Postal Hard Drive Damage - Likely!

danjo-xx

I received a brand new 3.5" hard drive by post this morning it was in a hard plastic kinda bubble wrapper which was then put into the usual bubble wrap bag but this only covered 75% of it and then it was in a Jiffey bag.

Despite being labeled with two stickers 'FRAGILE' postie bunged it through the letter box and it fell (of course) away from the mat and onto the vinyl tiled floor.

I can't test it until I get the caddy next week, but what are the chances it's not D.O.A.:(

yoyo

danjo-xx wrote: »

I received a brand new 3.5" hard drive by post this morning it was in a hard plastic kinda bubble wrapper which was then put into the usual bubble wrap bag but this only covered 75% of it and then it was in a Jiffey bag.

Despite being labeled with two stickers 'FRAGILE' postie bunged it through the letter box and it fell (of course) away from the mat and onto the vinyl tiled floor.

I can't test it until I get the caddy next week, but what are the chances it's not D.O.A.:(

Hard drives should not be knocked around ,even the drop from a letterbox to a vinyl floor would probably affect it, I've seen companies use these air packaging which expands over a hard drive which is pritty good, but still not probably going to help if the device is thrown about.
Even if it works I would definitely run a diagnostics on it once you get around to trying it, no point in trusting a possible dodgy drive

Nick

danjo-xx

I saw a post somewhere that if the arm thingy is in the original position as it would would be with a new hd, then it can withstand shocks much better than a used hd.

every little helps....clinging to straws:D

yoyo

danjo-xx wrote: »

I saw a post somewhere that if the arm thingy is in the original position as it would would be with a new hd, then it can withstand shocks much better than a used hd.

every little helps....clinging to straws:D

It will be "better" protected but still fragile, ie a active drive getting a knock will likely be affected much more than one turned off (due to the drive head working over the disk at the time), still though hard disks are complex devices and knocks can serious affect them, even the slightest. Worth checking out anyway, its the suppliers problem if the device wasn't packaged and shipped using correct ways for such a device

Nick

danjo-xx

yoyo wrote: »

It will be "better" protected but still fragile, ie a active drive getting a knock will likely be affected much more than one turned off (due to the drive head working over the disk at the time), still though hard disks are complex devices and knocks can serious affect them, even the slightest. Worth checking out anyway, its the suppliers problem if the device wasn't packaged and shipped using correct ways for such a device

Nick

Without getting into consumers issues too much nick, do you think AnPost have any responsibility in this by shoving a packet clearly marked
*FRAGILE* through the letter box instead of trying to hand it in first.

yoyo

danjo-xx wrote: »

Without getting into consumers issues too much nick, do you think AnPost have any responsibility in this by shoving a packet clearly marked
*FRAGILE* through the letter box instead of trying to hand it in first.

Its up to the person shipping it to argue that, not yourself, but yes I would imagine "Fragile" means that an post workers should not put such a packet through the letter box. If a hd diagnostic passes you should be ok though, do try it

Nick

danjo-xx

I have assembled this and pc says 'found new hardware' and I could hear the disk spinning or vibrating, all normal sounds.

However it's not showing up in 'my computer' as a new drive.

Connecting the HDD to the Caddy:
It said , First check your HDD and configure your hard drive jumper settings to Master Mode.

I haven't a clue what that means and I could see nothing to adjust so I just went ahead.:(

yoyo

danjo-xx wrote: »

I have assembled this and pc says 'found new hardware' and I could hear the disk spinning or vibrating, all normal sounds.

However it's not showing up in 'my computer' as a new drive.

Connecting the HDD to the Caddy:
It said , First check your HDD and configure your hard drive jumper settings to Master Mode.

I haven't a clue what that means and I could see nothing to adjust so I just went ahead.:(

SATA drives don't generally need a jumper (look at imfo booklet that came with drive jic one is needed to run the drive externally), you must then go into Disk Management and Initialize and Format the new disk

Nick

danjo-xx

yoyo wrote: »

SATA drives don't generally need a jumper (look at imfo booklet that came with drive jic one is needed to run the drive externally), you must then go into Disk Management and Initialize and Format the new disk

Nick

It seems to be there in Disk Management, but says 149GB and its supposed to be 160. According to instructions it has to be partitioned first.

But when I select Action, new partition is shaded out. Is there another route Nick.

danjo-xx

I found me way through the maze:D

Now what software do I need to run to do a diagnostic test on this.

Do a low-level format in Seatools Dos or the equivalent software for whatever drive you have. It'll write and then read data to every sector on the disk and if there's any bad ones they will get reallocated. Shouldn't take too long with a 160GB disk.

Then boot back into windows and check the smart data with any HDD diagnostic tool. If you've a rake of reallocated sectors then the drive is a goner imo, in my experience once you get more than a few it just snowballs.

GreenWolfe

danjo-xx wrote: »

It seems to be there in Disk Management, but says 149GB and its supposed to be 160. According to instructions it has to be partitioned first.

But when I select Action, new partition is shaded out. Is there another route Nick.

That sounds about right. 160 GB is the marketing capacity, real (formatted) capacity is about right at 149 GB. For example, on my 1 TB external HDD, there's about 930 GB formatted capacity. Article at wikipedia.

danjo-xx

@ I'll kill you scum, too late formatting was under way. Has finally completed and drive marked 'healthy'

Was looking at the seagate site for diagnostics tool but it sends me around in circles when I hit the download button and a warning not to d/L unless you trust this site, the usual stuff.

Can anyone give me a safe link to some tool I can run to test this drive, thanks. o.s. winxp 32bit.

riclad

http://hddscan.com/
theres a smart extended test takes 30mins to 2hours .
see
S.M.A.R.T. tests

The program allows running three kinds of tests:
Short test – lasts about 1-2 minutes. The test inspects drive’s main schemas, scans small part of drive’s surface and checks sectors from the Pending-list (such sectors may have read errors). This test recommended for quick drive testing.
Extended test – lasts 0.5-2 hours. The test inspects drive’s main schemas and scans the whole drive’s surface.
Conveyance test – usually lasts several minutes. The test inspects drive’s main schemas and logs which may indicate inaccurate transportation or storing.

Copy say ten gig data ,before you begin the test, ,like to partitition a drive into 2 partition,use partition 2 for backups.
CHANCES are drive is ok, drive goes to parking mode when powered off.

danjo-xx

thanks riclad I'll run that tomorrow as going out shortly.

danjo-xx

danjo-xx wrote: »

@ I'll kill you scum, too late formatting was under way. Has finally completed and drive marked 'healthy'

It's not too late unless you have started putting data on the drive.

A drive-check or slow format in Windows is read only, and even the diagnostics from HDD suppliers are mostly read-only with very limited writes. This is to avoid overwriting your data obviously.

The problem is that read-only formats and disk-checks only tell half the story. A lot of the SMART errors are related to writes..for example a bad sector isn't remapped upon a read error, it is only remapped when you go to write to that sector.

A proper low-level format in something like Seatools Dos will read and write to every sector on the drive. So it's a more thorough check of the health of the drive before you start putting data on it. Obviously you should physically pull the cables of every other drive before you boot into Seatools Dos. Don't want to format the wrong drive by mistake :pac:

danjo-xx

Hells bells I've just noticed that the file system is RAW. Is there a simple way of retrieving the files so as to format the partition to NTFS


I found this but is there an easier way or should I run with this.

http://www.easeus.com/resource/convert-raw-ntfs.htm

yoyo

danjo-xx wrote: »

Hells bells I've just noticed that the file system is RAW. Is there a simple way of retrieving the files so as to format the partition to NTFS


I found this but is there an easier way or should I run with this.

http://www.easeus.com/resource/convert-raw-ntfs.htm

How many files are on the disk? You could try copying them over onto another drive using something like testdisk/photorec etc if the drive is badly corrupt. Is the issue due to the drive being doa? Did it pass SMART/Diagnostics?

Nick

danjo-xx

yoyo wrote: »

How many files are on the disk? You could try copying them over onto another drive using something like testdisk/photorec etc if the drive is badly corrupt. Is the issue due to the drive being doa? Did it pass SMART/Diagnostics?

Nick

I haven't run any diagnostic test as yet. When I click on the drive there are no files at all.

When I right click the drive>properties, File System> RAW



I may not have formatted it right in the first place or clicked wrong option in the wizard.

I have no files of my own on this drive. I was able to save a word doc on it last night as a simple test.

yoyo

danjo-xx wrote: »

I haven't run any diagnostic test as yet. When I click on the drive there are no files at all.

When I right click the drive>properties, File System> RAW



I may not have formatted it right in the first place or clicked wrong option in the wizard.

I have no files of my own on this drive. I was able to save a word doc on it last night as a simple test.

You probably did format to NTFS and some issue caused it to become corrupt, if there is no files on it don't worry about it, run the manufacturers diagnostics on the drive and see if it picks up any problem, if not just format it the usual way (In My computer right click on the drive>Format and pick NTFS Quick Format)

Nick

danjo-xx

yoyo wrote: »

You probably did format to NTFS and some issue caused it to become corrupt, if there is no files on it don't worry about it, run the manufacturers diagnostics on the drive and see if it picks up any problem, if not just format it the usual way (In My computer right click on the drive>Format and pick NTFS Quick Format)

Nick

Went to do your last option there and Format, but when I clicked Format nowt happened, no response, same when I went to file>format, no response.

I don't know why but I then 'safely removed drive S' and plugged it back in and now I get this. 'relief'



Strange, RAW one minute and ok later.

I don't want to get too deep into testing the drive as I might fry it by accident.

I only want this HDD to record tv programmes from a set top box.

I might run http://hddscan.com/ as suggested by riclad, tomorrow if it seems simple enough to do and take my chances after that.

yoyo

danjo-xx wrote: »

Went to do your last option there and Format, but when I clicked Format nowt happened, no response, same when I went to file>format, no response.

I don't know why but I then 'safely removed drive S' and plugged it back in and now I get this. 'relief'



Strange, RAW one minute and ok later.

I don't want to get too deep into testing the drive as I might fry it by accident.

I only want this HDD to record tv programmes from a set top box.

I might run http://hddscan.com/ as suggested by riclad, tomorrow if it seems simple enough to do and take my chances after that.

I would deffo run a scan on the drive, see if its damaged. Are you running it in an enclosure? I've found them to be problematic in the past

Nick

danjo-xx

danjo-xx wrote: »

I don't want to get too deep into testing the drive as I might fry it by accident.

You can't fry a drive by accident unless you start messing around at a low level with firmwares etc.

And if it did die from a simple read/write test it means the drive is damaged which is what you set out to find out originally anyway.

danjo-xx

yoyo wrote: »

I would deffo run a scan on the drive, see if its damaged. Are you running it in an enclosure? I've found them to be problematic in the past

Nick

yeah running from an enclosure, this one, http://www.ebay.ie/itm/280522816112?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2648

Are you saying that all enclosures are well kinda dodgy/unreliable?


Would the scan suggested by niclad http://hddscan.com/ do had a quick look and it seems simple enough to run.

danjo-xx

Deleted User wrote: »

You can't fry a drive by accident unless you start messing around at a low level with firmwares etc.

And if it did die from a simple read/write test it means the drive is damaged which is what you set out to find out originally anyway.

you haven't met me:D

I hear what your saying tnks

yoyo

danjo-xx wrote: »

yeah running from an enclosure, this one, http://www.ebay.ie/itm/280522816112?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2648

Are you saying that all enclosures are well kinda dodgy/unreliable?


Would the scan suggested by niclad http://hddscan.com/ do had a quick look and it seems simple enough to run.

Enclosures can be dodgy alrite, could explain the failing to recognise the drive that happened you earlier, run low level diagnostics to be sure!

Nick

riclad

IF USING a caddy ,make sure drive is tight in to the connector ,inside the caddy,
DO not move anything,pc or caddy while doing a quick ntfs format.Format takes 12 mins approx.

yoyo

riclad wrote: »

IF USING a caddy ,make sure drive is tight in to the connector ,inside the caddy,
DO not move anything,pc or caddy while doing a quick ntfs format.Format takes 12 mins approx.

A quick format should take seconds, not minutes, a full format & check sectors could take 20-60 minutes+ depending on drive capacity

Nick

danjo-xx

riclad: IF USING a caddy ,make sure drive is tight in to the connector ,inside the caddy,

I checked this and made sure it is fully home.


I tried to do a quick format and after a couple of minutes,
'cannot complete format'

Tried a 2nd time and same message and also 'drive cannot be formatted'

File system showing RAW again.

Unplug and switched off the hd and after a minute pluged it back in and tried once more to format it and then it said. 'Format Complete'

Think I'll leave it alone and just see how it goes if not I'll just chalk it down to inexperience:D

Would doing a defragment of it with ausiogics would that be of any benefit or wise.

yoyo

danjo-xx wrote: »

I checked this and made sure it is fully home.


I tried to do a quick format and after a couple of minutes,
'cannot complete format'

Tried a 2nd time and same message and also 'drive cannot be formatted'

File system showing RAW again.

Unplug and switched off the hd and after a minute pluged it back in and tried once more to format it and then it said. 'Format Complete'

Think I'll leave it alone and just see how it goes if not I'll just chalk it down to inexperience:D

Would doing a defragment of it with ausiogics would that be of any benefit or wise.

I'd say the caddy is the issue, try mounting the drive internally and see if the issue persists (if possible), why I never trust those caddys for hard drives...

Nick

riclad

reboot pc, maybe try another caddy, defragging is of no use, if drive formatted,
right click drive, it should say 250gb free etc
or try caddy in another pc, laptop or in netcafe.
its possible to damage a drive ,by moving it when its in format mode ,or reading,writing a data file.eg playing music.

danjo-xx

riclad wrote: »

reboot pc, maybe try another caddy, defragging is of no use, if drive formatted,
right click drive, it should say 250gb free etc
or try caddy in another pc, laptop or in netcafe.
its possible to damage a drive ,by moving it when its in format mode ,or reading,writing a data file.eg playing music.

It showing up a normal now, 149GB free space and I've put a few image files on it as a simple test that its working ok and its fine.

I'll run with it as it is now (only cost €25/160GB) I'll be using it to record tv programmes next week and thats all I want it for and see how she goes.

tnks for your help:)