One of my hard drives has been very poorly behaved lately. First it started with some mild grinding and crunching at start up (it’s not the boot drive) and for 5 minutes or so after.
Then the bios couldn’t find it on post and it was not seen by the O/S. The hard drive LED was constantly on after that and the noise became more persistant.
The crunching got worse and it started making noises unlike any I’ve heard a hard drive make before. It sounded like something out of Star Wars.
So, I pull the drive and all is well. Now time to get an RMA. The drive is about two and a half years old on a three year warranty.
I downloaded the Western Digital diagnostic tool and put the drive back in to test it and get the error code. I hook the drive back up (this time on the primary IDE controller) and not only does it stop making noise, but the diagnostic tells me the drive is fine. It won’t run the quick test, but the advanced test passes. I even did a 12 hour loop of the stress test and the drive was quiet and happy. So I put it back on the secondary IDE with the same results.
I tried IBM’s diagnostic and it passed that too. Quick test and advanced. The CDR I have on the secondary IDE controller is working fine. I can’t imagine anything could make a drive sound like that other than failed mechanics in the drive.
Any ideas? Is Western Digital just going to test it and send it back to me with a snide letter? Anyone know of a better free disk check utility?
Vitals: Dual boot 98SE/Win2k system. All symptoms observed in Win2k. Abit BE6 mainboard with onboard DMA/66 controller. Boot drive: IBM 20GB with a WD 13.6GB slave, both on the DMA/66. CD on primary IDE, CDR on secondary, both master. The problem drive is an AC310100B (10.1GB DMA/33).
I’m at a loss. Any insight is greatly appreciated.
I suggest that you call WD. They know a lot more about the failures that your particular drive is prone to than you do, including any failures that don’t show up during routine diagnostic testing. Based on my experience with bad WD drives, I would expect that them to either have an explanation and a software fix or to send you a replacement drive forthwith.
A friend of mine bought a WD 10Gb drive last year and asked for my help installing it. We put it in as normal, hooked everything up appropriately, turned on the machine, and nothing. The drive kept making dull clicking/thumping noises every 4 or 5 seconds. We downloaded the diagnostics, put it on the secondary IDE controller, used a different IDE cable, everything we could think of. No dice. He was all in a tizzy to have a big 10 gig drive, so he went and bought another one (he’s kind of a freak like that). Same thing. Searching newsgroups, we found that the WD 10Gb drives are known to be problematic. I advise calling WD tech support (who have been quite good in my experience), telling them your story, and do what they tell you to do. If they can’t get it working, they’ll give you your RMA and get you a new drive.
Curiously, I took that drive and put it in a different computer I was building, and it worked fine, but as an 8Gb drive instead. It was an older motherboard, which I believe had an 8Gb cap on HD size.
handy, your grammar is forgiven, but how the hell did you manage a repeat post on two different threads? Isn’t your first post something you posted on a “RAM vs. HDD” thread?
That’s just it, the drive seems fine now. I just don’t trust it to store anything on (truth be told, it had nothing on it when it crapped out). I think it was like $200 when a got it a couple of years ago and the warranty is up in 6 months. I just don’t want to chuck a 10 gig drive.
Looks like WD support is open on Saturday, guess I’ll see what they have to say. Anyone ever heard a noise remotely resembling my description from a hard drive?