Harddrive Failure Eminent?

[LanceSteel]

I got a Western Digital 120GB HD about two months ago and recently its been acting funny. When the computer boots up, the hard drive make some clicking sounds. When I go to build a dvd sometimes the harddrive 'clicks' once during the vob build. The first time this happened I didn't think anything of it since the computer didn't report a write error. After I burned the dvd, the dvd skipped (there was a massive video error) during playback which lasted for about a second. I then rebuilt the vob's (this time with no clicks) and the dvd played back fine. Now I have to sit and watch my computer during vob builds to make sure that the HD doesn't 'click' and ruin the build. Is this a common problem with WD HD's? I ask this because this is the second WD 120GB drive that has failed (or is failing). Is WD a bad brand for HD's?

Thanks.

[mrtristan]

My advice to you is to back up any important data that you have on that drive, then take it to be professionally repaired. I just burnt out my Maxtor. It was behaving almost exactly like your drive.

I would go with a Maxtor, because of their warranty. I'm getting a new hard drive, for free. It was an inconvenience, but at least I didn't have to purchase a new one.

[Spicuzza]

LanceSteel,

I believe your observation is correct. I've never had anything but Western Digital HDD and within the last past year I have had three (3) of their drives fail. Something must be going on with their quality control because prior to this year I never had a Western Digital HDD fail!

I must say that I am thoroughly pleased with their customer service. With a phone call they send a replacement drive first then you sent them the old one.

My other suspicion is the heat created by 7200 rpm drives and I've recently installed HDD coolers. They work fantastic lowering the operating temperature from about 130 degrees down to about 100 degrees!

See the link below this may help for your next set of drives:
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/computer_cooling.html#hd