Hard drive knocking....

[l15741]

I have a WD 120 Gig drive that I picked up not to long ago. I installed it, and this is the first drive I have ever had in a system this large and the first of any size or type I have installed. So being a few first I'm a little conserned that a few days ago it picked up a nasty knock and I just lost one drive, and I don't wana loose another because I didn't notice that a screw wasn't quite tight or something. Is this is new drive thing? Or a big drive thing? Or should I be conserned?

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I have a WD 120 Gig drive that I picked up not to long ago. I installed it, and this is the first drive I have ever had in a system this large and the first of any size or type I have installed. So being a few first I'm a little conserned that a few days ago it picked up a nasty knock and I just lost one drive, and I don't wana loose another because I didn't notice that a screw wasn't quite tight or something. Is this is new drive thing? Or a big drive thing? Or should I be conserned?

You should probably be concerned - drives shouldn't make intermittent loud noises. They may make quiet noises for thermal calibration or head parking, or small whirring as the heads move around (unless you have the drive set to run silent), but nothing you would call loud.

Try running one of the SMART utilities on the drive and see if it reports any errors.

 

[RussSchultz]

If the drive itself is 'knocking', then its likely a 'dead drive' thing.

 

[Dio]

Hard drive making any strange noises == back it up double-fast, starting with the most important stuff, run the manufacturer's diagnostics to see if you can get a replacement, and if you can't never use it for anything important again.

 

[mkillio]

My HD used to knock then I ran Windows repair with my W2k disc and it stopped. No idea if they're connected but it doesn't knock anymore.

 

[The549]

My hard drive started clicking at random times (more and more till it did it enough so it couldn't start up.....and every time it would, my comp would freeze. I have a shit load of important personal stuff on there, so is there any best way for me to back the files up, and is there a possiblility that it could be the psu?

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

My hard drive started clicking at random times (more and more till it did it enough so it couldn't start up.....and every time it would, my comp would freeze. I have a shit load of important personal stuff on there, so is there any best way for me to back the files up, and is there a possiblility that it could be the psu?

Buy another drive (which you need to do anyway), install it, and then copy everything from the old drive to the new one, preferably using a disk imagine/installing utility. Try not to use the machine until you can do this, as you don't know how many hours of life you have left before the faulty drive finally expires.

It's probably not a PSU issue unless you've had several drives go bad. Even if you replace the PSU now, it's not going to help a drive that is already shot.

 

[The549]

Buy another drive (which you need to do anyway), install it, and then copy everything from the old drive to the new one, preferably using a disk imagine/installing utility. Try not to use the machine until you can do this, as you don't know how many hours of life you have left before the faulty drive finally expires.

It's probably not a PSU issue unless you've had several drives go bad. Even if you replace the PSU now, it's not going to help a drive that is already shot.

Thanks. That's what I figured I should do. But why should I use an imaging program? Wouldn't it be better for me to selectively copy files? I figured the drive wouldn't last long enough to image.

 

[The549]

WD 120 Gig drive

Same exact drive here, by the way.

 

[Dio]

Buy another drive (which you need to do anyway), install it, and then copy everything from the old drive to the new one, preferably using a disk imagine/installing utility. Try not to use the machine until you can do this, as you don't know how many hours of life you have left before the faulty drive finally expires.

I would disagree. First task is to copy off every really important document on the drive before imaging or trying to recover it. Always salvage in order of priority - for the very reason you state here, that you don't know how long it will be before the entire thing dies.

WD's warranty replacement scheme is fantastic.

 

[Tim Murray]

my 120 gig WD drive has been going strong for a year and a half now. no problems.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I would disagree. First task is to copy off every really important document on the drive before imaging or trying to recover it. Always salvage in order of priority - for the very reason you state here, that you don't know how long it will be before the entire thing dies.

WD's warranty replacement scheme is fantastic.

Problem with that is it actually takes longer overall, even if you get the important stuff off quicker. By the time you've done messing about finding/copying all the important stuff, you've spent more time pushing the drive closer to failure, especially if you don't have a second disc to do it all quickly and are trying to backup to tape or CDR.

It's fine if all you have are documents or whatever in specific folders, but if you want to avoid reinstalling Windows and loads of apps and their data (which is important to me anyway, as it takes forever), you need the whole disc anyway.

However, if you had a second drive in the machine now, I would agree with you, and just copy everything off onto a second disc, most important first, even if it means you are effectively hoping the disc lasts long enough to copy everything twice, first as a backup and second as a disc image to your new disc.

 

[The549]

I'm gonna write down all the locations of the files I want to save first, then install windowsw on a new hd, then hook the WD up and recover. Wish me luck. I'm scared to death.
And my last question is, could the clicking intermittency increase as a result of heat? I hope so.......because if it's something else, it might already be too dead.

 

[l15741]

Sorry, I was away from my computer a few days. It's semi intermittent, and it really only happens on start up, it's not really loud, but it's noticeable. I have all important documents on a WD 40 I have in there to. I haven’t heard anything bad about the drive or the company, so I'll have a little faith, and not put anything important on it till it's the same or better for a while. Maybe I missed a screw so if it spins to fast it wiggles a little or something...

Trying to avoid having to pull everything out of the black hole known as my closet and all the cases for CD codes and stuff for a reformat.

 

[karlotta]

are you sure it is the the neww HDD? Just for fun unhook your flopy (if you have one). Also a good trick for sour HDDs is to freeze the Hard drive. this can unlock a locked up HDD and give minutes to get some files.

 

[Dio]

It's fine if all you have are documents or whatever in specific folders, but if you want to avoid reinstalling Windows and loads of apps and their data (which is important to me anyway, as it takes forever), you need the whole disc anyway.

Ah, well that doesn't bother me so much, because I prefer to get Windows reinstalled every couple of years anyway, it's worth an extra 50% processor speed

I keep my filesystem well organised, three folders is all the critical stuff I need to grab, then save anything in the rest I can.