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Hard drive diagnosis

R

rapid

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Messages
178
Ive a problem with a HD at the moment, google didnt come up with much and the forum search didnt seem to have anything specific.
Its a 60gb ide western digital and earlier I heard the 'whirr.. tick tick' sound of a HD thats having problems reading. Ive heard it once, is it possible for a non faulty drive to do this? My last HD died doing the exact same thing so I'm quite concerned at the moment. and annoyed considering its only a year old.

It seems to be running alright at the moment but I really want to test for any possible faults. Could anyone recommend a tool to test for any problems, or possible disk failure in the future?
western digital have a diagnostic utility here that Im about to try, but are there 3rd party options that could test it further?



-rapid
 
I would run the WD utility, but don't just assume you're okay if it passes that. If you hear ANY more clicks, you need to back your data up and arrange to get a different drive. I work at a repair shop and I see at least 3 customers a week that lose some or all of their data because they never bother to backup and they don't realize how ominous the clicks are.
 
heres the WD utility main screen that comes up

I ran the quick test first, it came up as 'no errors found' as you can see here:

quick_test.jpg


running the extended test at the moment. is 'write zeros to drive' another test or just a format utility?
 
I had a brand-spanking new Raptor that did that. I got my OS installed on it, got everything setup just the way I wanted it, then durring a reboot it just sat there and *tick tick tick* then it was detected as a 0MB HDD. That is where WD's advanced RMA rocks.

Try the utilities, but even if they don't show anything, a ticking drive usually isn't a good thing. ;)
 
A "zero fill" is a way to completely erase all data from your drive. You may have heard of low-level formatting. This is what replaced it since a LLF can only be done at the factory on 'newer' drives. It is the most thourough format you can do.

Anyway, backup your important data just incase. Personally, since WD has such an excellent RMA process, I'd send it in.
 
time for an update:

I was interupted in the middle of the 2nd test, some printing needed to be doing. Once in windows the HD started the whirring, clicking after about 20 mins and froze up.. Fortunately theres not really anything I need to save on there but I think its pretty evident its crapped out on me :(

according the the western digital RMA process:
warranty.jpg


its out of limited warranty :( guess its only good for a year. so is that that? will they just brush me off? not to impressed at the moment
 
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