What are these small and big "click" sounds in my hd??

[AMIGA-FAN]

Have experienced more or less the same problem a year ago, had to replace a faulty 40 GB Maxtor HD in my Win98 SE equipped PC running also Amithlon on a separate partition. One day the HD started to make some strange "clicks" which lasted about 2-3 months and at the end the HD definitely died. Since then I have always had a redunded system, with 2 mirrored disks, it has been a pain in the neck already having to reinstall all my Win98 stuff. I originally thought it could have been a faulty drive due, may be, to the shipping which wasn't carried out properly and that might have damaged the drive while on its way to me. Anyway, I still have an A3000 which, after nearly 12 years is still running properly where one of the installed HDs is a WD. So, forget Maxtor!

[CU_AMiGA]

AMIGA-FAN wrote:
Have experienced more or less the same problem a year ago, had to replace a faulty 40 GB Maxtor HD in my Win98 SE equipped PC running also Amithlon on a separate partition. One day the HD started to make some strange "clicks" which lasted about 2-3 months and at the end the HD definitely died. Since then I have always had a redunded system, with 2 mirrored disks, it has been a pain in the neck already having to reinstall all my Win98 stuff. I originally thought it could have been a faulty drive due, may be, to the shipping which wasn't carried out properly and that might have damaged the drive while on its way to me. Anyway, I still have an A3000 which, after nearly 12 years is still running properly where one of the installed HDs is a WD. So, forget Maxtor!

See! Another one! I think i have the right to complain here.  :-x

[AMIGA-FAN]

Yes, occasionally drives do fail but in my opinion this is not just .... occasionally. I think this happens far too often. Some manufacturers do sell crap items, believe me, they cost less because they last less, they just rip you off and make money with this disgusting practice.

[sir_inferno]

installed HDs is a WD

waitrose deluxe, they're reliable too...  :-D

but yeah maxtor are LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME

just like that mp3 encoder...  :-)

[lempkee]

hmm indeed... i have had problems with maxtor but i have heard bad things about ibm , but i use IBM drives for my IDE chains and for scsi i use SEAGATE (them fast ones )


and theese sounds , sounds like METAL against metal, i had them on a Segate IDE and a Western disk back many years but my QUANTUM still makes this noise and i dont thrust it all so i use it in my cd32 for now and have a backup of the hdd on my a1200, just incase...

anyway what might have killed it is thati had to put it UPSIDE down inside my SX-1 on the cd32. after that is when all the problems happened..

anyway... IBM and Seagate has VERY bad power connectors on all later drives ;( , i have ruined quite a few this way and i hate to get repaired (fast job really , but very annoying,..)


goodluck imbe!

[sir_inferno]

goodluck imbe!

oh yeah, i forgot there was a point to all this  :-D

[voytech]

lempkee wrote:
anyway... IBM and Seagate has VERY bad power connectors on all later drives ;( , i have ruined quite a few this way and i hate to get repaired (fast job really , but very annoying,..)
goodluck imbe!

If I need to choose between loosing everything I got on my HDD (maxtor, samsung), and poor pwr conn in segate, I choose the second option (not even 5 min with solder gun resolves the problem)

[Linchpin]

You gotta be loving the sound effects on this thread :-)

[TheJackal]

From what I gather, besides normal "seeking" click noises, a HD will try and recalibrate itself if its gone a bit funny, with the result of a louder clicking noise.
This can happen if a change in temperature etc.

Also with drives getting so much larger in terms of capacity, they seem to give up the ghost after 2-3 years. Infact many manufacturers warranties now reflect this as they are shorter.

[amigamad]

uh-oh! Another Maxtor Hard Drive case.

Dont know what you lot do to your maxtors but i have been using these drives for more than 4 years and have had no problems at all even the 120 gig in my pc is on for about 8 to 10 hours a day for a year and it is still fine.  :-)

[amigamad]

Samsung sounds like a better mint!

Your joking i hope mine lasted a week and almost set fire to my pc i exchanged it for a maxtor never had any problems with it.

[amigamad]

I still have an A3000 which, after nearly 12 years is still running properly where one of the installed HDs is a WD. So, forget Maxtor!

Western digital made a load of drives wich were rubbish a few years ago.

[Im>bE]

Wow, I thought Maxtor was good.
Now I feel I have been ripped off
because I hate it when companies
make their products crappy on purpose.
The world should have laws
that benefit those who make quality.

I try to be as gentle as possible to my hds,
but when they are made to die, then whats the point?
ARGH!!...


Are cheap hds really crap?
Are there any expensive hds that have quality?


I let Datakompaniet choose between Maxtor and Seagate for me,
and they chose Maxtor.
Maybe because they had the most of them... dunno.


Is there anything I can do to save my hd before it dies?

Only way is prb to buy a better one,
but wich brands should I go for?
Maybe someone can make a list
with the best brands on top
and the worst on the bottom...?


TheJackall says it is recalibrating,
so maybe its 'normal' and im afraid of nothing?
Ive not however heard any such noise
in any of my Quantum Fireball hds wich I used before
and wich still work after 4-5 years of heavy usage.

btw, what did you mean by
"they seem to give up the ghost after 2-3 years."


PS: I also wonder if a game ive been playing much recently
wich access the disk very very frequently (rapid blinking hd light)
could have caused any damage inside the hd...

[Tomas]

I had the same problem with my ibm gxp disk.. Those clicks was rare to begin with, but ended up killing it... one day when i rebooted my pc, the disk would just constantly click and would not even identify anymore  :-(

[GreggBz]

Never another IBM drive for myself.
I've owned a few IBM "Deathstars" and they make that wonderfull click of death usually within 9 months.

And.. to add insult to injury, my GF's laptop has an IBM (Hitachi) Travelstar, which after 1 year light service now makes it's own unique click of death. All the SMART utilities i have say it's ok.. but that can't fool a wise one like me.. especially when I hear the Deathstar click and windows XP grinds to a screeching halt. Also, my IBM Travelstar off of e-bay failed in my Amiga 1200 after about 3 weeks of VERY light use..

[molebrain]

Hardrives are the devil.