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TICK/PAUSE/TICK noise from HDD --- EDIT1 (Fixed!) / EDIT2 --- Doing it again ! EDIT3 --- Installed new Maxtor :)

C

CorCentral

Banned
System is as follows :
Win2000 / Explorer 6 with all available updates from the Windows update site downloaded
MSI K7t266 Pro2 (VIA 4.37)
AMD T-bird 1.2/266
512x1 Mushkin HP cas2
Elsa Gladiac 32mb GTS (Det. 2311)
Conexant modem
using onboard sound at the moment
Western Digital 40gig HD ata100
(ALL drivers are fairly current)

Problem occurs out of nowhere with the Hard drive making a "tick" noise (hard tick/pause/tick) It's not as if the drive's searching for something but like it's faulty or something . It would do this in the Bios , while loading Windows , being online .......... etc. Sometimes I would have to restart when it happened & sometimes I would'nt .

The first few times this happened , it would just freeze Windows for a second or two after the ticking noise . I could sometimes resume but I started to get blue screens while being away from the computer for awhile & then I'd having to reset . At startup it'd post the video card info & after that , it sometimes would'nt be able to find the hard drive . I'd go into Bios setup & let it try to detect "detecting HD" I'd wait & wait & then it would finally detect it (sometimes after a few restarts) .

I thought I just had a corrupt file on the drive or something so I did a format of the drive & a fresh install of 2000 . But the problem is back . The only programs I have on the drive is Diablo2 & Winamp at the moment .

Could it be something as simple as the VIA drivers or something ? Because it seems like all this started to happen after updating from Via 4.35's & Det 2183 ................ to the newer 4.37 & 2311

Any input would be greatly appreciated ................. If you have any questions let me know , because I'll be hanging around the Forums for a bit & will be able to reply rather quickly .
 
Start backing up my friend, cuz that drive is gonna die 🙁

You should run the WD Diagnostics, basically you use the diskette that came with the drive (if you bought it retail) and go into diagnostics. Copy down the drive information (such as the serial #)

Then run the quick test, and see if it comes up with any errors or things it can repair. At the end it'll give you a "Final Code:" followed by 4 digits afterwards. How do I know? I just got one today on my 60 gig WD... Mine was 0210.

Anyways, then go to express RMA page and then fill out all the info you've found...

Wish you the best, as I'll be doing the same thing 🙁
 
Well I bought the drive from Best Buy , so returning it "should'nt" be a problem . (Do you know if they'll exchange this for a duplicate drive ? It's been over 3mths I believe)

Also ........... The WD diagnostic disc won't work with NTFS , it says it can't find a fat32 file system or something along those lines .

Well it just made that noise again as I'm typing this ............... 2 or 3 double ticks . The first time in about 30 minutes **G**

Wanted to also say that about 30 minutes ago I had to restart & during bootup Windows repaired a sector or something . It asked ....... If you want to skip test , press a key . When it was finished , it rebooted again & here I am :Q
 


<< Well I bought the drive from Best Buy , so returning it "should'nt" be a problem . (Do you know if they'll exchange this for a duplicate drive ? It's been over 3mths I believe) >>



I doubt they'll exchange it after 3 months unless you bought their extended warranty. When my WD died a couple of years ago, WD sent me a replacement, charged me for the replacement; then, credited me back when they received the bad drive.
 
It does too work NTFS...

Mine does and I have NTFS on both drives.

BTW, the online version of the test might not be comprehensive enough. It wont give you an error code like the diagnostics themselves would.

I have the 40 gig western digital ATA100 drive, and mine doesn't click.
 
Ok , here's the story .................... I had a bad WD floppy disc & luckily my friend had one I could use 🙂

I booted to the Diagnostic floppy & first ran the "fast test" & it came up OK
Ran the Extended test & gave me the error code 0257
Ran the repair option & it fixed it & then yet again ran the Extended test once more to receive the error code 0256 .
In the end .............. It repaired all errors .

WD / Diagnostic Error Codes

Hope the repair holds up .
What's everyone's take on a software repair such as this ? I can't see it fixing a mechanical problem .
 
Well the ticking noise is back ! ! ! ! ! !

I have very few programs on this computer & was trying to always blame it on maybe a software conflict or something . So after this first Reinstall of Windows I chose to wait a bit to install the rest .

Microsoft Office 2000
Fix-It Utilities 3.0
Diablo 2
Print Shop Essentials
Winamp ............ I did'nt even get a chance to install my MP3's after the reinstall of Windows !
3DMark2001 ................ & that's about it .

Luckily , I backed up all my data onto cd before this happened again !
I'm going to be purchasing a Maxtor 30-40 gig this weekend . I would send the HD back to WD but I'd just get another WD as a replacement ................. I'd rather take my chances with Maxtor . This was my first purchase of a WD drive & it will be my last ! This drive lasted no more than 3 mths. ! The Maxtor I had before the WD was an 18.7 gig I believe & it lasted through 3 PC upgrades :Q

Any other people experience the Tick "Pause" Tick from a Hard drive ?
 
I've heard the tick of death once. A 3 year old WD drive did it. I low-level formatted the drive and ran the diagnostics software and it ran for another year.

That is the only WD drive I have had a problem with. I have had very good luck with WD. My oldest WD drive is about 4 years old and still going strong.

I think with harddrives it is just the luck of the draw. You win some you lose some.
 
It sounds like your drive is definately going bad. The WD diagnostics just remaps bad blocks to spare blocks on the drive. The bad blocks on your drive seem to be multiplying, this is not a good sign. Eventually, there will be no more spare blocks to map to, and WD Diag will tell you the problem is not repairable, or the drive will fail altogether. At this point I would call WD and try to get a replacement. You may even get lucky and get a bigger drive, but since your's is fairly current I doubt that. Just have your error code on hand when you call and know the version of WD Diag you used.

BTW, for those who didn't know: All HD's ship with a few defective blocks, that is why there are spares built into the drive.
 
It sure does sound like the famous Western Digital "click of death". I heard it on a pair of 2.1 gig drives, and my 13 gig Caviar only made it for about 6 months before it, too, succumbed. On the other hand, the two RMA drives I got, a 3.2 for the 2.1 that died under warranty, and the replacement 13 gig drive have run fine for over a year each. So not all WD drives are bad. A lot of people like them. You may want to try to move your rma drive in its' sealed bag on one of the auction sites, or on the for sale or trade forum. Like I said, some people swear by them, others (me included) sweat at them. 😀 Good luck with your maxtor drive. That is my favorite, just picked up my 6th one ( a 30 gig HP oem from Outpost) to replace a 2 year old 10 gig that is working great, just a little too small. Saving the 10 gig for the next build.
Chuck
 
Well I just installed my new Maxtor drive lastnight that I purchased at BestBuy . I was worried about if it would be a quantum in the box so I asked one of the comp techs if I could open it & check . He knew about the Maxtor/Quantum deal & he agreed to open the box . (the computer dept. in the back would'nt open it & said they'd have to mark it down if they did :disgust: )

It's the new 40gb D740X-6L ATA133/7200rpm with the fluid dynamic bearing 😎
Had a few twists with the install but everything panned out . The major problem was the jumper settings on the back of the drive . The paper/software documentation that described the jumper settings on this was "TERRIBLE" & the pics did'nt even match the back of the drive . My advice would be to anyone installing would be to not even deal with thier software or documentation . Just goto thier website for all the info on jumper settings .

Got Win2000 & all drivers loaded lastnight & will start the Microsoft Update downloads later tonight ............... 🙂

Hoping that this drive lasts longer than 3 mths. !

 
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