Is nmy hard drive damaged?

[Matt2]

Hard drive in specs below.

Whenever I try to access a program like play Americas Army and burn CDs with nero, I ALWAYS here a loud, audible, "click" that I am pretty sure is my hard drive and then the computer hard locks.

Also, when I boot the computer up, the computer tells me I ahve a disk boot failure and refuses to boot from the hard drive. BUT, if I stick the WinXP CD in and boot that, it will boot to XP just fine.

What do u guys think?

 

[egale]

New hard drive time. Back up what you can while you can and replace the thing before everything is lost.

 

[Finnkc]

yup 2nd that one ... clicks and boot failures mean disk is "F*cked" for lack of a better word.

 

[Matt2]

normally, I would be heart broken, but I guess its time for a 120GB WD SE drive... gosh darnit...

Thanks for the help.

 

[StraightPipe]

get PowerMax off the maxtor website, it's a disk utility that will confirm that your HDD is dead, and attempt to repair it.

 

[Ionizer86]

Back up the data soon. If you don't have an extra drive, call Maxtor (1-800-2Maxtor) and also request an RMA after you do a Powmax if it comes out bad. They're really good with advanced RMA where they send you a new drive, you move your data over, and send the old one back. All you pay is return shipping (They provide the box, inserts etc).

IE Maxtor RMA's are so good that you don't really need a new drive, just a replacement from Maxtor.

 

[Matt2]

I ran powermax and when it was writing the floppy it clicked and froze. Definately new hard drive time?

Also, I dunno about RMAing the drive, its really old and I dont have any documentation for it, or do I not need it?

 

[StraightPipe]

most maxtor's only have 1 year warranty, but you have to run powermax to RMA it, they request you send them the logfile it produces. see if you can get a friend to make the boot disk, you can run the app from a floppy without any working harddrives.

 

[Matt2]

ok, I booted the powermax diskette, but while it was booting it said

"Bad or missing command interpreter.
PLease enter a valid filename (e.g. C:/COMMAND>COM),
or just press enter to retry."

Then it just goes to a prompt and no matter what I put in, I get the same message.

Is that what I was supposed to get?

 

[Matt2]

I just got the same error message when I tried it on my laptop, so obviously I am not doing something right.

 

[Matt2]

Note: PowerMax v4.06 will not detect Ultra ATA hard disks connected to motherboards with embedded NVIDIA chipsets (SATA drives are supported). A new version to address this issue is currently in development and is slated for release soon. Please check the PowerMax download page periodically for updates.

So there goes that idea then...

So should I just assume the HD is dead based on the evidence I already ahve and order a new WD SE?

 

[Ionizer86]

Matt2, if you have a 3 year warranty, I'd recommend using it to do an advanced exchange. My hard drive went out within like 3 days of showing symptoms. I couldn't even frigging get past IDE detect with my Maxtor 40GB plugged in; hence, I couldn't boot off floppy. It didn't spin, period. I told the Maxtor tech guy, and within a few minutes, the RMA was approved, and they 3 day'd a drive to me. Their RMA service is very nice.

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: Ionizer86
Matt2, if you have a 3 year warranty, I'd recommend using it to do an advanced exchange. My hard drive went out within like 3 days of showing symptoms. I couldn't even frigging get past IDE detect with my Maxtor 40GB plugged in; hence, I couldn't boot off floppy. It didn't spin, period. I told the Maxtor tech guy, and within a few minutes, the RMA was approved, and they 3 day'd a drive to me. Their RMA service is very nice.

I dont even know if I have a warranty. This drive is old and it was a leftover from my P4 comp.

Do I just call them up? Or do I have to have a warranty card or something?

 

[Ionizer86]

Maxtor Tech Support link

Click "Check warranty status online" for ATA drives. All you need is the drive; no receipt or anything else needed. They have a record of the warranty, which you can check with your drive's serial number. I found that the warranty period is a few months longer than purchase date (they're trying not to slight anyone of 3 years of support; they can't gauge exact purchase date, it looks like).

Last time I tried, doing a RMA online didn't get past about step 4 because the server was quirky. I recommend verifying your warranty then calling them when they're open. You need a credit card for advanced RMA, which they won't charge once your old drive gets to them.

 

[StraightPipe]

I'd call them up, they can give you all the info you need to RMA it. (ie: if your need recipt...)

it might take 2 calls, but it'd be sweet if they sent you a new drive.

 

[spriggan]

Well ur not alone matt2 cause I play AA as well and when I tried installing it it gave me a CRC error so I scanned the hard drive with powermax from maxtor and it said my hard drive is failing so I called up DELL, cause I have a dell 2100 and they sent me a new hard drive..
MAxtor 40GB HD
1.1 ghz
Windows XP sp1
512mb sdram
Geforce4 Mx440 64mb
Now I have a new western digital 40GB hard drive..

 

[spriggan]

O and maxtor did offer me an RMA but DELL was quicker =)