Is my drive trying to tell me something?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joe Samangitak
  • Start date Start date
J

Joe Samangitak

I just got a (used) IBM Deskstar 120GXP (40GB). I noticed that on a
regular but random and very brief basis, it makes a sound I've never
heard from a drive before - kind of a tearful whining sound, like as
though the drive is crying. It is otherwise dead silent, so its all
the more alarming when you hear it. Has anyone experienced this
before, and did I just throw $50 bucks out the window?
 
Joe Samangitak said:
I just got a (used) IBM Deskstar 120GXP (40GB).
I noticed that on a regular but random and very brief
basis, it makes a sound I've never heard from a drive
before - kind of a tearful whining sound, like as though
the drive is crying. It is otherwise dead silent, so its all
the more alarming when you hear it. Has anyone experienced
this before, and did I just throw $50 bucks out the window?
Click to expand...

I've seen two versions of the story with that drive. One is that
its quite normal and that its just the drive exercising the heads
either to ensure that the heads dont stay over the same tracks
for too long, or its doing its own SMART testing, noisily.

IBM has told at least one person that the drive
is dying and to RMA it. I think its likely that that is
just another pig ignorant 'support' monkey myself.

The obvious test of the two possibilitys is to get a set
of 120GXPs and see if they all do it or not. But I avoid
their drives for other reasons and havent bothered.

You could try DiskCheckup from
http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm
and see what it says about the SMART values.
 
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