Hard Disks Keep on Dying

Mutz

Hi guys,

Recieved a Hard disk from Komplett.ie last week and have only got about to installing it now. Its a Maxtor 160gb Diamond Plus 9.

I went about installing windows XP on it with all jumpers set correctly (MASTER). After a few minutes of installing I hear that dreaded clicking sound. There was no response at all from the pc so I hit the restart button.

I tried again and after a few attempts got windows XP installed but the HDD keeps on failing and sometimes the Bios cannot detect it at all. The hard disk starts clicking after about 5 minutes after power on. The IDE light also remains on when the clicking occurs.

My Question is - is there anything that causes HDD's to die apart from being faulty. Can it be caused by any conflicts between drives, such as optical/floppy? I only have one hdd installed. I also have a cd burner, dvd drive and a floppy but all are connected via seperate IDE cables to the Motherboard.

I want to explore all my options before I go about the long process of returning it to Komplett. This is my 3rd hdd in as many years (and all die from the clicking!)so what am I doing wrong?

Thanks for any help

snappieT

Sounds like you were just unlucky.

I keep a fan on my hard disks constantaly. Cool hard disks are very important.
Also, I'd shy away from Maxtor. I stick close to Western Digital and Seagate

Peteee

Aye, musta got a massive bump in transit (I mean massive, they're wrapped in massive bubble wrap), or you were unlucky.

Send it back, i would also stick with Western Digital, from what i've heard anyway.

Ciaran500

What make were your other two hard drives? When I was using IBM drives at least 1 drive died every year.

Mutz

My last one was a Western Digital Caviar which lasted about 1.5 years. THe one before that was a seagate baracuda - 1 year. The one before that was an IBM Deskstar 1 year. All went clicky clicky.

I'm trying out all the brands to find out which are the best but tbh - can't see much difference since they all end up broken.

Would still like some views on anything regarding the set up of my Pc that could possibly be causing this.

daveg

I've sent back 2 seagate 160GB drives over the past 2 months to Komplett. Both Faulty.

Canis Lupus

Strange the way some ppl have massive HDD probs others have none..... I have 4 western Digital drives and all are fine. One of them is easily 4 years old at this stage.

Col_Loki

Yea it sounds like a faulty hard drive alright. Just on the off chance what is your PSU like?

I used to buy WD hard drives, 3 were perfect and one failed. There pretty damm noisey so i dont buy them anymore. I found segates reasonably ok aswell , im using samsungs at the min and ive had no trouble at all and there whisper quiet (huge difference between WD/Maxtor and one of these noise wise).

skywalker

indeed. maxtor are never a brand of hd maker ive trusted. ive always gone with western digital or seagate. and have never had a hdd crash as yet (knock on wood)

Col_Loki what is the noise like on the samsungs compared to the seagates?

Col_Loki

Comparing an 80gb Seagate to a Samsung 160gb ..... the samsung is quieter.
I found the 80 & 120gb WD's to sound like theres an extra case fan running a little high added with a annoying high pitched tone.... but unless you have a very quiet system its hard to notice.
Havent had any of the new maxtors, the 250gb 16mb cache looks very nice..

The samsungs also run a good bit cooler than the seagates which helps reliability, and there even a little better on price!! Performance wise there ok, nothing to write home about.

causal

Mutz wrote:

Hi guys,
My Question is - is there anything that causes HDD's to die apart from being faulty.
Thanks for any help

In short: yes.

In long:
I've come across a few machines which consistently 'chewed' whatever HDD was installed in them. Whether it be a Seagate, Samsung, Maxtor, or Western Digital the drive hungry machine would eventually chew that sucker. :eek:

Click click click - HDC Controller error reports, scandisk running exhaustively everytime you boot up, damaged/crosslinked files, damaged or corrupted FAT etc. etc.. - click click click. :mad:

There is always the chance of receiving a faulty drive, but there are particular machines that chew one drive after another. I see from other replys that this is a relatively common experience.

Is there a common cause? What is it?
Honestly I can't say. But I'm guessing it's 'something on the motherbaord' (yeah that helps!).

hth,
causal

Gilgamesh

I have had two of my SG Barracudas for 4 years now and they are still running like a cheetah on fire.
Important things are.
make sure the HDD is mounted straight in the case.
Make sure you have good cooling around it, hotspot can really kill them
When you screw the HDD to the case, use washers, this dampens the vibrations of the drive.
keep them dry, (silly tip, I know but have seen some drives die because of dampness.)
keep away from strong magnetic fields.
think that's just about it, what I would recommend.
have a new SATA Barracuda 7200.7 Drive, and love it, works like a breeze.
have always stuck to Seagate, never had a problem since their 1GB Drives.

Dr Bolouswki

Try and mount a fan blowing air over the drive - also make sure you have an exhasut fan positioned in the case somewhere

Plus - I always replace my gear with the manufacturer rather than the seller... it all seems to happen alot quicker...

C Fodder

Mutz what components in yoursystem are the same i.e. PSU, Mainboard etc. ? could one of these be killing your HDD also is the mains supply in your place stable and steady. I have seen all of these kill HDD's.
Do you have or can you borrow a UPS with audible alarm because if your mains supply is dipping it will trigger the audible alarm if enabled.

Aside : a large percentage of HDD's returned as faulty are perfectly ok (not clickys though, sorry Mutz).

Mutz

C Fodder - the motherboard is this

and the PSU is: This

You could be right with the PSU thing cause a few of the connectors are dodgy enough - some work - some don't, but surely this wouldn't break a HDD? Would it?