You know that sound...

[alfredeneumann]

You know that sound one of my drives was making that sound that (only
older people will know this) is similar to a record player
skipping?-click click boing, click click boing.

Well the drive it was doing it-WD 8GB- on now doesn't do it any more,
same system. Also ran scandisk and defrag no errors. Before it would
stall on that section where the noise occurred. Does this mean the drive
self-repaired itself? I thought when you hear that sound it was time to
kiss the drive goodbye. The more I learn about drives the more I realize
how little I know.

 

[Rod Speed]

You know that sound one of my drives was making that
sound that (only older people will know this) is similar to a
record player skipping?-click click boing, click click boing.

That is the drive recalibrating when it cant read sectors properly.

Well the drive it was doing it-WD 8GB- on now doesn't do
it any more, same system. Also ran scandisk and defrag no
errors. Before it would stall on that section where the noise
occurred. Does this mean the drive self-repaired itself?

Nope, its just an intermittent fault, there sometimes, not there other times.

Usually due to a bad solder joint or a cracked trace.

I thought when you hear that sound
it was time to kiss the drive goodbye.

Not always, the IBM 75GPXs and 60GXPs could be returned from
the dead using DFT, but would go on to show the same problem later.

Some drives will recalibrate when stinking hot and fine when they cool down.

The more I learn about drives the more I realize how little I know.

Yeah, they can be quite complicated.

 

[Arno Wagner]

You know that sound one of my drives was making that sound that (only
older people will know this) is similar to a record player
skipping?-click click boing, click click boing.

Well the drive it was doing it-WD 8GB- on now doesn't do it any more,
same system. Also ran scandisk and defrag no errors. Before it would
stall on that section where the noise occurred. Does this mean the drive
self-repaired itself? I thought when you hear that sound it was time to
kiss the drive goodbye. The more I learn about drives the more I realize
how little I know.

Same here. I have been using "bare-drive" HDDs for now something like
two decades now, and I have currently >50 running, still some new
problem comes along all the ime.

My policy is this: If it is supicous, make a backup of the data
with verify immediately. If the system it is in has at least some
importance, replace the drive.

I have on occasion mounted such a suspicous drive in an experimental
box (read: does not need to work reliable) and torured it (lots of
read and write activity, e.g. Linux kernel spirces copied in a loop) for
some days to see whether it dies. So far one dead after this and some
survivors that never gave any additional trouble.

Arno

 

[Impmon]

You know that sound one of my drives was making that sound that (only
older people will know this) is similar to a record player
skipping?-click click boing, click click boing.

I must be one of the old people then. the last time I heard that
sound was off a 200MB Connor.

Well the drive it was doing it-WD 8GB- on now doesn't do it any more,
same system. Also ran scandisk and defrag no errors. Before it would
stall on that section where the noise occurred. Does this mean the drive
self-repaired itself? I thought when you hear that sound it was time to
kiss the drive goodbye. The more I learn about drives the more I realize
how little I know.

It may have inadverantly self-repaired itself but I wouldn't trust
that drive to last long at all. I would start shopping for
replacement and make backup copy of everything you value on that 8GB
drive.

 

[helpdisc]

it can be a lot of thing exept hdd