Is this HDD dying?

I have a couple 80gig WD drives I got late last year. I actually bought 3 but one died irrecoverably 3 days after connecting it.

Anyway - I had the 2 drives connected and have been using them for months without a problem. NOW, however, the boot drive is making a sound where it clicks then spins up again. Sometimes I can go back to using it, sometimes Win2000 freezes and sometimes it goes "click - spin...... click - spin......." repeatedly.

Is it possible this is the OS, the controller, or is the HDD itself going bad?

I have only a few days to return this drive under warranty if it is failing so I cannot continue to keep testing it.

Do these sound like "death" symptoms or does it sound more curable?

 

I think you already know what to do but if you're looking for confirmation - I'd say its going to be toast fairly soon based upon your "click - spin...... click - spin......." description.

I've experienced a fairly high incidence of failure with WD 80 Gig drives compared to most other drives - not sure if they put out some bad ones or what. Haven't seen any problem drives recently however.

 

Thanks. I'm at the 99% point of returning the drive ASAP and currently seeking to back up all the data to other drives and CDs. I'm just trying to find out if people have had experience with sounds like that NOT meaning a dying drive.

The "click" I mentioned was a click I recognize from a dying drive, indeed; it's just in the past, usually that click was accompanied by a repeating "click-KACHUNK click-KACHUNK click-KACHUNK" while this was just a head click and then the same sound as when the drive spins up from being in power-save mode.

I turned off the computer for awhile and now it's not doing it; so I'm trying to take advtantage and back data up. I can only guess that the only prudent move is to not take a chance and to return it (I actually have a couple weeks it appears)

Thanks

 

stelliger, backup (if you have not already). Run (all) the harddrive's utilities. If the utilities say there is a problem with the drive itself, return it (they won't argue with their own utilities ) .

Matt

 

Would the utilities really detect a problem like this?

Seems this occasional "click - spin..." problem is very intermittent and my past experience has been that often diagnostics don't pick up on such intermittent problems.

Newer diags and newer drives may be different. I just don't want to have the drive pass, keep the drive and a month from now wind up with a dead drive which I can no longer return.

 

Definitely run the tests, maybe a few times if it may not have "clicked ". The tests run in milliseconds (and lower) so should pick up a drop in speed like that.

If the tests say there is no problem with the drive, I would send an email explaining the problem to the manufacturer. Keep a copy of the email so that you have dated proof that you were experiencing problems before the warranty ran out. Even if they do not respond to that email, you have the proof to show them when you make a claim. I don't think they would make it hard for you to get another one (at least they shouldn't).

Matt