I think my hard drive just died

[memory]

I have two hard drives, one for OS and the other for storage. I turned my computer on today and I can hear a clicking noise and it sounds like it is coming from the storage hard drive. Well my computer would not boot up past the boot from cd screen, it will sit there for several seconds and then give me a message saying something about insert the system disk and press enter. Can't remember the whole message.

So I turned the computer off and unhooked the storage drive and it booted up fine. If the storage drive did die, why would that cause it not to boot up? The only thing that is on there is files, there is nothing to do with the OS on there.

I sure hope my hard drive didn't die. I didn't have everything backed up.

 

[MindoverMaster]

That can happen. It checks your OS as well as your Storage HDD.

I would do the freezer trick.

 

[memory]

What is the freezer trick? Before I try anything like that, I am going to try to recover the files first.

I talked to a computer guy and he told me about a cable that connects to a usb and has SATA and IDE connections on it that he uses to backup hard drives to another computer with one touch backup. He said he uses that to recover files off a dead hard drive and it works pretty good. I am having trouble finding it. Do you know what I am talking about?

 

[RSinger]

It is just a converter to allow you to connect the hd a different way. If the hd doesn't work in the computer then it will not likely work this way either.
Here is an example of what he was talking about: Click


The freezer trick is putting the hd in the freezer for a while. What commonly happens when a hd crashes is called a head crash. Inside the hd there are disks (platters) that spin with readers (heads) that sit extremely close to the platters. A head crash occurs when the head actually touches the platter. Which is were the clicking noise comes from. When you cool the temp of a metal it shrinks slightly. Sometimes (if you are lucky and there is no physical damage done) it will shrink enough that the head will lift from the platter. This will not work for long as once the parts warm up they will likely touch again.
I have never personally tried it but I have been told it works for a short period of time. I don't know for sure though.

 

[MindoverMaster]

get a simple external hdd box.

For the freezer check, i never tried either, but i have heard it works for some ppl.

 

[memory]

get a simple external hdd box.

For the freezer check, i never tried either, but i have heard it works for some ppl.

I went to Best Buy, can't stand going there, and bought a external hard drive enclosure. Put the supposedly dead hard drive in there and it recognized all the files and I am transferring them to the other drive right now. It was a little more expensive than those adapters but still worth it.

Since the extrernal box recognizes everything, does that mean the hard drive is not dead? Then why won't it work when hooked up internally?

 

[carnageX]

I would not trust it for long if it is clicking. Clicking = very bad (hardware failure is imminent). Make sure you have all of your files backed up and replace the drive.

 

[memory]

I would not trust it for long if it is clicking. Clicking = very bad (hardware failure is imminent). Make sure you have all of your files backed up and replace the drive.

Yeah I know. I used a external closure and it recognized everything on the drive so I transferred everything over to the Windows drive. I am getting ready to put everything on dvd's.

The external closure I bought only works with SATA. I am going to return it and buy one that has both interfaces. I don't know if I am going to buy a closure or get a usb to sata/ide adapter cable.

This could be why the hard drive is about to die. Windows automatically defrags the hard drives once a week. I did not realize that. I have heard it is not good to defrag that much. If that is what caused the drive to go bad, my other one might be getting close to fail.

I am going to look into a external hard drive for a backup and still have 2 internal drives. What would be a good external hard drive around 500gb's? I am also looking for a good internal as well.

Here are a few:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074

Is there a big performance difference between these two? IIRC, the second one is the same one I have now that has died. I don't know if I want to take that risk.

 

[memory]

I used HD tune to do a error check on the bad drive and it tested fine. So does that mean it is something else?

When I have the drive in the enclosure, it does not make a clicking sound.

 

[MindoverMaster]

just back up everything. It could be running it at a slower speed, so it won't click.

Clicking is a very bad sign. In click code, that means "Back me up!!!!!"