Ahhh...Hard Drive problems I think...Help...

[chadsxe]

So I think something is up with my computer. Yesterday I was on it and everything was running perfect. Then all of the sudden things start bogging down and I start to hear weird noises from the computer itself. The noises sound like clicking and the hard-drive spinning. I checkd out what my CPU is doing and when I run Sonar the CPU maxes out. I have two HD's in my setup. One I store all my aps and OS on and the other I have all my audio data on. Anyone have any clue as to what might be going on? How to you know if a HD is failing? Weird thing is I can still use the HD drive in question. It just makes a lot of noise and slows everything down.


I suspect the one I have all my audio data on is failing. Reason being is because when I open up a project that has the audio stored on the D drive things go crazy. So what I did was moved one of my projects onto my C drive and ran it from there. Low and behold it worked fine.

I am in the middle of a project and am worried to all hell.

 

[Carter]

If I were you I would back that D drive up as soon as possible, if its making that kind of clicking sound it's going to crash soon! just go out and buy a new drive and transfer your projects.

 

[Creamyapples1]

Yessir, back that drive up! First step I'd take in figuring out what's wrong is take the side panel off your case and try to do something, then get right down in front of where the panel use to be and see if you can figure out exactly where that noise is coming from. It could be a number of things, but isolating the piece in question is the first step. Secondly, if it IS the harddrive, back up the data, check the s/n with the manufacturer, if it's still under warranty they'll send you a new one, no questions asked, only cost ya shipping. Well, Western Digital does it like that, I assume most others will as well.

 

[zekthedeadcow]

I would back it up... but basicaly if it's making odd noises then it already has crashed. If you get CRC errors then you have platter damage. The drive being slow is usually a sign of sectors going bad and the drive being massivly fragmented due to it rewriting data everywhere.

Basic odd noises and their usual causes:

loud clicking and shaking on failed initiallization - severe damage to outer edge of platter... you're screwed big time.

Loud clicking and shaking on initilization - platter damage... don't shut off again

screeching/squealing - bad bearings ... the platter will soon stop spinning

slow seeking/grinding - bad sectors.. may be debris on platter or blown head... the disk is rereading secotors and trying to automaticaly back them up to good secots where if the head is blown the new secotrs may be damaged by the head.

no spinning: bad bearings, or bad controller board.



thats all I can think of at the moment...

At a local lab I've had platters clean, heads rebalanced, and recovered for $500

When a drive failed to initiallize due to severe platter damage I was told to contact the manufacture to resurface it. $$$

 

[SKYflyer]

recently happened to one of my HDs. Soon after much of my data was corrupted and unaccessible. There is a trick to recover some data if your HD is corrupted: put the HD in a ziplock bag and throw it in the freezer for a few hrs and then put it back in the computer while it is still cold. Hopefully some of your previously unrecoverable data will be recoverable again. It worked for me.