Did I toast my hard drive?

[StageLeft]

I have an old 20 gig 7200 fireball, which has been working perfectly up until last night. I wanted it as my primary drive (my other two are even worse hah!). I did the standard fdisk stuff, which I've done a million times, and also the partition/format built into windows 2000/xp/2003 server (tried all three, though for other reasons).

The drive is verified for integrity no problem. It partitions in fat or ntfs with no problem. The problem is that why I try and format it gets hung at 0%, makes a god-awful clicking sound after about 2 minutes, and then a minute later gives a message that the drive won't format.

I didn't shake it and I doubt I had any grounding issues, but who knows. What else can I try besides a newer hard drive? Thanks!

 

[imported_Phil]

Two things to try:

1. Freezer trick. This won't make the drive magically work again as it sounds like it's about to totally die, but if you need to get any data off it, it might help.

2. Rubber mallett (no, seriously). A good thwack on the top of the drive can be enough to free up the mechanism enough to get it spinning/working temporarily.

However, these are both solutions to "I need my pr0n back!" problems. It's time to junk that drive and fork out for a new one, I'm afraid

 

[StageLeft]

Thanks What would have caused this though? It is an old hard drive, but it has been working fine. Interestingly, and sadly, I currently have my OS running on a 6(?) year old fujitsu 6.4 gigger, which has always worked. It's high time I bought another HD. My secondary is another 20 gig 5400 with my real data on it, so I didn't lose anything on the 7200.

 

[imported_Phil]

Well this is something that I have to explain on a daily basis to customers at work (although right now I'm on my fourth day off with a stinking head cold and a chest infection- woo and urgh simultaneously).

In Scott Muellers' Upgrading & Repairing PCs (excellent reference book), he explains that the outside edge of the disk, when spinning at 7,200 rpm, is moving at something in the region of 160mph.
Draw your own conclusions

However, it might be time to look at a new 74Gb Raptor or a nice Western Digital JB 200Gb?

 

[0roo0roo]

download the manufacturers diagnostic programs. see what errors pop up. if you have a smart capable drive and bios, then you can check it in windows using certain programs like speedfan ...or the manufacturers diagnostic programs.

either way, dosen't sound goo.d.. ur drive is hosed...

 

[StageLeft]

Thanks guys! This looks like a good buy, but I don't know if I'll even bother yet. I may wait until DVD burners are $40 and get one of them instead