So in order to proactive about my HD failure, I bought a 2TB drive to replace the suspected 1 TB failing drive. However when attempting to create partitions on and formatting the new HD by reinstalling Manjaro, I got “The installer failed to create partition on disk…”. I found a boot-able gParted DVD and thinking it is probably more powerful that the one in the installer. gave it a try, but it failed also. Thought about it for a while then removed a 160GB drive and moved new drive there and it worked fine. Meaning the old 1TB drive was probably OK, and it turned out it was.
So barring a cable problem it also means the SATA HD connector or more likely underlying controller (I’m assuming this) on the motherboard is bad. That leaves one next to the Blu-ray connection. Don’t really remember but it seems like there is some issue concerning placement of the Blu-ray so I’m not sure I can use the SATA connector next to the Blu-ray for a HD. But it’s worth a try. Seriously considering removing the Blu-ray anyway, it hasn’t worked well since I got it.
All this is a reminder that I need readily accessible recovery media…probably on USB drives.