Unrecoverable error
Volume is corrupt. You should run chkdsk.
- sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda5:
Mounting volume... OK
Processing of $MFT and $MFTMirr completed successfully.
Checking the alternate boot sector... OK
NTFS volume version is 3.1.
NTFS partition /dev/sda5 was processed successfully.
- sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda6:
Mounting volume... OK
Processing of $MFT and $MFTMirr completed successfully.
Checking the alternate boot sector... OK
NTFS volume version is 3.1.
NTFS partition /dev/sda6 was processed successfully
- sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdb1:
Mounting volume... NTFS signature is missing.
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors... NTFS signature is missing.
FAILED
Failed to startup volume: Invalid argument
NTFS signature is missing.
Trying the alternate boot sector
NTFS signature is missing.
Unrecoverable error
Volume is corrupt. You should run chkdsk.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
Now this seems very confusing to me, because the error while mounting the volume with my windows installation says that it's sda3, but ntfsfix used on sda3 was apparently able to mount the volume sda3 (I still have no access to it though).
This is basically everything that I tried that I can remember, I have opened my laptop and disconnected the hard drive to check if it is damaged somehow, and it doesn't seem to be. What could be the cause of this problem and how can i fix it?