Hard Disk Drive Woe

[EASTER]

Lately i found i have to turn a secondary Slave drive up vertically for it to run. I assume something metal is coming loose in it. Anyone ever experience this before? It doesn't exhibit that tail-tell sign of clicking but when i hold it up tp my ear i can tell the motor is straining to spin the platter and when i try to set it level normally it won't even post on a boot up. Turn it upright and it posts and boots and also runs fine.

I already made an image of this drive because i suspect it's a sign that it won't last long but has anyone ever encounter a weird experience with a HD as this one?

I,m tempted to pull the cover to see if theres anything that might be done to tighten up whatever is working loose. In the meantime, i have to set it vertically upright to run it at all.

EASTER

[Peter2150]

You sure it isn't just a heat effect. Funny thing is it reminded me it's been years since I've had a drive failure and that drive was mounted horizontally, but today every one of my drives is mounted vertically.

Imaging was smart, cause it's going.

[JRViejo]

EASTER, you are probably aware of this program but it wouldn't hurt to run Nero DiscSpeed on that drive. Here's their User Guide. There's also HD Tune.

[jonyjoe81]

I opened my harddrive before (non-working), and there is nothing in there that you can use "normal" tools "to tightend", more than likely it's a bad bearing going bad.

But sometimes even with a bad bearing it can limp along for years before it finally dies an unfortunate death. Those kind of drives I use as a backup to my backups. If it starts to corrupt your data/or starts giving you errors, then you might have to "retire" it.

[midway40]

Some months ago someone bought a Dell mini-tower to work saying that at times it wouldn't boot. It booted a few times ok with me so I laid it on its side and opened it up. After looking around a bit I pushed the power button but the computer would not respond. I closed the case and set the tower back up and it booted right up. Scratching my head, I left it on and slowly turned the tower over. When it got to about 45 degrees all of the sudden I heard an awful squealing noise coming from the HDD and the computer shut down.

Only thing I can figure is that the bearings were so worn that when the computer was laid to the side the platters got hung up and there must be some kind of "safety switch" that shuts the computer down.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Probably the armature mechanism failing, possibly a bearing too, but I'd wager the armature (the part that sweeps back and forth across the platters).

Best bet..pull data off the drive, and toss the drive.

[EASTER]

Originally Posted by YeOldeStonecat

Probably the armature mechanism failing, possibly a bearing too, but I'd wager the armature (the part that sweeps back and forth across the platters).

Best bet..pull data off the drive, and toss the drive.

That's what i suspect too. When i turn it back vertically theres a metal dropping noise like the armature is loose. Vertically it runs fine but now it seems useless to set it normally because it just won't respond nor the BIOS to identify it either.

Peter2150 you're right that i quickly imaged it over to another drive partition because this is sure sign like you say it's about to go belly up even if it would last for months vertically.

Thanks everyone for chiming in. Never had one do this strangeness before, usually they click clock and soon fail.
I still might try the refridgerator trick just to see if that makes any difference and heat might just have had something to help cause this odd behavior too.

But bottom line is it's a few years old and been put thru some enormous run hours/days/weeks non-stop so is no surprise it's about served out it's usefullness.

EASTER

[YeOldeStonecat]

Originally Posted by EASTER

I still might try the refridgerator trick just to see if that makes any difference and heat might just have had something to help cause this odd behavior too.

I've used the "overnight in a freezer trick" successfully a few times, to pull data from a failed drive. But if you already made an image of this drive recently..shouldh't have a need unless there's data on the drive that you didn't get on the image.

The freezer trick is not a "fix"..it's a very short term attempt to get the drive up and running hopefully long enough to quickly copy the data from it. It'll heat up and fail again in short time (like an hour..usually less).

[EASTER]

Originally Posted by YeOldeStonecat

I've used the "overnight in a freezer trick" successfully a few times, to pull data from a failed drive. But if you already made an image of this drive recently..shouldh't have a need unless there's data on the drive that you didn't get on the image.

The freezer trick is not a "fix"..it's a very short term attempt to get the drive up and running hopefully long enough to quickly copy the data from it. It'll heat up and fail again in short time (like an hour..usually less).

Many thanks YeOldeStonecat

I realize that the cold wave is only a temporary fix and yes i already imaged it when i first discovered something wasn't normal with it.

EASTER

[midway40]

Easter, right after you started this post I discovered Crystal Disk Info. It gives you a general idea on your HDD's health. The pic below is from my laptop:

[EASTER]

Thanks bunches, your a true blue pal.

I will look into it and see what details it shows on this weird drive that only works vertically now.

EASTER

PS: I used it all day upright without a problem but i don't dare disturb it's new position it seems it's taken a liking to now.

EASTER

[midway40]

I'd be interested in your results. I plan to use this at work myself on suspected bad HDDs and will probably run it on all computers that come in for repair just to see if there are any future failures coming up.

You still using that drive? You must like to live dangerously

[EASTER]

Originally Posted by midway40

I'd be interested in your results. I plan to use this at work myself on suspected bad HDDs and will probably run it on all computers that come in for repair just to see if there are any future failures coming up.

You still using that drive? You must like to live dangerously

Why Not? As long as it works normally upright it's no biggie because i got that puppy imaged already. I'm curious though how long it might hold up. My guess is months because it sounds perfectly normal and isn't HOT in that position. LoL

I really think i can get some real use of that app you linked to. I already tested it on another drive. Lottsa good info there and it's rapid.

EASTER

[JRViejo]

midway40, great app find; thanks for the link!

[midway40]

You're welcome JRViejo There are also some free benchmarking tools on that site as well.

My sysadmin bought me his personal computer from home this morning with random BSODs (home built computer, XP Pro, ASUS mobo with dual Athlon processors). I tried CDI on it and it said the HDD was good. But what got me was that it was running a cool 18 Celsius, lol.