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General discussion (archive)any hints with clicking hard drives(58 posts)(58 posts)
(58 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted January 26, 2012
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QC: I don't think I've ever heard the "Disk" part included when someone mentions the hard drive though.
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Miaghstir: I don't use it either, to be honest, but that's what HDD is short for.
Have never heard HDD either actually. Anyway, my friend's online so I'll see if he has any idea about this.
Posted January 26, 2012
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QC: I don't think I've ever heard the "Disk" part included when someone mentions the hard drive though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive
Posted January 26, 2012
Okay, I've got word back. He's saying that the best possible thing is to replace the HDD. The clicking meant that the lifespan was nearing the end, however much longer that could be, and opening it up only killed even more of it's lifespan. The screenshot's description of a 131071 Terrabyte drive is mostly like a corruption issue. If the HDD wasn't about to go belly up, reformatting would have been the easiest option.

Ah, before anyone asks his qualifications, he's finishing a bachelor's degree in computer engineering in about a year. He's literally the guy I go to for all of my computer issues that I can't figure out through searching about online.
Posted January 26, 2012
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godspeeed: i opened up my disk can clearly see the needle tripping out, clicking and grinding noises, yet I can see unallocated space in my disk manager.. Im trying to create a raw image, see screenshot, and fml
I'd say the disk is busted. If it was making weird noises before you cracked it open, then it was broken before you opened it, so you only managed to make it even more broken.

I would recommend to not to use the drive any further and replacing it whit a new one.
Posted January 26, 2012
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GameRager: I hear tell that newer SSDs have lifespans comparable to current HDDs......who knows what the future may bring?
In a way the lifespan hasn't actually changed. What has changed is that the drives no longer keep writing to the same sectors over and over and make a point of using the whole disc. So ever sector would need to be written to something like 10,000 times before there was any real risk of it dying on you. That definitely makes them competitive in terms of longevity.
Posted January 26, 2012
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Navagon: In a way the lifespan hasn't actually changed. What has changed is that the drives no longer keep writing to the same sectors over and over and make a point of using the whole disc. So ever sector would need to be written to something like 10,000 times before there was any real risk of it dying on you. That definitely makes them competitive in terms of longevity.
Cell, not sector. The most common (due to price) SSD's are MLC's (multi-level cell) though, which has multiple bits per cell, and the cell has to be written to for each bit, multiplying the number of writes for that cell. SLC's (single-level cell) have longer longevity due to using one cell for each bit (but of course are more expensive due to requiring more cells).
Post edited January 26, 2012 by Miaghstir
Posted January 26, 2012
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Miaghstir: Cell, not sector. The most common (due to price) SSD's are MLC's (multi-level cell) though, which has multiple bits per cell, and the cell has to be written to for each byte, multiplying the number of writes for that cell. SLC's (single-level cell) have longer longevity due to using one cell for each bit (but of course are more expensive due to requiring more cells).
Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification. But still, my point was that the cells are only lasting longer because they're not written to as often. It's not because the cells are more robust than they were.
Posted January 26, 2012
Sounds like the spindle motor failing. The good news is that if you haven't backed up all your data, data lost to a spindle motor can usually be recovered by specialists.

The bad news is that's terribly expensive and you really should have a backup because you could fund a decade or two worth of crashplan for it.

Not that I really expect you to hire a data recovery service, that's expensive, I mean really expensive.
Posted January 26, 2012
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xyem: Clicking and grinding means the drive has or will very soon completely fail.

The clicking is it hitting the read/write heads against something, the grinding is the motor trying to move the heads after it has already hit them against something (stalled heads). It's even possible that the grinding noise is being caused by the heads actually moving across a damaged surface (which may be imperceivable to the eye).

If you can still read from the drive at all, you will need a tool like ddrescue which will read the good sectors into an image, which you can then run something like testdisk (photorec) on to possibly recover files.

However, opening it up has significantly reduced that chance as you've likely contaminated the platters with dust.

I actually did this to one of my drives by knocking it over while it was in its enclosure and being accessed. The head crashed into the platter and completely trashed it, but it looked perfectly fine to the eye.
I was getting that noise from one of my old old external HD and I'm going to try this. Thanks for the advice
Posted January 26, 2012
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hedwards: The bad news is that's terribly expensive and you really should have a backup because you could fund a decade or two worth of crashplan for it.

Not that I really expect you to hire a data recovery service, that's expensive, I mean really expensive.
How expensive? Here I (as an individual, not a company) could get specialist help for only about $1000 (although, with the drive having been opened, that would certainly go up with a custom price tag), which I consider fairly affordable depending on the importance of the data involved.
Posted January 26, 2012
Slightly off topic sorry but what's the typical lifespan of an external hard drive?
Posted January 26, 2012
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Miaghstir: How expensive? Here I (as an individual, not a company) could get specialist help for only about $1000 (although, with the drive having been opened, that would certainly go up with a custom price tag), which I consider fairly affordable depending on the importance of the data involved.
Very. I've never priced it out, but the procedure has to be done in a clean room environment where they have to read the platters with specialized equipment. Assuming the drive hasn't been otherwise damaged it's likely that they can get the data.

The problem is that the equipment is expensive, they need specialist training and there's no guarantee that they'll get anything. This scenario is probably more likely to get data back than others, but the longer the drive has been running since the errors started popping up the more likely it is that you're data is gone.

Like I said, I haven't priced it out, and most companies are going to need to provide a quote as it's going to vary depending upon the specifics. Since the drive has been physically opened, it's a much harder thing to gauge than it would otherwise be.
Posted January 26, 2012
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chaosbeast: Slightly off topic sorry but what's the typical lifespan of an external hard drive?
Most externals are refurbished internals in enclosures. So they're not as long lived as internals. Protip: buy an internal drive (avoid anything mentioning "green") and put it in an enclosure. It's cheap and easy to do.
Posted January 26, 2012
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chaosbeast: Slightly off topic sorry but what's the typical lifespan of an external hard drive?
the same as internal ones (assuming they are of similar quality. )
so it all comes to risk of something being spilled on it, dropping it, moving it when it still works, not being careful with it.

so lifespan on average is lower. i wouldn't use 3 year old one for anything important.
Posted January 26, 2012
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chaosbeast: Slightly off topic sorry but what's the typical lifespan of an external hard drive?
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Navagon: Most externals are refurbished internals in enclosures. So they're not as long lived as internals. Protip: buy an internal drive (avoid anything mentioning "green") and put it in an enclosure. It's cheap and easy to do.
What does "green" mean? (or is it that environmental friendly stuff companies keep pushing?) Good to know about the ext HD. Maybe I should make a new topic thread for this but what do I need to build me one of those? Internal Disk, enclosure, anything else? I'm an audio guru but know next to nothing about comp hardware.
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General discussion (archive)any hints with clicking hard drives(58 posts)(58 posts)
(58 posts)