Hard Drive Faliure

  • Thread starter Thread starter Aly
  • Start date Start date
A

Aly

Hey all,

I have a 20GB MAxtor hard drive (used for media only). About 6 months
ago it would click, but after Windows XP initialized and loaded, the
hard drive would stop clicking and everything would be fine. Anyways,
about 1 weeks ago, I turned the comp on, and the hard drive clicked
very loudy, and XP didnt recognize it at all. It is still under
warrenty, but the thing is I have alot of important stuff on the
drive. Can it be fixed?
 
Aly said:
Hey all,

I have a 20GB MAxtor hard drive (used for media only). About 6 months
ago it would click, but after Windows XP initialized and loaded, the
hard drive would stop clicking and everything would be fine. Anyways,
about 1 weeks ago, I turned the comp on, and the hard drive clicked
very loudy, and XP didnt recognize it at all. It is still under
warrenty, but the thing is I have alot of important stuff on the
drive. Can it be fixed?
Click to expand...

Maybe not. Try slaving the drive to a HD in a working computer, and see
if you can save your data, even if you can't boot.

Seriously, it doesn't sound good. If it's still under warranty, you can
possibly replace the drive, but replacing the data is not covered by the
warranty. I hope you have back-ups.
 
If the data's really important to you, there are companies that do data
recovery on dead HD's. It's expensive, though. I had a HD go down during
the week between purchasing a new CD burner and actually recieving the
burner. Got it because we had a bunch of pictures from a new digital
camera. Lost a bunch of them. So I looked into the recovery thing, but it
was going to be hundred's of dollars to get back. Quick search on Google
will get you what you need.

BTW, the HD I had fail was a Maxtor. Sent them a 60GB drive, they sent back
an 80. That's about the only good thing about Maxtor, if you ask me. I
won't buy another one of theirs. Oh yeah, and the clicking sound? If you
ever hear it on another computer, start making data recovery plans then.
I'd be very cautious about any hardware that starts making extra noises.

Clint
 
Hey all,

I have a 20GB MAxtor hard drive (used for media only). About 6 months
ago it would click, but after Windows XP initialized and loaded, the
hard drive would stop clicking and everything would be fine. Anyways,
about 1 weeks ago, I turned the comp on, and the hard drive clicked
very loudy, and XP didnt recognize it at all. It is still under
warrenty, but the thing is I have alot of important stuff on the
drive. Can it be fixed?
Click to expand...

It definetly doesnt sound good. But what worked for me a couple of
times was to go into the BIOS and do select the drive manually from
the IDE device list. If you can get it working that way even if you
cant boot from there, let me know and I should be able to tell you of
a couple of utilities that may help you get data out of the drive.

Good Luck
Miguel
 
Aly said:
Hey all,

I have a 20GB MAxtor hard drive (used for media only). About 6 months
ago it would click, but after Windows XP initialized and loaded, the
hard drive would stop clicking and everything would be fine. Anyways,
about 1 weeks ago, I turned the comp on, and the hard drive clicked
very loudy, and XP didnt recognize it at all. It is still under
warrenty, but the thing is I have alot of important stuff on the
drive. Can it be fixed?
Click to expand...

No, it can't be fixed, but there are a few things you can try. That clicking
sound is a mechanical failure, so software isn't going to be very helpful. A
recovery company could get the data, but to do so, they've have to take the
drive apart in a clean room and rebuild it, so it's not an inexpensive
process.

BUT...I've had about 50/50 success by taking the drive out, putting it in
sealed plastic bag, and putting it in the freezer for an hour or so.

When you take it out, make sure there's no condensation, or you could end up
frying things. Don't try to boot off of it, install it as a slave, and if
you can see the drive and the data, be ready to make your backups
immediately. This is probably a one-shot deal, so know what you want to save
and do it quickly. The drive may fail in the midst of this, so grab the
really important stuff first. The times I've gotten this to work, it's been
good for one time that the drive spins up, then it goes back to being very
dead again. So after you copy the important stuff, if you aren't absolutely
sure you got everything, copy it all. You probably won't have a second
chance to go back and hunt for more files later.

The first time I read about this, I thought it was a bit crazy, but I've had
a few customer's drives that were unusable that I was able to salvage data
off of this way. It not a sure thing, but it doesn't damage anything,
either, so you aren't going to void the warranty.

Next time, if a hard drive is clicking, the time to think about backing
things up is when the drive is still working, not after it has failed
completely. You were lucky to get 6 months use out of the drive. It could
have died that day or that week.
 
D.Currie said:
No, it can't be fixed, but there are a few things you can try. That
clicking sound is a mechanical failure, so software isn't going to be
very helpful. A recovery company could get the data, but to do so,
they've have to take the drive apart in a clean room and rebuild it,
so it's not an inexpensive process.

BUT...I've had about 50/50 success by taking the drive out, putting
it in sealed plastic bag, and putting it in the freezer for an hour
or so.

When you take it out, make sure there's no condensation, or you could
end up frying things. Don't try to boot off of it, install it as a
slave, and if you can see the drive and the data, be ready to make
your backups immediately. This is probably a one-shot deal, so know
what you want to save and do it quickly. The drive may fail in the
midst of this, so grab the really important stuff first. The times
I've gotten this to work, it's been good for one time that the drive
spins up, then it goes back to being very dead again. So after you
copy the important stuff, if you aren't absolutely sure you got
everything, copy it all. You probably won't have a second chance to
go back and hunt for more files later.

The first time I read about this, I thought it was a bit crazy, but
I've had a few customer's drives that were unusable that I was able
to salvage data off of this way. It not a sure thing, but it doesn't
damage anything, either, so you aren't going to void the warranty.

Next time, if a hard drive is clicking, the time to think about
backing things up is when the drive is still working, not after it
has failed completely. You were lucky to get 6 months use out of the
drive. It could have died that day or that week.
Click to expand...

I agree with this, done it myself a couple of times, left in the freezer
overnight and hooked up a slave, wrapped in a towel, IF it works you'll
probably get 10 minutes, maybe more out of it.

If this doesn't work, and as a last resort, take the drive in one hand and a
small hammer in the other and tap (quite firmly, but don't whack the thing)
around the edges, turning the drive around as you do it. This has been
known to un-stick a stuck head from the platter.

Good luck
 
Capt Ron said:
You know the drive is failing and yet you still do not backup the data????
Click to expand...

I learned the hard way about 2 weeks ago also, nothing like learning
the hard way sometimes...
 
Time is of the essence here, so if you try it, set everything up ahead of
time. Don't wait until you take it out of the freezer to go poking around
with jumpers, etc.
What I do, in cases like this, is remove the hard drive from the system I'm
using as a master and set it on the bench so the 2nd connector is handy and
not buried in a pile of wires and cables in a tight setting as found in a
typical box, and also position a power connector near it. This is all very
obvious, but sometimes the obvious is overlooked when focus is on a problem,
etc. After you have the drive on the table, or bench, make sure the system
boots. Then, when you want to try the slave, all you have to do is take it
out of the ziplock, plug the power and ide cable in, hit the go button and
you're on the air in less than 30 seconds.

Alby

ps: The reason this sometimes works, or so I'm told, is because the spindle
gets stuck and freezing it makes it smaller and unsticks it.
 
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