Hard Drive gone bad?

MAC_Addy

Hello,

My hard drive keeps on making weird sounds. It sounds like it keeps on restarting it's self...

...it makes a sound like the reader hits the side and then a sound of restarting.

I have checked to see if its fragmented or not, I ran Defrag and that didn't really help.

Any suggestions?

RussS

Sounds like it can find the start sector ... trash bin dude.

Sie

http://www.governmentsecurity.org/forum/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=4036

Interesting and sometimes amusing guide of HD recovery

**i do not personally vouch for one/any of these do so at your own risk**

stallion750

Copy the data that you can. If you can't get all of it, try covering it with ICE packs. If you still need data off of it and you "Don't" want to spend money for data recovery and don't plan to, place the drive in a zip lock bag and put it in the freezer overnight and try again with Ice packs. I know that sounds bad but trust me, sometimes it will work long enough to get the data off the drive

jescab

Yews, the freezing it way worked for me a couple of times.............sound crazy but it works.........

skully93

I read somewhere once that the freeze trick has no scientific merit, but it has worked for me too.

If the drive is a WD, freeze it and shake it upside down a couple of times. Sometimes an arm gets stuck.

jescab

Sweet -

MAC_Addy

Indeed, I have heard of using ice, I have done it before.

I am copying over the data right now. It's not that dead, but its going to be dead soon!

It's a WD so I expected it to go soon.

Personally, I use Seagate drives. They last FOREVER!

Webmaster

Although it's obviously not 'fit' anymore, you could download the hard drive fitness test from www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm and check if it finds what's wrong with it.

Freezing a hd to fix it, that's new for me. Ah well, cleaning CD/DVDs in the dishwasher and soaking keyboards is normal, so I guess having a hard disk in the freezer ain't that weird.

Megadeth4168

Wow... Freezing a HD is new to me as well. Apparantly several people heard of this, so where have I been? I guess I might have to try that next time a drive goes bad around here.

Anyway, I saw a comment about WD... This is funny, I've seen debates time and time again and it just seems to me that everyone has had different experiences with different drives....

For instance, I've had the best luck with WD and worst luck with Maxtors. However my friend has the best luck with Maxtors and worst luck with WD... Seems for me that Seagate is pretty close to WD from my experiences.

Based on my experiences I would never touch a maxtor again if I could help it but I know people whos ay that about WD so I guess it just all comes down to what expereince someone has had with a drive.

porengo

The freezer trick only works for head crash failures (which is very common). By freezing, the head and platter contracts allowing them to unstick. If the head crash was just a surface crash, it's possible that after freezing, the drive will continue working as before and will not need to be replaced. Usually, there is surface damage to the platter and the drive will probably crash at the same place again when the heat returns to normal.

If the motor has burned out or the drive had an electrical or circuit failure, the freezer trick will not work.

kevozz

My laptop fell from about 5 feet and hit the floor. The computer worked for about a month, then one day it couldn't recognize the HD. Had to freeze it three times, but the third time, it worked for 2 hours and i backed up my HD. Sent it in and got a new one.