Warning: The primary IDE Master Harddrive Self Monitoring...........

Question

For the first time I received this warning when booting up from 'hibernate'. 'The primary IDE Master hard drive selfmonitoring system has reported that a parameter has exceeded its normal operating range. Dell recommends back up your data regularly. A parameter out of range may or may not indicate a potential harddrive problem.' Then I am given these options: Fl Key to continue; F2 key to run 'setup utility' My questions: What does the 'setup utility do'? How should I further explore the possibilities of hard drive being on its last leg? I should add that I have experienced no problems up until today and the comp is running normally with no other warnings or unusual sounds. Will await your reply. Thanks in advance, Buddy2150

Buddy2150 · Answer

Thanks Bev. for your reply. I will follow your advice. Kind of unexpected as the comp is only l5 months old.

shesagordie · Answer

Buddy2150

Try running Dell diagnostics extended test on the hard drive. Reboot the computer, when the Dell logo appears, press F12, a boot device list appears, highlight the "Boot to Utility" partition and press "Enter".

The F2 key allows you to enter the setup [BIOS] and make changes.

Bev.

shesagordie · Answer

Buddy2150   Hard drives can fail at any time, I've had new drives fail in less than a year.  Hence the importance of making regular backups of any data, you want to save.   As far as I'm concerned, there are only two types of hard drives, the drives that have failed and those that are waiting to fail.   Bev.

Storage, Drives & Media

Was this post helpful?