Hard Drive Damaged

_neo said:
I've heard of this click of death before, but have never actually heard it. Could you describe it to me, please?
Click to expand...

Many many clicks in rapid succession

Question, OP
Does the drive even show up in BIOS?

If so as others suggested, hiren is useful diskdigger works wonders

If not, try the SouthBit, i gave them my old drive, didn't manage, so didn't charge me anything.

Ask about the mybb discount,

BTW: they based in cpt, so you might need to courier down to them.
 
NomNom said:
I've had 1 fail on me within 3 months.
Click to expand...

Hectic. Though, that would have still been under warranty. I've heard some folks say that certain devices/appliances are almost 'designed' to fail shortly after warranty (anywhere between a month and a year).
 
_neo said:
So how does this kind of thing happen? The drive is young, and wasn't moved around much at all. Fragmentation? Bad manufacturing?
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If you still hear that sound when you plug the drive directly into a SATA port with power (not USB), then it usually means catastrophic failure.
Most likely the drive was dropped or knocked, but it could also be a power surge. Sometimes it just happens by itself.
There is not much chance of recovery then without laying out some serious cash... about R8K to R10K.
 
LazyLion said:
If you still hear that sound when you plug the drive directly into a SATA port with power (not USB), then it usually means catastrophic failure.
Most likely the drive was dropped or knocked, but it could also be a power surge. Sometimes it just happens by itself.
There is not much chance of recovery then without laying out some serious cash... about R8K to R10K.
Click to expand...

I think a power surge may have done it. She confirmed the drive had never moved since the data of purchase. Anyways, I have given the drive back to her. Have also given her some advice for the future, in preparation for future failure(s) - these things happen.
 
_neo said:
I think a power surge may have done it. She confirmed the drive had never moved since the data of purchase. Anyways, I have given the drive back to her. Have also given her some advice for the future, in preparation for future failure(s) - these things happen.
Click to expand...

Power surges can lead to clicking (faulty heads).

You guys might find this interesting - http://www.southbit.co.za/inside-a-hard-drive/.
 
The drive inside is probably a Seagate ST3000DM001. These drives have a very high failure rate. The older ones especially, newer ones not as bad, but also fail very often. And never mind the failure rate, if they fail in terms of a head failure, the chances of recovery are very low. Interesting article on these drives here: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/3tb-hard-drive-failure/

If the drive was damaged by a power surge the drive would 99% not even spin up, so it won't be that. If the drive stays spinning (does not click lots of times and then spin down) then the heads are most likely fine and you're dealing with a lot of bad sectors on the drive and/or firmware issues.

Using the drive horizontally or vertically doesn't matter, either or. And even though the drive has hardly been used, all drives degrade over time.
 
SouthBit said:
The drive inside is probably a Seagate ST3000DM001. These drives have a very high failure rate. The older ones especially, newer ones not as bad, but also fail very often. And never mind the failure rate, if they fail in terms of a head failure, the chances of recovery are very low. Interesting article on these drives here: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/3tb-hard-drive-failure/
Click to expand...

Eish, don't tell me that!!!! :cry:
 
SouthBit said:
The drive inside is probably a Seagate ST3000DM001. These drives have a very high failure rate. The older ones especially, newer ones not as bad, but also fail very often. And never mind the failure rate, if they fail in terms of a head failure, the chances of recovery are very low. Interesting article on these drives here: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/3tb-hard-drive-failure/

If the drive was damaged by a power surge the drive would 99% not even spin up, so it won't be that. If the drive stays spinning (does not click lots of times and then spin down) then the heads are most likely fine and you're dealing with a lot of bad sectors on the drive and/or firmware issues.

Using the drive horizontally or vertically doesn't matter, either or. And even though the drive has hardly been used, all drives degrade over time.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info there - much appreciated.

So bad sectors could be the case here then. The drive continues to spin, with the repetitive sound discussed in my original post. I do remember it made a strange fast clicking noise when it turned on, but only like 3 or 4 seconds after. Then that stopped, and the repeating click went on and on.

I use multiple 1TB Toshiba drives here, and have never had a problem with them. I have recommended them to her as well.

Anyone here have bad experiences with Toshiba drives? (By the way, I'm not sure what they use inside...)
 
_neo said:
Anyone here have bad experiences with Toshiba drives? (By the way, I'm not sure what they use inside...)
Click to expand...

All drives have a failure rate and nobody has (as yet) been able to identify one manufacturer as superior to the others.
 
LazyLion said:
All drives have a failure rate and nobody has (as yet) been able to identify one manufacturer as superior to the others.
Click to expand...

Makes sense -they all use the same methodologies... Perhaps I just look after things too well... Meh, I dunno.
 
LazyLion said:
All drives have a failure rate and nobody has (as yet) been able to identify one manufacturer as superior to the others.
Click to expand...

Hitachis are best according to failure rates. Pity they mostly do OEM stuff. Not much retail presence, at least not in SA.
 
+1 for Hitachi. Now owned by Western Digital. HQ is still in San Jose, home of the previous IBM storage division sold to Hitachi.

Would love a helium drive or two.
 
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