Signs the HD is going

[samijubal]

Are there warning signs a HD may fail? I heard a high pitched whine from one of mine a couple of days ago, bearings maybe. I haven't heard it since, but the computer seems like it may be a little sluggish, or I may just be imagining it. Is there any way to tell if it may be going or should I replace it? Do they just make noise sometimes? It's the one with the OS on it, so if it's going to fail I'd like to get everything off it before it does.

[smearbrick1]

Smoke? Clicking? A loud thud?

[bgclarke]

Western Digital has software that can read their hard drives and let you know if the drive is having any problems.

It is designed for Western Digital drives (which I avoid like the plague) but I have run it against Maxtor drives, and it seemed to work OK.

One way to tell if your drive is going is that it may chirp or clunk. Clunking is very bad, and indicates a head crash is on the horizon.

[redwudz]

Check your BIOS page. See if S.M.A.R.T is enabled. It will usually warn you of impending drive failure. It's common on most newer drives.

And if you have any doubt about the condition of a drive, BACK IT UP. At least your irreplaceable files. You won't regret it.

Some drives make more noise than others. If you are hearing a clicking that happens fairly often and it never did that before, you may have a problem. Still, backing up your files is the best defense.

[JSB1]

http://www.hdtune.com/

HD Tune is a hard disk utility which has the following functions:

Benchmark: measures the raw performance
Transfer Rate
Access Time
CPU Usage
Burst Rate
Hard Disk information which includes partition information, supported features, firmware version, serial number, disk capacity, buffer size, transfer mode
Hard Disk Health
S.M.A.R.T. Information (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology)
Power On Time
Error scan
Temperature display
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HD Tune is freeware!

JSB1

[samijubal]

Cool program, thanks for the link. Not quite sure how to interpret it all, but there were giant spikes in the benchmark test, it failed something in the health test and it's reaching critical temperature. Time to replace it I guess.

[DVinci]

Wouldn't it be interesting if hard drives came with ring tones. So when it's about to go out, it sings to you good-bye, hastalavista.

[Dr. DOS]

Mine has be clicking now for a few months (secondary drive with no real important data on it)

I downloaded a maxtor util ... yup it even said it is destined for failure.

[ROF]

10 Signs of a dying drive(some symptoms may indicate other problems):

1) Clicking noise when not accessing drive.

2) Louder ticking noise when accessing drive.

3) OS Lockup for no apparent reason. (primary drive partition)

4) Unusual smell from drive.

5) Clanging noise accompanied by OS crash.

6) Age of drive is 5+ Years. (Should last longer, but see other symptoms)

7) Extremely slower Access time.

8 ) Loud clang when HDD head is parked. (Noticed when you shutdown computer)

9) Undue Corrupt File Data.

10) Physical signs of failure. (Smoke, Flame, etc.) *** Power Down System Immediately ***