HELP! Critical HD Problem

[DaedalusIVI]

Alright, here is the situation.

I'm at my computer listening to music last night and right as I'm about to leave it for the evening it starts to make a loud noise from inside the computer, during which the computer and mouse seem to temporarily freeze (the noise and mouse movements seem to be interlinked). Well, I rebooted and noticed no immediate problem so I left a large download on overnight and went to bed. The next morning I attempt to use my computer but continue to experience the same issue. However, it then freezes on me. When I reboot, my BIOS loads up like normal; however, it does not list my primary hard drive as being present and instead simply tells me to press any button to reboot. I wasn't sure of what had happened, but figured perhaps a cable had somehow gotten pushed out or something so I remove the hard drive and configure it in every possible configuration I can think of. I dissconnected all of the IDE devices I didn't need (1 HD, 2 floppies, DVD, CDR). Anywyas, the noise is indeed coming from my primary hard drive and it comes when the BIOS is searching for the primary drive. The sound is like a "click, click, click" noise as if the disks inside the drive are rubbling or hitting something as they rotate (though the noises are long individual sounds: click....click.......click, you get the idea).

Sorry about rambeling on, but I just need to know if anyone has had a problem similar to this and if so what is the cause and how can I fix it. It should be noted that my home network was recently infected with the W32.Klez.H@mm worm, though norton quarantined it (could this be a virus attacking the drive?). The drive is a 31 GB Maxtor drive that still has a few months left on the warranty. However, the main issue is that I have many important, non-backed up documents on this hard drive (including many papers I'm currently working on for school). From my testing it seems to me that the problem is hardware related, meaning my Maxtor just went AWOL or something. Is there any possible reason for this. There were a lot of drives in close space in teh computer, but it worked fine for 2+ years and had a large amount of fan cooling, with the HD's having the rear fans right next to them.

Thanks in advance for any help and insight anyone can give me. This is a huge problem as I use my computer for so many things and right now its inoperable as without my primary drive I can't do anything. And I just got my ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon to work well with Creative Live! Platinum again. Geez.

I'm guessing I'm going to need to send in my HD and get a replacement, but this would mean losing my data (I can't afford to spend a few hundred on data recoverey stuff). I need to buy a new HD anyways (video captures eat space) but does anyone know anything to possibly save me from losing everything? Thanks so much in advance. This whole situation makes me very sad and mad 🙁

 

[mechBgon]

That's a bummer 🙁 At this point, it does sound like a drive failure. The Klez variants I've read up on don't destroy hardware, they just spread themselves and email random stuff off your hard drive to the world at large (what fun).

I suggest going to Maxtor's site and downloading PowerMax (link. Run the downloaded file and it will make a bootable floppy with the diagnostic utility on it. Reboot with this floppy in the floppy drive, and if your system isn't set up to boot from floppy then you'll need to go into the BIOS and specify that, too.

My guess is that your drive has kicked the bucket, and short of sending it to a data-recovery center, you won't be getting your data back 🙁 In future, it would be good practice to back up any critical files to your other drive(s) or better yet, burn it onto a CD for portability to other working computers. Very sorry to hear about the whole situation... welcome to the Forums, though.

 

[Kipper]

I second that. Your drive is almost 100% KIA, I am reasonably sure due to hardware failure. Speaking from similar experience, I had a 40 gig IBM Deskstar 60GXP I used as my primary drive for about six months until it started to squeal softly, until that sound went away. I figured there was nothing wrong until over the next week I tore my hair out trying to reinstall Windows 2000 nearly ten times on the same drive. Finally, it crapped out, in a combination of a grinding-squealing-clicking noise, taking with it two unfinished papers and nearly two gigs of digital photos - one year's worth of college freshman memories.

Switched to a Seagate Barracuda IV and now have no troubles to date - running very smoothly. Sorry to hear of your loss.