Weird hard drive problem

Oriel

Disk1: 80Gb, WinXP Pro, just one big partition.
Disk2: 40Gb, Just data.

Ok, I was playing MP3s on the main drive, when the music started getting jerky, when I investigated, I found that windows wasn't reacting at all. MP3s stopped completely, hard-restarted the machine.

The next time I restarted the machine, the boot process got as far as the Windows logo, that disappeared, then the computer just hung there.
By this stage, the 40Gb drive had started making a sound like a floppy disk drive reading from a disk. I don't think it's the "click of death".

I started in safe mode etc and all the usual procedures, no luck.

When I unplugged 40Gb the drive (just data remember, no OS), everything's fine and windows boots normally.

So basically, somewhere during the boot process, I presume that windows tries to read something from the 40Gb drive, and this is where the problem begins. The noise only starts after a certain amount of time though.

I didn't change any jumper settings or bios settings during any of this.

Any suggestions as to what the hell could be causing this?

Cheers,
Steve.

ZENER

I suspect you already know the problem in your mind but the 40GB sounds like its about to depart for greener pastures.

What brand is it BTW ?

The noise you describe reminds me of IBM Deskstar drives !!

Tinky

Cake Fiend

Clicking noises coming from a hard drive are often a death rattle. Check the manufacturers website for diagnostic tools, if you can't find any download the PowerMax utility from the maxtor website, it'll work on most hard drives and also includes a low-level format tool (as a last-ditch effort) which has saved drives for me in the past.

Oriel

Erm, it is an IBM Deskstar... aww bollocks...

Thing is, it's more the data that I have on the drive, rather than the drive itself that I want to keep. I've got about 50 divxs on there for a start, then a few back-ups of stuff.

Do you think wiping the MBR would help? I've got a ulility that will scan the drive to get the data back after a wipe, so that wouldn't be a problem.

I've had a problem with this drive before, but I admit, I
did set it on top of a sub woofer. =/

I think my last ditch effort will be something that has worked for a friend of mine - putting it in the freezer for a few hours! If it works, I should be able to get about 20 gigs off it anyway.

Cheers,
Steve.

Cake Fiend

I saved an older DeskStar with a LLF a while back, give it a go if nothing else works.

If you're using the freezer method to try to salvage what data you can, make sure you put the drive in a static bag first so it doesn't get wet.

And keep it away from subwoofers!

ZENER

Almost sure that the drive knackered. I have a lot of these drives (30+) do the same thing. The head slaps down on the outer edge of the disks and cuts a groove in it. I f you get it in time replacing the board on the drive can help but if the physical damage to the disks is too bad - forget it !

I fail to see how putting it in a fridge could help wouldn't you end up with condensation on the platters ???

Tinky

GRAHAM2002

Just think u should do the backup thing before the rattle turns to silence.