Is this a sign that my Seagate IDE hard drive is dying?

5 Comments

1. Tony Clark says:

   September 9, 2010 at 3:13 pm

   Yep, sounds like your hard drive is about to die. I would suggest you back up any important files you have before it completely crashes on you. This is a device that allows you to do so:
   http://www.topmicrousa.com/bt-300.html

   You connect the old hard drive to this device, and then the device to a another computer or laptop via USB. You would then be able to access all the files on it.
   I got the device off a PC World Magazine Article.
   Best of luck!
2. Techmonkey says:

   September 9, 2010 at 3:13 pm

   Clicking noises are normally a sign of drive death am afraid. I would back it up and look at replacing it.
3. hackb0y294 says:

   September 9, 2010 at 3:13 pm

   Probably. It could be a sign that it’s not receiving enough power (you sound pretty smart, so if you have a voltmeter, check the molex (d shaped power) connector; the yellow wire should be 12 volts DC, and the red wire should be 5 volts DC (the two black wires are negative or ground)). I wouldn’t consider this to be likely, but it’s worth a try. If it turns out that the voltage readings are less that normal, you need a new power supply unit. If they are normal, chances are that one of these is the culprit: drive head crash, bad sectors, or some mechanical fault.

   EDIT: She said that she already backed up the data, people!
4. michael n says:

   September 9, 2010 at 3:13 pm

   generally hard drive failure is immediate or predicted by windows. so if you never got an error message before the clicking, your drive may well be on its last stretch already. i recommend backing it up or replacing it with a newer hard drive. however it is worth noting that hard drives rarely fail because they are very simple durable pieces of equipment. i still have a hard drive from 20 years ago that works just fine. overheating is not likly to have a major effect on a hard drive unless the motor which turns the spindle is broken (unlikly). hard drive failure is a rare issue but its better to be safe than sorry. however if shit hits the fan and there is imperative data on your hard drive that you need, dont throw it away, it can probably be repaired. its also possible that the IDE on the hard drive is somehow broken.
5. Diehardall says:

   September 9, 2010 at 3:13 pm

   YES…It is a sign it is dying or has died. From my years of computer repairs, when I see that I usually told the customer to backup and change the drive ASAP. it is gone.

   I can remember telling a customer that and he called me the second week the hard disk is gone.

   One thing we sometimes do to retrieve data from a crashed disk is wrap it up and put it in a freezer. When it is well freezed, take it out and try to recover the data before it stops responding again.

   My advice is to stop using it. It is gone.