CRC fuckers.
 

Hey guys I have a problem. A persistent but intermittent one.
Thins is, I download a lot, huge files if I must say, about 700mb average.
Now most of the time those files are archives, winrar specifically and they extract just fine.
Problem is, after a few hours/days random time span (I keep them around for seeding), those files get corrupted when I "test" them.
Thank God I got them from bitorrent so I can redownload the bad bits.

But why does that happen?

The files are not corrupted when you download them, but then become corrupted at some later time, yes?

Two causes immediately come to mind. Either your torrent software is badly written, and is writing to the files when it should not be, or your hard drive is about to fail. Switch bittorrent client to see if that helps and/or break out the DVD/Rs.

Could also be a problem with the IDE interface...

Yes! they get corrupted after a while.
Oh man, I have a feeling its the part where you say my harddrive is about to fail, coz I already changed the IDE cables a couple of months ago but I still get the problem. This harddrive is 5 years old. Could it be failing? How do you know for sure?

You could run some sort of checkdisk program provided by the manufacturer.

Also check SMART data with something like SpeedFan. Especially the 'reallocated sector count' is important. If you're drive is failing the probably the SMART diagnosis will tell you.
Best thing at this time would be to transfer data to another drive.

After five years, I'd say that not only could the drive be failing, it is about ready to fail. I'm sorry to break the news to you, but I figured it's better to tell it like it is. Drives don't last forever.

Thanks. But where do I get that SpeedFan program? Google says its a tool to monitor fan speed in chips? Is that it?. Oh and yes I just finished backing my files on dvds.. I dont have an extra harddrive..

As well as monitoring the speed of your fans, and the temperature of your CPU, it can also allow you to view the status of your hard drive. Here's the official site.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

When you load the program, select the S.M.A.R.T. tab. Select your drive from the drop-down list. Since you only have one drive there will only be one entry in the list. Click the big button for an "in-depth analysis". If any attribute is not at least "good" then your drive is getting old and should be replaced.

S.M.A.R.T stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology. It's a standardised system built into all drives these days to keep track of performance. You're supposed to check it every so often, then when the report shows that the drive's performance is suffering, that's when you know it should be replaced.

Ah... I see. I nere knew about this S.M.A.R.T feature. Thanks a lot for the info Soluzar! I will post the results here when done scanning.

Regardless, I think you should buy a new hard disk. 5 years is a long time, and it has served you well!

To get you started!
http://www.google.com/products?q=har...ate&lnk=brsugg

I agree with Zergrinch. Five years is long enough to replace the drive on principle, regardless of what the numbers say.

What statistic about reallocated sector count in SpeedFan would suggest a problem? "Value" being higher than "Warn" or what?

No, as soon as the reallocated sector count (in RAW) is different from zero (or the value the drive had when you purchased it - sometimes the hd vendor encodes some more data into this special field) the drive is beginning to fail.

SMART data from my internal Fujitsu harddisk:
Important are the reallocated sector count (mind the RAW value), the current pending sector count, reallocated event count (and everything else that has to do with reallocation), the spin up time (if this increases then you're soon going to have some mechanical damage), the CRC error counts (indicates failing electronics) and of course the temperature (higher temperature also indicates mechanical damage producing more heat than normal).

Why are the reallocation values so important. The drives transparently replace defective (better to say: nearly defective) with some spare sectors (there is a limited number normally not available to the user).
Now experience shows that if reallocation occurs (sectors are becoming defective) it doesn't take long for the next sector to become defective. Reasons are that the material of the platter has almost homogenous quality, so IF some sectors fails (because of the age of the material) then all other sectors (which lie on material has nearly the same age and therefore same quality) are also likely to fail. This does not have to be the case but it's safer then saying "hey it's only one lousy sector" and a week later there is already a count of around 1000 (the amount of spare sectors is limited!).
Another reason why one should act quick is that if the sector reallocation was triggered by some (non-drive-mechanic-critical) headcrash. The crash destroys the information of the sector (or sectors...) but furthermore can produce tiny particles (scratched-off material) that are now inside the drive casing...

I had a similar problem a few years ago. Hard drive wouldn't be able to read or write to a certain area every single time. I had to reformat the entire thing; it picked up several bad sectors, and it works fine again. Maybe you can try something similar...

Here's the catch though: Usually when it picks up bad sectors for no apparent reason, it's going to pick up some more, and soon. You should take bad sectors as a kind of early warning system to not be cheap with your data and splash out for a new drive. The drive is that much closer to failing completely, do you want that?

It could also be your power supply. An unclean amount of power to your HDD will cause data corruption and ultimately HDD failure. You should be wary of this. This is more likely than a simple HDD failure, and if often the cause of HDD failure. If your PSU is 5 years or older, it may be time for that to be replaced. They are pretty cheap, only about $50 USD.