hard drive repeatedly clicks, not accessible for a few seconds

[Mike Scirocco]

My main hard drive, IDE1 out of 2, was working fine, but recently
started clicking. It will work fine, then click, after which it sounds
like it is spinning up to speed, so it sounds like it's docking as if
the computer is being turned off. Immediately after it clicks the drive
is not accessible. Sometimes it clicks repeatedly 5 or 6 times. I
replaced the IDE cable but that didn't make any difference.

My questions are:
- is there anything I can do for the drive?
- is there any freeware I can use to save/transfer an image of the disk?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[DaveW]

The drive is dying and ready for replacement, sorry to say.

 

[John Doe]

My main hard drive, IDE1 out of 2, was working fine, but recently
started clicking. It will work fine, then click,

- is there any freeware I can use to save/transfer an image of the
disk?

Hopefully you knew enough to do that already. Alarm bells should have
gone off when the clicking started. Whenever there is a sign of
trouble or whenever you plan on doing disk gymnastics, you make a copy
of any important files. You don't do anything else prior to that.

Besides, if you have any important files, you should already have a
copy (however dated) of them.

Good luck.

 

[Frank McCoy]

My main hard drive, IDE1 out of 2, was working fine, but recently
started clicking. It will work fine, then click, after which it sounds
like it is spinning up to speed, so it sounds like it's docking as if
the computer is being turned off. Immediately after it clicks the drive
is not accessible. Sometimes it clicks repeatedly 5 or 6 times. I
replaced the IDE cable but that didn't make any difference.

My questions are:
- is there anything I can do for the drive?

Spinrite can sometimes salvage a drive.
Sometimes. About the only program I know that helps.

- is there any freeware I can use to save/transfer an image of the disk?

Hmmm ... Just heard of a program that does a decent job ....
Let me go look and see if I bookmarked the place ....
Nope ... OK, trying another tack ....

OK ... Found it.
But: It's NOT freeware.
Acronis True Image.
http://www.acronis.com/
Amazon lists it for $36.99 instead of their list-price of $49.99

Sorry, don't know of any good freeware.

It sounds like your drive is going South in a hurry.
Time to get a new one and back up anything you want to save before you
can't access it any more.

I could tell you what the clicking and whining was; but it would take
some time and the end-result is just this:
Your drive is going bad.
Back it up and replace it FAST.

 

[george41407]

My main hard drive, IDE1 out of 2, was working fine, but recently
started clicking. It will work fine, then click, after which it sounds
like it is spinning up to speed, so it sounds like it's docking as if
the computer is being turned off. Immediately after it clicks the drive
is not accessible. Sometimes it clicks repeatedly 5 or 6 times. I
replaced the IDE cable but that didn't make any difference.

My questions are:
- is there anything I can do for the drive?
- is there any freeware I can use to save/transfer an image of the disk?

Thanks,
Mike

As other said, your drive is dying. Having just lost my master drive
yesterday, I am just starting to realize how much chaos this has
caused in my life. Fortunately I had just transferred all my data to
that drive about a month ago because my old drive was too full. I did
not remove thge data from the old driive and that is what I am using
now. At first I did not think I lost much, but things keep popping
up. My email is my biggest loss. I had important data that will be
hard to replace. But I just plugged in one of my new flash drives and
realize I dont have the driver for it (win98). There are other things
that are gone. Thank God I keep my photos on my slave drive, which
still works.

If I were you, I would not waste any time trying to get software.
Just plug in another harddrive and copy everything, or use CDs or
whatever. Or copy all important stuff to flash drives. THEN, you can
play around with software if your drive is still alive.

Note, Partition Magic (not freeware) will make an exact clone of the
HD, except you still need to transfer the system. At least that works
with Win98. XP and Vista may not work so easily, I dont know, I wont
use any of them. I like 98 too much and it works for my needs.

I'd start copying NOW. That drive could fail at any time. At least
you had a warning. Mine just quit without warning. However, I now
think I may have had a little warning, but I am not sure. I was
outdoors and came in. I dont have air conditioning and it was over 90
in the house. The computer was making a noisy sound like something
grinding. I just figured there was a dust ball in the fan (that
happens regularly) and I'd deal with it later. I shut off the
computer and last night when I turned it back on, it was totally dead.
That drive will not spin. I now wonder if that sound was the drive
itself grinding. It did not sound the same as the usual crud in the
fan sound. I did not even think about that sound till this morning....

 

[Frank McCoy]

As other said, your drive is dying. Having just lost my master drive
yesterday, I am just starting to realize how much chaos this has
caused in my life. Fortunately I had just transferred all my data to
that drive about a month ago because my old drive was too full. I did
not remove thge data from the old driive and that is what I am using
now. At first I did not think I lost much, but things keep popping
up. My email is my biggest loss. I had important data that will be
hard to replace. But I just plugged in one of my new flash drives and
realize I dont have the driver for it (win98). There are other things
that are gone. Thank God I keep my photos on my slave drive, which
still works.

If I were you, I would not waste any time trying to get software.
Just plug in another harddrive and copy everything, or use CDs or
whatever. Or copy all important stuff to flash drives. THEN, you can
play around with software if your drive is still alive.

Note, Partition Magic (not freeware) will make an exact clone of the
HD, except you still need to transfer the system. At least that works
with Win98. XP and Vista may not work so easily, I dont know, I wont
use any of them. I like 98 too much and it works for my needs.

Cloning a drive died with XP.
;-{

I used to do it all the time with Win-98 and earlier.
Now the system won't load.

 

[george41407]

Cloning a drive died with XP.
;-{

I used to do it all the time with Win-98 and earlier.
Now the system won't load.

I dont doubt that at all. I absolutely hate XP. I disliked it before
I tried to help a friend reinstall it. That turned into a total
nightmare. Six hours later, I finally called another guy who uses XP
all the time and let him do the job. After that nightmare, I know I
will never touch XP with a ten foot pole with someone elses computer
on the end of the pole. For what I do, which is mostly just internet,
some word processing and photo editing, and a small music collection,
I definately do not need more than Win98. The only thing that 98
lacks is a the ease of installing flash drives. But if I get one that
wont load on my 98 computer, I got my other (spare) computer with
WinME on it. Then I can just transfer the files to one of my own
flash drives that I have drivers for. That computer is old and slow,
but I rarely use it, and I decided to install ME on it, just for the
heck of it.

Just to mention, that computer that now has WinME on it, was given to
me, which had XP installed on the harddrive. That computer is way too
slow for XP, which is why they gave me the computer. Just for the
heck of it, I plugged that harddrive into this computer, (which is
much faster). XP completely puked. It would not even begin to load.
It went to safe mode and still puked. I never even got beyond some
weird (dos like) text errors. I gave up at that point, I really did
not care anyhow since I did not plan to use it. I just reformatted
and installed ME.

I have swapped my Win98 drive from computer to computer several times
and after a few driver changes, it always worked just fine. I swapped
that WinME drive too, and no problems either. My thinking is that
part of the problem is that non-dos formatting they use with XP.
Either way, I have no intention to ever use XP.

George

 

[John Doe]

(e-mail address removed) wrote:

....

Or copy all important stuff to flash drives.

Note, Partition Magic (not freeware) will make an exact clone of the
HD, except you still need to transfer the system. At least that
works with Win98. XP and Vista may not work so easily, I dont know,
I wont use any of them. I like 98 too much and it works for my
needs.

Copying XP was a hassle at first. Now I just leave the working copy in
the first physical location on the hard drive and it works okay. But
if you run lots of applications at the same time or several big
applications, the relatively much greater stability of XP rocks.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[John Doe]

I dont doubt that at all.

Making a copy of the Windows XP SP2 partition works with Partition
Manager 2005.

.... keep the unhidden active working XP partition in the first
physical location

.... uncheck the PM setting "Do not hide target primary partition after
a copy/restore"

.... after a copy of the Windows partition, right-click on the copy and
select "unhide" and then repeat that and select "hide", for some
reason/bug toggling that is necessary otherwise the copy of XP won't
be hidden after the reboot (and apparently that condition causes
problems), and that's why the PM setting has to be changed to "not
hide the partition"

I use a maximum of two Windows copies and avoid putting them in the
logical partition. It isn't as easy/flexible/functional as 98, but it
does work. Having at least one copy is extremely useful.

When in trouble, I've been able to get unstuck by using either or both
of the PartitionMagic and Partition Manager boot CDs.

 

[John Doe]

correction

 

[MARK BENDER/JOHN DOE LIVES AT 509 FROST TX 78201]

correction

MARK BENDER AKA JOHN DOE = WIFE BEATER LIVING AT 509 FROST TX 78201

Texas Arrest Report:

Name: MARK BEDNER
SSN: 507-82-xxxx
Address: 5200 BLANCO RD 407, SAN ANTONIO TX 78216-7074
State of Origin: Texas
County of Origin: Bexar
Party Status: REL'D ON P-R BOND
DOB: 01/22/1957
Race: White
Sex: Male
Eyes: BLUE
Height: 5' 06"
Weight: 160

 

[Jon Danniken]

My main hard drive, IDE1 out of 2, was working fine, but recently started
clicking. It will work fine, then click, after which it sounds like it is
spinning up to speed, so it sounds like it's docking as if the computer is
being turned off. Immediately after it clicks the drive is not accessible.
Sometimes it clicks repeatedly 5 or 6 times. I replaced the IDE cable but
that didn't make any difference.

Is it the same kind of click you hear when the drive is shut down? I had
one do that occasionally, and tracing the problem revealed that wiggling the
molex power connector caused the symptom to occur.

All it took was to tighten the receptacles in the molex connector with a
small tool, and it was fine after that.

Jon

 

[Mike Scirocco]

Is it the same kind of click you hear when the drive is shut down? I had
one do that occasionally, and tracing the problem revealed that wiggling the
molex power connector caused the symptom to occur.

All it took was to tighten the receptacles in the molex connector with a
small tool, and it was fine after that.

Jon

What is the molex connector?

 

[Ed Medlin]

What is the molex connector?

It is the 12v power connector to the drive. SATA connectors are notorious
for this problem but I have also seen it with EIDE drives. I once had one of
the Molex pins push in while plugging it into a drive and it would click and
then make a whirring sound as it spun down. I was about ready to RMA the new
drive and when I unplugged it I saw the retracted pin and just pulled it
back into place with a needle nose and it is still going.


Ed

 

[taragem]

Is it the same kind of click you hear when the drive is shut down? I had
one do that occasionally, and tracing the problem revealed that wiggling the
molex power connector caused the symptom to occur.

All it took was to tighten the receptacles in the molex connector with a
small tool, and it was fine after that.

It also could be a bad power supply. I had a HD that had the same
clicking noises. I was about to replace it when a friend who worked at
Intel said it was probably the PS. I bought a new 450W PS and the
drive has worked fine since.

What confounded me was when I ran diagnostics on the HD there were no
problems.

As for molex connectors they seem to be a weak link in computers. They
haven't changed since the first PCs, are cheaply made and the more you
plug and unplug them the less dependable they become. They either
become loose or so tight I sometimes have to grip it with needle-nosed
pliers to unplug it. Seems in all those years engineers should've have
come up with a better connector.

 

[Paul]

As for molex connectors they seem to be a weak link in computers. They
haven't changed since the first PCs, are cheaply made and the more you
plug and unplug them the less dependable they become. They either
become loose or so tight I sometimes have to grip it with needle-nosed
pliers to unplug it. Seems in all those years engineers should've have
come up with a better connector.

On the contrary, the 1x4 Molex is an excellent connector.

How many failures have you heard about while in use ?

Any reports of contact surface damage ?

The high insertion and extraction force can be cured, and there are
power supplies which have modified connectors on the end, that can
be unplugged easily. A high extraction force means they won't fall
out by accident, or via thermal pumping.

The only bad Molex I have personal experience with, is a vampire tap
style. That Molex consists of two pieces of plastic, and they
clamp the four wires, and needle contacts pierce the wires and make
the connection. That method is much less reliable than the normal
crimp pin method, where each pin is crimped to the wire first, and
then snapped into place in the nylon shell. The pins have a positive
retention mechanism, and I haven't read of any reports of a pin being
pushed out backwards, while inside the shell.

If you want examples of connectors not really designed properly,
take a look at the history of SATA. The SATA connector scheme on disk
drives, was intended for connecting a hard drive to a SATA backplane.
The emphasis there, was not for good desktop computer performance. Many
first generation users had problems with SATA connectors falling off.
By comparison, the 1x4 Molex does exactly what it is supposed to do.
Whatever engineer designed that connector, deserves a small trophy.

Paul