80gb 4200rpm goes CLUNK

M

Matt126

Gawd
Joined
Aug 13, 2001
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Well lately (last 2 days) my hard drive has been making some strange noises. Mobile drives in my experiences aren't usually that audible.. This thing has been making some pretty loud CLUNK kinds of noises. I was planning to upgrade it eventually because it's only 4200 rpm but uhh... I wasn't really ready quite yet. Anyone ever have this problem... if yes, how much longer do you think this drive is going to last? In fact, another thing it just started doing.. the hd led would go solid, the computer would practically freeze for about 15 seconds, with a clunk or two in between all that... It doesn't look good. Should I start looking for a new drive?

I had my eyes on this:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100526

I have an external 120gb so I'm not worried about how much space I have on the internal.

Any comments are appreciated.

edit: I have an external ONE20 gb, not a 20gb. hehe.
-Matt
 
Uhhh, never experienced that problem specifically or with a laptop. Generally that type of behavior is seriously bad news. I would use it as little as possible until you have the means to backup anything valuable to you.
 
Well that's a problem. I live at school and this is my primary computer. I HAVE to have it. All of my important stuff is generally on my external drive. When I woke up this morning, i flipped open the lid and saw "Operating System Not Found"... I left it running last night and yeah, it didn't last. I turned it off and back on and now it's fine and I haven't heard any clunking yet. I am befuddled.

-Matt
 
What you are experiancing is a head crash. And unless youw ant to lose ALL your data you will stop using the laptop RIGHT NOW, until you can get a replacement hard drive.

Everytime you hear that loud clunk sound, the heads are slamming into the platters of your drive. This in turn causes damage to the surface of the platter, and to the magnetic heads. So basically each time you hear that sound, another chunk of data just went bye bye.

Trust me on this one, and heed my warning. Turn off the laptop and put it away until you can pull the data off the drive. That is if you don;t want ot lose it.

As for how long does it have left? Well anywhere between 5 seconds, and 5 years. But the problem will never go away, and everytime you hear that clunk, another portion of your drive is rendered unusable.

Randy
 
Interesting that you mention that. I've had a 10gb IBM travelstar that had loud noticeable bearing whine and seems to make a clunk sound when I shake it. It felt like the arm holding the heads are loose. It would pause for a second if I bumped the laptop while it was reading/writing, but would recover from it all the time. Used to think that that was quite normal, because it was operating like that for over 4 years until I changed out the hard drive for a new one. :eek:

edit: As far as losing data, I've never come across that. It's always been able to boot, run the applications just fine
 
yeah, it's definately time to order a new drive.... if you have nothing important on there and it's all backed up you can keep using the drive. but you do need a replacement.
 
Interesting after it crashed last night and i restarted it, it hasn't made the noise again. The drive is less than a year old too. Anyway I'm getting anything I need off and I'm just going to continue using it until I can get a new one and/or it dies on me.

Why the hell would it stop all of the sudden?

Thanks for your input thus far.

-Matt
 
I had a dell a few years ago where my HD when clunk a lot..I updated the bios, and it went away.....I hope your HD is not about to fail.....
 
Less than a year old huh?

Do you by chance transport your laptop with it on? That can cause it. When you transport a laptop while it is on, the heads do not Park. So there for the heads have a little FreeFLoat to them, and will damage the platters.

Rix2357,
Your drive WILL make a clunk when you shake it. Don't shake it. The same symptom I mentioned above will result from shaking them too. The Park mechinisim on most hard drives is simply a small magnet, that when the head is allowed to travel all the way back, it will engage the magnet and lock the heads in place. But it is a small magnet, and if you shake the drive, you can dislodge the park, and therefor give the heads that free float again. So don;t shake the drive :D

I have a 120 gig WD that has knocked very loudly for 2 years now, started when it was 2 months old. But it still works. It is now down to about 100 gigs useable space, but it is jsut a cache drive for my network, so I leave it be.

Randy
 
I think the magnet to park the head broke off a long time ago. All I know is that all I have to do is tilt the drive, it feels like there are two things loose in there. One is some tiny object that causes a rattle, and the other feels like it is on the rail, which is why I guessed the head. I'm just saying that I used to think that was normal, because it worked for so long. When I replaced it with a 40 gb, none of those noises were there and I tried shaking it pretty hard to to see if the heads would move and it didn't (I didn't try dropping it).
 
maybe your HDD's are spinning down too early? tell them never to spin down, mine make a clink sound when they start to spin up
 
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