How to test if my HDD is dying?

[The_Techie]

Holy mofo, I think I'll pass on that one. I'd rather get a slower 750GB HDD for that price.

The Raptors are hideously expensive

 

[feo]

Yeah, it looks like new VelociRaptors are also quite expensive.

At $300 for 300GB, I'm tempted to import one since the SA price will no doubt be about 4-5 grand.

 

[The_Techie]

I prefer large hard drives since I need a lot of storage space, so I'd probably never buy a Raptor in any case (unless I only used it for Windows, but I don't know whether the price is justified).

 

[mercurial]

Haven't done a defrag in years but I try to keep all my stuff nicely organised into folders and sub folders etc so that it's not cluttered in a mess all over the HDD.

You need to defrag at least once every 6 months. So far, Paragon Total Defrag has done the best job for me. Excellent defragger. In addition to defragging your partitions, you can defrag your MFT as well as shrink your MFT. It's an excellent application and it's available you_know_where.

 

[HavocXphere]

Shall we make bets on how long till it dies?

Seriously feo, that thing is gonna die real soon.

 

[feo]

Shall we make bets on how long till it dies?

Seriously feo, that thing is gonna die real soon.

Dude, do not say things like that.

I'm definitely gonna pick up a new HDD soon. GTA IV is coming out next week so I don't wanna abuse my wallet too badly. I think I'll just clone the drive in the meantime. Good idea?

 

[bwana]

Dude, do not say things like that.

I'm definitely gonna pick up a new HDD soon. GTA IV is coming out next week so I don't wanna abuse my wallet too badly. I think I'll just clone the drive in the meantime. Good idea?

If it can handle the cloning.

First thing I'd do is get anything critical off it and I'd do it now - otherwise disconnect it completely if you're not ready to do that yet.

 

[feo]

If it can handle the cloning.

First thing I'd do is get anything critical off it and I'd do it now - otherwise disconnect it completely if you're not ready to do that yet.

Dude, no recommendation for Spin Rite yet?

 

[bwana]

Dude, no recommendation for Spin Rite yet?

imo the last thing you want to do is work that drive until you have everything off.

The imminent comes to mind but then in SA that would give you a false sense of security.

 

[Zulash]

A Little Off-Topic but:

If im not mistaken isn't GTA: IV only ocming out on console next week? and on PC in october'ish?

just what I have heard

As for your HDD - Good Luck bro, would sh*t myself if I heard that on my PC

 

[Glordit]

A Little Off-Topic but:

If im not mistaken isn't GTA: IV only ocming out on console next week? and on PC in october'ish?

just what I have heard

As for your HDD - Good Luck bro, would sh*t myself if I heard that on my PC

lol click of death, more space is better than speed IMO

*october you say.... ah man... cant wait!*

 

[feo]

A Little Off-Topic but:

If im not mistaken isn't GTA: IV only ocming out on console next week? and on PC in october'ish?

just what I have heard

As for your HDD - Good Luck bro, would sh*t myself if I heard that on my PC

Yep I know, I just meant that I can't buy GTA IV (for Xbox360) and a new HDD in the same week as my wallet will never forgive me.

 

[sdd]

clicking = death. Trust me --- been there, done that, got screwed!

 

[neobyte]

Backup ASAP... Even if the data is still fine now, you'll find when it comes time to copy, you are going to have some bad sectors and bytes and the data will be seriously compromised. Might not even be able to recover some of your files.

 

[SecretCode]

Haven't done a defrag in years but I try to keep all my stuff nicely organised into folders and sub folders etc so that it's not cluttered in a mess all over the HDD.

It's not going to help your clicking-dying HDD, but your folder organisation has no effect at all on fragmentation (unless the folders happened to be mount points for different disk partitions). The file system - FAT, NTFS, whatever - will put files wherever it can. Folders and subfolders are about how you find the files, not about how they're stored.

If you always have a lot of free space on the drive (like 50%) you won't have much problem with free space fragmentation - but files will still get fragmented.

 

[HavocXphere]

Dude, do not say things like that.

Just wanted to convey a sense of urgency. Last HDD that I saw that died like that cost 3 grand to recover (dust-free lab Op).

 

[Glordit]

You say the 3 y.o HDD is failing?
If it has not been exactly 3 years [1095] days since you bought it you could try to get it in for a replacement?