Western Digital= FAIL

[hickfarm]

Anyways i was downloading something overnight and the next day when i get to my pc it says the location the info was being written can no longer be found. So i figured maybe a sata cable came loose or something like it has on this HDD before. Well that isn't the problem.

I reboot my pc and the HDD spins up, but clicks every few seconds so i knew the head was stuck or something. I am thinking oh **** i got nearly 500 gigs of info on there since it was a 500 gig HDD. So i'm not worried about the drive failing as much as the info that i had on it. Movies, music, pictures, the whole works.

So i suck it up and buy a terabyte Seagate drive just to spite Western Digital for failing on me and also to try and recover the data.

So in desperation i try the freezer trick, but no go and it does the exact same thing. I going to RMA the drive eventually since it is easily under the 5 year warranty. But is there any other ways to get the drive to work before i send it off? I have heard about heating it up with a hair drier also and that may get it going. Any suggestions would be good as long as it doesn't cost me losing my warranty.

 

[Kharn]

Odd but it has worked for me before now - Turn it upside down in the drive bay and then treat it as normal, it's only worked for me once or twice.

 

[Apokalipse]

I buy Seagates most of the time, but Western Digital are by no means bad. The fact is, there will be bad drives from every company.

I think statistically Seagate have the lowest failure rates. Western Digital have among the lowest though. You just happen to be one of the unlucky few people who actually did get one of the (few) bad ones.

 

[Drizzt]

I heard good things about putting peanut butter on the hdd platters. (dontdoit)

Sry dude, you got boned

 

[Apokalipse]

I heard good things about putting peanut butter on the hdd platters. (dontdoit)

Sry dude, you got boned

no, you need to use steel wool.
While it's running.

Then overclock it by increasing the voltage by 100V

 

[Nick]

I have 2 western digital drives both 160gb, they're the caviar series, anyway I've had my OS one for just over a year and my networked one since christmas and they've been running a treat. Sorry to hear that your drive failed you...

 

[zeroinfinity2]

LOL! I've never had a problem with a WD, matter of fact, I never had a problem with any HD. Try turning it upside down, like saxon said. If that doesn't work, you can always take it apart, lol.

Don't do that either.

 

[hickfarm]

Actually I have taken apart old hard drives and put them back together. As long as you do it in a clean environment she shouldn't have any problems. Although those were old crappy 6 gig ide drives i didn't care about, but i want to keep the warranty so no experimenting to much.

I know i had a lot of info on that drive, but i just can't remember what it all was. My other 500 gig HDD i have archived more and i know what i lost, but on this drive i just can't remember.

 

[Jorsoft]

That's what sucks about the big dreams, you fill em up and forget what was taking up so much space. Turning it upside down works sometimes, like Saxon said. Could also try this but you might be in danger of voiding your warranty.

Mandible Games » Blog Archive » How I recovered my hard drive by double-boiling it

 

[Kharn]

Bizzar I know but I can recall a tutorial i read on recovering data from a drive that said dropping it onto a soft surface from a height of 2 - 3 inches would work but only on some drives that where old and locked up from lack of use (I think the figure was any time frame they gave was over 8 months) but I personaly wouldnt risk it unless it was a dire emergency i,e, nothing else would work sceneario, You could try the freazer trick but be warned it can void any warinty you have (I just got off the phone with my supplier of Segate Hard drives an confermed this), there is the option of saying to the supplier or WD themselfs "Look i had a lot of data on that drive that i need back, family photos, music you downloaded from iTunes, school work etc an they might say ok we will see what we can do, as to me it sounds like your problem is of a mechanical nature and if the disk is physicaly OK and it's just a crappy part they might just be able to swap it out for you with a new one, I had to ask this recently for a drive out of a new server that held around 4 years worth of financial data, but that might be a long shot if it's from a personal computer an not from a business.

Hope that helps, Chris.