Whee. dying hard drive.

godzilla525godzilla525 Western Pennsylvania Member
edited April 2006 in Hardware
Well my vintage 2001 Maxtor 54610H6 (45GB/7200) is finally starting to give up. Over the weekend I was home messing with the computer, and (I had the drives set to power down after about an hour) on startup, I heard a beep. Not from the speaker, but from the DRIVE (same pitch as the bootup beep though). I thought I was hearing things, until it happened again this morning when I was right in front of it. Checked up on the SMART logs... uh oh, 7 spin retries... that's more than the one or two that was there from me screwing around with the power plug years ago.

So given that all the data was OK (no reallocated sectors) I decided to set it to run continuously and hopefully it will last beyond me getting another drive in a week. I kinda had to weigh that against unplugging it and letting it sit for a week where things might get a chance to sieze up. (so right now all the not-backed-up family photo scans, uncompressed audio from old, out-of-print LP and cassettes, and other such things are rapidly revolving around the ailing infamous Maxtor Motor of Doom...)

Of course, I had to find this out 3 hours before class with a 2 hour drive ahead. :doh:

Comments

  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    Get a new HD A.S.A.P. and back up your stuff! These things are weird and it could go for months or it will go without warning while it is still running. I would say your choice was a 50/50 move. Since the bearings are beining to go it may not want to spin up one day or they may just get too hot and seize from running constantly.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    The other option that I use is Spinrite. It will NOT fix broken disks (i.e. clicky click disks) but if your data is corrupt on the drive itself it is recoverable! this thing will get it back - then MOVE that data somewhere safe.

    You have to pay for Spinrite but its got no questions money back deal. I swear by it as its saved my bacon on more than one occasion. You will also find a few recovery software packages out there too for different problems - NTFS partition goes wonky etc etc

    HTH
  • ArmoArmo Mr. Nice Guy Is Dead,Only Aqua Remains Member
    edited April 2006
    Krazeyivan wrote:
    The other option that I use is Spinrite. It will NOT fix broken disks (i.e. clicky click disks) but if your data is corrupt on the drive itself it is recoverable! this thing will get it back - then MOVE that data somewhere safe.

    You have to pay for Spinrite but its got no questions money back deal. I swear by it as its saved my bacon on more than one occasion. You will also find a few recovery software packages out there too for different problems - NTFS partition goes wonky etc etc

    HTH


    Spinrite gets the Armo Seal of Approval. image24.gif

    SR is fantastic for fixing CRC's, corrupt volumes, damaged MBR's and the like.
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