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Hard disk Failure Testing

G

gc511

Member
I might have a hard disk that is failing on my computer. Unfortunately, I'm not sure why. The problem is taht it sometimes just does not turn on or it clicks during use, causing the computer to sometimes freeze. The hard disk failing is not exactly repeatable, so I can never say for sure if it will fail (it doesn't fail everyday, but sometimes it will fail a few times a day).

It seems like it is either a power issue, which I doubt since I have a 450W PSU, or the hard drive is dying. I tried using a SMART monitor, and it shows the hard drive is in really good shape. However, I just have a hard time believe that it would be my PSU since it is fairly new and all the other components work just fine.

Any ideas? Thanks.
 
STOP USING THE DRIVE IF POSSIBLE. GET A NEW ONE TO COPY YOUR DATA OFF IT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!!

I bet that drive is going to fail on you very soon.

You can run Spin Rite from grc.com, and see if that can help you. That program just fixes bad sectors though, your case sounds like mechanical failure. You can't do anything to fix mechanical failure, and it is impossible to recover your data. (unless you want to shell out a few $1,000 to a data recovery place)
 
Are you sure all the SMART values are ok? Does your drive cause your PC to completely crash or is the freeze just momentary?
 
Might be a loose or bad molex connection. Try another connector if you have a spare one. Or, after you back up the data, try jiggling the power connector and see if it spins off and on. I had a similar prob and it turned out to be a bad Y connector so I bought a PSU with enough connectors so that all my devices had its own molex or sata power connection. Unfortunately the HD had already gotten a few bad sectors from turning on and off so much. I still use it and it works fine, just had the bad sectors blocked.
 
Originally posted by: orangat
Are you sure all the SMART values are ok? Does your drive cause your PC to completely crash or is the freeze just momentary?
Click to expand...

the SMART values are all well above threshol, so I think it's oK.

The computer comes to a complete crash.
 
backup everything. clicking is a bad omen for hard drives, I have yet to have one that clicked not go bad.
It could be off and on because of a loose component inside the drive that is sometimes ok, sometimes not.

Backup as often as possible and find yourself a new drive for when yours goes completely.
 
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