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Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: kevinho on April 08, 2006, 23:13

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: kevinho on April 08, 2006, 23:13

Are there any signs that a hard drive failure is imminent?
I have a 200gb Maxtor SATA on my desktop pc and every so often it makes a very noticeable "click" and everything freezes for about 30 seconds and then returns to normal. This has happened about 3 times today.

Is this an early warning of a potential hard drive failure? Or just something which is probably nothing to worry about?

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: sam on April 08, 2006, 23:42

Yes, I do think it is a potential hard disk failure. Backup.

I dug a page I came across ages ago: http://faq.storagereview.com/tiki-index.php?page=DeathClicks

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: Mac on April 09, 2006, 11:06

Usually a sign that failure is imminent.

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: Mac on April 09, 2006, 15:39

Do you have S.M.A.R.T. enabled?

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: Stormy on April 09, 2006, 17:30

Thank you to Sam who does have S.M.A.R.T. enabled!  (https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.plainfolkauctions.com%2Fforums%2Fstyle_emoticons%2Fdefault%2Fohyeah.gif&hash=86b22184abb35d9f6b51c386211b769a861b1f72)

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: kevinho on April 11, 2006, 20:02

Thanks for the replies.

Here are the results from the seagate tests

Run: 11/04/2006 19:54:24



Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller : Maxtor 6 Y200M0 SCSI Disk Device

Model:      Maxtor 6 Y200M0 SCSI Disk Device

Serial Number:   Y63F2PME

Capacity:      203.92 GB

Status:      No S.M.A.R.T. thresholds exceeded.



Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller : Maxtor 6 B200M0 SCSI Disk Device

Model:      Maxtor 6 B200M0 SCSI Disk Device

Serial Number:   Y63F2PME

Capacity:      203.92 GB

Status:      No S.M.A.R.T. thresholds exceeded.



 Run: 11/04/2006 19:55:54



Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller : Maxtor 6 Y200M0 SCSI Disk Device

Model:      Maxtor 6 Y200M0 SCSI Disk Device

Serial Number:   Y63F2PME

Capacity:      203.92 GB

Test result:   Self-test routine completed without error.



Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller : Maxtor 6 B200M0 SCSI Disk Device

Model:      Maxtor 6 B200M0 SCSI Disk Device

Serial Number:   Y63F2PME

Capacity:      203.92 GB

Test result:   Self-test routine completed without error.



 Looks like it found nothing wrong? I have 2 drives in case you were wondering  :D

Could it possibly be something to do with the motherboard?

Title: MAXTOR
Post by: Mac on April 11, 2006, 20:28

I see that the two drives are different models. How old are the drives?

MAXTOR (http://www.maxtor.com)

I have had a Maxtor drive develop an internal fault after four years of use. It died completely after several loud clicks were heard.

I doubt that it is the motherboard.

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: kevinho on April 12, 2006, 08:55

The drives are both the same model and I have had them for 1 year and about 9 months.

Yesterday i installed my IPod and software and on a reeboot I wasnt quick enough to see exactly what it said but it was something about the CMOS and when it reebooted it showed a picture screen (for want of a better description) of the mother board, which is an ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe. When it did eventually restart my clock had gone back to January 2001 and the start menu was full of "new programmes installed"

Now on each reboot that motherboard picture screen always comes up. It never did before unless i wanted to go into the bios.

Its really weird. Any ideas what is happening or what happened to cause this?

Title: MAXTOR
Post by: Mac on April 12, 2006, 09:47

How is the CMOS battery?

Drive Models:

Maxtor 6Y200M0

Maxtor 6B200M0

Therse are two different drive models and may have different characteristics, buffer sizes, etc.

Check out the model numbers on the MAXTOR site.

Click the link below.

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: Mac on April 12, 2006, 09:51

They do seem to have the same serial number though.

Serial Number: Y63F2PME

Which is somewhat unusual...

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: sam on April 12, 2006, 10:37

thats really odd... I would suggest you BACKUP immediately, just incase.

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: Simon on April 12, 2006, 10:55

It seems that your CMOS may have been reset - but I have no idea why, unless it's hardware related.  As Sam suggested, backup without delay.

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: kevinho on April 12, 2006, 11:16

The other thing that is interesting me is that this drive has always been problematic since i got it from new.

I often get problems starting up especially if i have left the computer turned off for a few days. It just wont boot. Well it wont find the "C" drive and i have to uplug the serial cable from the back of the drive and unplug it from the motherboard then replace it and try again. This has always got it to boot again but can take a few goes!

Will replace the battery and back up. I think i will also remove this drive and replace it with a seagate drive and see if they are more reliable, any views as to seagate reliability as opposed to Maxtor? I have had another Maxtor die on me as well.

Thanks for your input.

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: Sandra on April 12, 2006, 11:20

I have found Seagate and Western Digital to be very reliable.

Those are the 2 makes that I tend to go for most times these days and I have recently fitted 2 x 250 gig Sata 11 drives in my own new build pc.

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: Simon on April 12, 2006, 11:26

I bought a Maxtor from an online retailer some years ago, and found that it wouldn't format in order to install an OS, so that went back, and I got an IBM (now Hitachi) which has given me no problems.

Title: Hard Drive Failure Early Warnings?
Post by: Mac on April 12, 2006, 11:29

I have had occasion when a drive wouldn't accept data for an install when the drive manufacturer's burn in test made it receptive.

Burn in testing should be available on the drive manufacturer's diagnostic diskette.