Weblog entry #11 for fsateler
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#11
Hard drive failures
Posted by fsateler on Thu 2 Nov 2006 at 18:40
I've been in a sequel of failing hard drives that is making me sick. About 3 or 4 months ago my primary hard drive died. Well, not exactly: it started making clicks, and after a while I got a BIOS warning about an inminent drive failure. The drive was somewhat old, and had been used a lot, so I just thought it was time's fault. After that, I got a new hard drive, which managed to fail in a record (at least for me) time of about a month (the same simptoms as above apply). So I thought "Well, there must be something wrong with my hardware". Replaced the motherboard and power supply, and just a couple of days ago, I bought a new hard drive (this time SATA), and installed it. However, I am hearing the clicks again. I am baffled at what could this be. I moved the computer away from magnetic sources (such as speakers), and the clicks continued. I changed the electric setup, and the clicks are less numerous now. I rearranged the setup again, so I hope this will kill those damned clicks once and for all. I just don't know what to do.
Comments on this Entry
If you've got a new drive doing the click of death, get it swapped under warranty ASAP. Be sure to back up your data frequently in the interim, and wipe the thing clean before you hand it over.
The mechanics of a click of death aren't something that a motherboard can invoke, and it's unlikely that a power supply would unless it was really very far out of tolerance, so far that you'd probably see other symptoms in the machine.
Sometimes a run of drives will just be failure prone right out of the factory. I recall a span of about six weeks about a decade ago when I had a >60% failure rate on new Seagate drives -- not 60% of four or five drives, but 60% of a few hundred. Having known some of Seagate's test engineers, I wasn't at all surprised. Then some time later it happened to be >30% of Maxtor drives, and most of the Maxtor test engineers I've known have been pretty sharp. Then it was WD's turn, and I'd always sworn by Western Digital. These things just happen sometimes.
I just threw away a nice ViewSonic true flat 19" CRT monitor that was just barely out of warranty, and I'm kicking myself for not getting an RMA on it when the symptoms first appeared while it was still under warranty. Don't wait so long that you end up kicking yourself, too.
The mechanics of a click of death aren't something that a motherboard can invoke, and it's unlikely that a power supply would unless it was really very far out of tolerance, so far that you'd probably see other symptoms in the machine.
Sometimes a run of drives will just be failure prone right out of the factory. I recall a span of about six weeks about a decade ago when I had a >60% failure rate on new Seagate drives -- not 60% of four or five drives, but 60% of a few hundred. Having known some of Seagate's test engineers, I wasn't at all surprised. Then some time later it happened to be >30% of Maxtor drives, and most of the Maxtor test engineers I've known have been pretty sharp. Then it was WD's turn, and I'd always sworn by Western Digital. These things just happen sometimes.
I just threw away a nice ViewSonic true flat 19" CRT monitor that was just barely out of warranty, and I'm kicking myself for not getting an RMA on it when the symptoms first appeared while it was still under warranty. Don't wait so long that you end up kicking yourself, too.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
I will. It is worth noting that the last two drives (those that quickly failed) are WD, so a bad run may be possible (although one was PATA, bought in Thailand, and the other one was SATA, bought in Chile). The first one was a Maxtor
So I'd better go replace the drive, and then hope that the new one won't fail.
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Felipe Sateler
So I'd better go replace the drive, and then hope that the new one won't fail.
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Felipe Sateler
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by dkg (162.84.xx.xx) on Sat 4 Nov 2006 at 02:52
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this might not help you with this drive, but if you don't use it already, start looking into the smartmontools package.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
I recently came across this software, although I don't really understand how it works. I will continue to investigate to get it working. As an aside, it claims my hard drive doesn't have SMART capabilities... this seems weird.
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Felipe Sateler
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Felipe Sateler
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (83.139.xx.xx) on Sat 4 Nov 2006 at 17:36
Do you have on Power Supply Serial ATA connectors or using Molex connector-->Serial ATA connector?
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
I use the old fashioned power connectors (those for PATA drives). I don't really know if my power supply has serial ata connectors.
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Felipe Sateler
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Felipe Sateler
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (83.139.xx.xx) on Tue 7 Nov 2006 at 09:03
Molex connector=(those for PATA drives)
Check connector. It became loose occasionally, and as result, bad contact on +12V can make clicks.
Check connector. It became loose occasionally, and as result, bad contact on +12V can make clicks.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]