What are Hard Disc Driver Readers???

[SANGERA2]

I sold someone a 40gb second hand laptop hard disc drive on ebay. It
made a slight rattling noise when you shook it - but someone told me
this was normal. Anyway, I did a complete scandisk on it (including
sectors) then erased it completely with eraser and put a fresh install
of Windows on it. I got a message later from the guy saying:-

"hi there, i recieved the hard drive today and took it into pc word
for them to fit it into my laptop, unfotunately it did not work, they
said the readers on the hard drive were not working, and when powered
up it went to a blue screen then restarted, can you shed any light on
this matter?"

I assume PC Word means PC World - a computer shop in the UK that offer
PC repairs etc from (mostly) inexperienced staff in store.

I replied saying I had never heard of readers on the hard drive and
that he should get a friend with PC knowledge to install the HDD and
put a fresh install of Windows on it. Any other suggestions here? I
don't think it's a hardware issue as the drive was very well packaged
before postage and run Windows for hours on end with no issues before
it was posted.

Thanks


Andy

 

[SANGERA2]

Sorry, the title of this post should be " What are Hard Disc Drive
Readers???" NOT DRIVER!!!

 

[SANGERA2]

Sorry, the title of this post should be " What are Hard Disc Drive
Readers???" NOT DRIVER!!!

 

[Rod Speed]

I sold someone a 40gb second hand laptop hard disc
drive on ebay. It made a slight rattling noise when
you shook it - but someone told me this was normal.

That isnt right.

Anyway, I did a complete scandisk on it (including sectors)
then erased it completely with eraser and put a fresh install
of Windows on it. I got a message later from the guy saying:-

"hi there, i recieved the hard drive today and took it into pc word
for them to fit it into my laptop, unfotunately it did not work,

Thats about all the useful info in the message.

they said the readers on the hard drive were not working,

Thats is meaningless gobbledegook.

Maybe they meant that the hard drive cant be read.

and when powered up it went to a blue screen then
restarted, can you shed any light on this matter?"

I assume PC Word means PC World - a computer shop in the UK
that offer PC repairs etc from (mostly) inexperienced staff in store.

I replied saying I had never heard of readers on the hard drive and
that he should get a friend with PC knowledge to install the HDD and
put a fresh install of Windows on it. Any other suggestions here?

Run the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic from a floppy
or CD and see what it has to say about the hard drive.

If its a toshiba hard drive, use Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test.

I don't think it's a hardware issue as the drive was
very well packaged before postage and run Windows
for hours on end with no issues before it was posted.

However, whatever was loose inside the drive may well have caused a
problem and may well have got jammed under the heads now or something.

 

[Arno Wagner]

I sold someone a 40gb second hand laptop hard disc drive on ebay. It
made a slight rattling noise when you shook it - but someone told me
this was normal.

It could be. Hitachi laptop HDDs even have a statement to that effect
on their label.

Anyway, I did a complete scandisk on it (including
sectors) then erased it completely with eraser and put a fresh install
of Windows on it.

Hmmm. Sounds illegal to me.

I got a message later from the guy saying:-

"hi there, i recieved the hard drive today and took it into pc word
for them to fit it into my laptop, unfotunately it did not work, they
said the readers on the hard drive were not working, and when powered
up it went to a blue screen then restarted, can you shed any light on
this matter?"

They? Readers? Sounds like complete nonsense to me.

I assume PC Word means PC World - a computer shop in the UK that offer
PC repairs etc from (mostly) inexperienced staff in store.

And that seems to be the problem.

I replied saying I had never heard of readers on the hard drive and

Neither have I.

that he should get a friend with PC knowledge to install the HDD and
put a fresh install of Windows on it. Any other suggestions here? I
don't think it's a hardware issue as the drive was very well packaged
before postage and run Windows for hours on end with no issues before
it was posted.

You should have left the disk empty. This very likely is a software
issue.

Arno

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

That isnt right.

Yes it is, stupid.
It's even printed on the top of some IBMs: "Rattle noise is normal".

[snip]

 

[SANGERA2]

I have advised him to run the Hitachi Drive Fitness test as it's a
40Gb Travelstar 5K100

I erased the disc by the way to completely clear it out and also to
wipe any of my old files that are on there (invoices, work files etc).

The fresh install of windows was just an extra, to be honest I
expected him to be able to slot it in with no problems but it didn't
like the changeover from a Dell laptop to a different one so I'll put
the down to experience as I made no guarantees it would work!

Thanks for everyone's comments.


Andy

 

[Mike S.]

I'd interpret "readers" as a non-techie's interpretion of "heads". They
must have told him the drive doesn't work because the heads are borked.

 

[Arno Wagner]

I'd interpret "readers" as a non-techie's interpretion of "heads". They
must have told him the drive doesn't work because the heads are borked.

Seems likely. Possibly because of the noise sounding like something
loose in the drive. Which is completely normal.

Arno

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Seems likely.

Because you would have said it that way too, babblebot?

Possibly because of the noise sounding like something loose in the drive.

Which is completely normal.

Babblebot, clueless as always:
It's obviously not a normal conclusion when it says explicitely on the label that
"Rattle noise is normal".

Obviously it is working when you get a bluescreen.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

I'd interpret "readers" as a non-techie's interpretion of "heads". They
must have told him the drive doesn't work because the heads are borked.

Pity about the bluescreen.