Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

[Wester547]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

Oh, well, there's nothing important on that drive. I just think that 1 more pending sector means less lifetime for the HDD, even if I just wasn't using that sector before.

[Shocker]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

Yeah but when you've already got 26, more will usually follow...

I checked about 9,000 hours ago and there were 26. I checked just now and there are still 26. I've seen MUCH worse anyway.

[Shocker]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

I just ran CHKDSK. Ran like lightning. Nothing changed.

[Wester547]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

^ That doesn't surprise me, as the bad sectors, when reallocated (or swapped for reserved ones, if you would) are invisible to the operating system. In and of themselves they cannot cause problems. The worst they can do is somewhat cripple the performance of the drive and stress the read/write heads a might bit more (having to seek to the spare pool of sectors on the media, but that again is more pertaining to performance). I would only worry if reallocated sectors were seen early in a hard drive's life.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

I really don't want to go through this whole thread, so I don't know if this guy sent his out to get one back, or if he still has it...but if anyone out there HAS seagate 1TB thats dead cause of clicking or the motor or whathave you, I want to buy it off you

I have a 1TB that has a broken sata connector, I *think* it works, I just need to replace the controller board

[Agent24]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

I really don't want to go through this whole thread, so I don't know if this guy sent his out to get one back, or if he still has it...but if anyone out there HAS seagate 1TB thats dead cause of clicking or the motor or whathave you, I want to buy it off you

I have a 1TB that has a broken sata connector, I *think* it works, I just need to replace the controller board

If you swap boards they need to be an exact match. And with modern drives you likely need to swap the configuration EEPROM as well.

Might be better off just swapping the SATA socket by itself...

[momaka]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

The threshold for the amount of reallocations a Seagate can safely have (judging by S.M.A.R.T. data) is 54, so 26 should still be okay, especially for almost 38,000 hours of use.

I have a 40 GB Seagate Baracuda ATA IV (ST340016A) with 94 bad sectors that I still use. It has 15848 ON hours and 1132 power cycles. Everything else looks good in the SMART data, so I don't see why I shouldn't keep using it.

Also, I recently acquired a few laptop HDDs. One of them is a 40 GB SATA Seagate with over 1000 bad sectors. I just put XP on that drive and put it in one of my computers. Will grab the SMART info from it when I have time. Looks stable for now and the bad sector count hasn't increased. This HDD was actually taken from either a PS3 or a Xbox 360 (not sure which). It might have been thrown a few times as well - that's what they normally do at the place where I got that drive from.

Another one from those laptop HDDs above had a stuck head close to the landing area on the platter (where the HDD puts the heads when the drive is spun but isn't being used). That one was a 160 GB Fujitsu MHW2120BH. I managed to get the heads unstuck with a toothpick. I did this in a bit of a rush, though, so I didn't think of using a clean toothpick (used the one on my workbench, which isn't really dirty, but it does have some dust on it). After lifting the heads, there was a small spot on the top platter where the head was - turns out it was dust. I cleaned that as well. There were still a few tiny small dust particles on the top platter so I decided to blow them with my mouth - bad idea! I accidentally blew a tiny bit of spit on the platter . Cleaned that too. Finally powered on the drive. At first, it seemed like it was broken (head going back and forth), but after a few tries, it stopped at the inner surface of the platter, then moved to a few random spots and started writing. Thus, I decided to leave it on. After running for about half a minute, it seems like it finally calibrated. I haven't tried to see if Windows can see the drive, but BIOS does see it. Stay tuned for that one .

If you swap boards they need to be an exact match. And with modern drives you likely need to swap the configuration EEPROM as well.

Might be better off just swapping the SATA socket by itself...

+1

[Wester547]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

I have a 40 GB Seagate Baracuda ATA IV (ST340016A) with 94 bad sectors that I still use. It has 15848 ON hours and 1132 power cycles. Everything else looks good in the SMART data, so I don't see why I shouldn't keep using it.

Also, I recently acquired a few laptop HDDs. One of them is a 40 GB SATA Seagate with over 1000 bad sectors. I just put XP on that drive and put it in one of my computers. Will grab the SMART info from it when I have time. Looks stable for now and the bad sector count hasn't increased. This HDD was actually taken from either a PS3 or a Xbox 360 (not sure which). It might have been thrown a few times as well - that's what they normally do at the place where I got that drive from.

If those 94 sectors are reallocated, you should be okay. If they're pending and/or offline uncorrectable, I would worry. On and off-handed note, the system one of my ST340016As is in died today - a Dell Dimension 8200. Power supply fan stopped spinning, CPU fan squeals, and lights are blinking yellow and green on the back, and it won't get past the blinking bar after the splash Dell screen. Sounds like a dead PSU to me. But the HDDs still sound okay, thankfully. :P

[Shocker]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

I have a 40 GB Seagate Baracuda ATA IV (ST340016A) with 94 bad sectors that I still use. It has 15848 ON hours and 1132 power cycles. Everything else looks good in the SMART data, so I don't see why I shouldn't keep using it.

Run a disk check and see if it changes.

Also, I recently acquired a few laptop HDDs. One of them is a 40 GB SATA Seagate with over 1000 bad sectors. I just put XP on that drive and put it in one of my computers. Will grab the SMART info from it when I have time. Looks stable for now and the bad sector count hasn't increased. This HDD was actually taken from either a PS3 or a Xbox 360 (not sure which). It might have been thrown a few times as well - that's what they normally do at the place where I got that drive from.

Thrown???

BTW, what are the biggest and smallest hard drives you have???

[momaka]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

If those 94 sectors are reallocated, you should be okay. If they're pending and/or offline uncorrectable, I would worry.

Just reallocated, fortunately (but still not too much ).

Run a disk check and see if it changes.

IIRC, I think I did a low-level format on it already. That computer has nothing important on it - just a few old games.

Thrown???

Yes. They have a scrap hardware pile where they literally throw things that don't work/can't be fixed. The 3 laptop drives I got are all from there. One of them I definitely know got thrown for sure (I saw it), but not sure which one and not sure for the others either.

On that note, I was finally able to find a second SATA cable today to test these laptop drives. Well, the 40 GB laptop Seagate ST9402115AS I know works okay for now. It sure has a lot of reallocated sectors on it, though (1747 to be exact!) and almost as many pending. I dare not run a scan on it - it works fine for testing my new trash-picked socket 939 computer. At 1201 power on hours, it just seems too young to kill. See attached SMART log if you like.

As for the other 2 laptop drives:
- The 250 GB Toshiba spins up but does not get recognized in BIOS. I can't hear it click too much. I think it does calibrate successfully, but I'll have to open it and check. Need to find some small Torx drivers for that, however.
- The 160 GB Fujitsu actually worked! Yes, this is after opening the drive, getting the heads unstuck with a toothpick, getting the platters dirty by accident, and then cleaning them. Amazing! Of course, it didn't work for too long, though (maybe 1 hour total). I remember that even right away after fixing it, the heads would occasionally make a high pitched sound because one of them was probably too close to the platter (maybe even touching it). Regardless, I was able to get a reading of the SMART log from it today. It is attached in the image file (Disk Checkup kept freezing when trying to export the SMART log). Not only that, but I was able to format the drive and write some small files to it (I didn't get a chance to try large files, though) - granted Windows did crash once with a blue screen when it was trying to find the drive. But for the most part, it was all fine until I decided to run a HD Tune Benchmark - that one did it for good. At about 98%, the transfer rate dropped, computer started becoming unresponsive, both HD Tune and Windows lost the drive (couldn't see it any longer), and then finally, the drive began clicking and a blue screen followed.
Upon opening the drive again to see if it would calibrate, I noticed a deep cylindrical scratch about 1/4 way to the inner surface on the top platter.
I think I can safely assume that this drive is now dead. Although, I should note that even with the scratch, the clicking is still in irregular intervals because the drive is still trying to calibrate. I guess it just doesn't want to die yet!

Lastly, some update news on that 160 GB Seagate ST3160812AS that I took from work - I think it's dead. Windows was able to find it, but then it blue-screened and restarted. The drive never got found again. I'm not sure if this is because I opened it before. It does do the calibrate sequence fine, though, so it's not totally dead. Just a word of caution - DO NOT run that drive open without a cover! There's a mechanism in it that will keep the headstack from moving over the platters unless there's a certain airflow present under the heads. Actually running the drive like that probably won't do anything bad to it (other than accumulate dust in it, of course) since the heads just won't move. However, if you disable that airflow mechanism (like I did), the drive will try to operate as normal but since there won't be enough airflow under the heads, they will make alwful scratching sounds and possibly even damage your platters. Even after this accident, that hard drive still calibrated, though. I guess I will be taking it appart. Originally, I was just going to split the drive in 4 even partitions and see which one had bad sectors, hoping that maybe I can use the others.

BTW, what are the biggest and smallest hard drives you have???

Biggest (working): 250 GB Seagate 7200.8 from a Shuttle PC. Was my friends and still has Windows XP on it. I'm not sure if it still works since I accidentally dropped it last summer from about 30 cm while cleaning. BIOS sees it and it tries to load Windows, so I'm thinking that it still does. If it's not working, then my biggest drive is a 160 GB Western Digital WD1600JB-75GVC0. That one had less than 1400 hours on it when I found it.

Biggest (non-working): 250 GB Toshiba laptop drive (from the 3 laptop drives I mentioned above)

Smallest (working): 3.2 GB Quantum Bigfoot 5.25" drive. Occasionally the heads get stuck when it sits unused for a while. A gentle whack usually frees it up.

Smallest (non-working): 120 MB Maxtor.

[Shocker]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

On that note, I was finally able to find a second SATA cable today to test these laptop drives. Well, the 40 GB laptop Seagate ST9402115AS I know works okay for now. It sure has a lot of reallocated sectors on it, though (1747 to be exact!) and almost as many pending. I dare not run a scan on it - it works fine for testing my new trash-picked socket 939 computer. At 1201 power on hours, it just seems too young to kill. See attached SMART log if you like.

Running a scan won't damage the drive. It'll just reveal damaged sectors that were not already marked.

Lastly, some update news on that 160 GB Seagate ST3160812AS that I took from work - I think it's dead. Windows was able to find it, but then it blue-screened and restarted. The drive never got found again. I'm not sure if this is because I opened it before. It does do the calibrate sequence fine, though, so it's not totally dead. Just a word of caution - DO NOT run that drive open without a cover! There's a mechanism in it that will keep the headstack from moving over the platters unless there's a certain airflow present under the heads. Actually running the drive like that probably won't do anything bad to it (other than accumulate dust in it, of course) since the heads just won't move. However, if you disable that airflow mechanism (like I did), the drive will try to operate as normal but since there won't be enough airflow under the heads, they will make alwful scratching sounds and possibly even damage your platters. Even after this accident, that hard drive still calibrated, though. I guess I will be taking it appart. Originally, I was just going to split the drive in 4 even partitions and see which one had bad sectors, hoping that maybe I can use the others.

If the mechanism is above the platter, operate it with your fingers once the drive is up to speed. The airflow should be enough to keep it in place after moving it out of the way. If it's below the platter, there's nothing you can do.

Biggest (working): 250 GB Seagate 7200.8 from a Shuttle PC. Was my friends and still has Windows XP on it. I'm not sure if it still works since I accidentally dropped it last summer from about 30 cm while cleaning. BIOS sees it and it tries to load Windows, so I'm thinking that it still does. If it's not working, then my biggest drive is a 160 GB Western Digital WD1600JB-75GVC0. That one had less than 1400 hours on it when I found it.

The mere fact that it even tries to load Windows is encouraging. Even one broken head should result in the Click of Death; the drive cycles through the heads at each cylinder, before switching to the next cylinder. Slightly similar to RAID-0 (which should really be called "AID", or maybe "FAID" for "fast array of independent disks").

If I don't count drives with perpendicular recording, the same ST380011A I already mentioned. If I do, an ST31500341AS I'm not currently using.

Biggest (non-working): 250 GB Toshiba laptop drive (from the 3 laptop drives I mentioned above)

An ST31000333AS. It powered on, gave normal SMART output, but had one intermittent problem or another, leading to BSoDs when I had it in my main system. I actually got it out of a Maxtor-branded (Seagate bought Maxtor and used it as a brand for a while) USB case, so it's doubtful I would have been able to get the bare drive changed under warranty. On top of that, it wasn't a drive I bought. Eventually (after transferring loads and loads of stuff), I took the lid off. While fooling with it, I accidentally scratched the top platter with a small screwdriver. Eventually, I took apart the entire platter stack and found scratches on all other five surfaces. Whether they were the original problem or a chain reaction, who knows.

Smallest (working): 3.2 GB Quantum Bigfoot 5.25" drive. Occasionally the heads get stuck when it sits unused for a while. A gentle whack usually frees it up.

Those Quantum Bigfoots actually had surprisingly good performance considering their form factor, but they weren't exactly renowned for reliability. Anyway, the smallest working drive I have is a Fujitsu MPC3043AT.

Smallest (non-working): 120 MB Maxtor.

As luck would have it, I came across a similar (or maybe even the same) 120MB Maxtor a while ago, as well as a Seagate ST3144A. Neither of them worked properly. I also came across a Conner CFS420A that worked at first, but then died silently to run no more.

[Scenic]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

Oldest working HDD I have (of which I know that it's working, i.e. tested it somewhat recently) is a Seagate ST351A/X (40MB). One of the very last stepper drives, but with a single platter and thus relatively fast (for its time).

http://www.redhill.net.au/d/16.php (ignore the 40GB typo..)

I've got 2 even older drives but IDK where those are and I haven't been able to get an ISA MFM controller to test them in years.
One is a 40MB NEC, the other is a 20MB Tandon/Western Digital.

I also have a bunch of run-of-the-mill sub 2GB (200MB and up) drives that all still work. The crappier ones get used as a PSU dummy load every now and then. Especially the Conner CFS540A's don't seem to mind excessive ripple at all.. and I kinda like the sound they're making when they spin up.. *beeep* *slowly starts spinning*

Got about a handful of different Bigfoots as well. All of them still working fine, despite a few of them hanging on the wall as decoration for years..
They're basically DCU's (Dust Collecting Units)

Bigfoot CY 4.3GB
Bigfoot TX 6GB (Compaq OEM)
and a beautiful looking (black/silver) Bigfoot TS of which I don't know the size out of the top of my head ATM. The sticker telling the actual model number is on the backside and I don't feel like taking it off of the wall right now. What I do know is that the TS was the last series IIRC. They topped out at 20GB.

The others are buried in the closet somewhere..

[shovenose]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

Biggest: 1TB Seagate ES in file server
Smallest: 2GB 2.5" oldy that makes weird noises
Newest: Scorpio Blue 640GB SATA in Lenovo laptop

[Wester547]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

Just reallocated, fortunately (but still not too much ).

The only disadvantage of reallocations is an incisive drop in read/write throughput due to using spare sectors (what bad sectors are swapped with) in lieu of usual ones. Otherwise, though, you'd at least have stability. But at this point, I'm probably sounding redundant, and I doubt the performance drop would be enough to be vexing on a drive as old as the ST340016A (2001). ^^;

As for me....

Largest hard drive, 1TB HDS721010CLA332 (2 disks/platters). Smallest HD, an old 4MB drive in an old Atari from the early 90's. Can't remember the manufacture of it. I don't have a SSD (yet).

[Shocker]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

I've got 2 even older drives but IDK where those are and I haven't been able to get an ISA MFM controller to test them in years.
One is a 40MB NEC, the other is a 20MB Tandon/Western Digital.

Fleabay???

The crappier ones get used as a PSU dummy load every now and then. Especially the Conner CFS540A's don't seem to mind excessive ripple at all.. and I kinda like the sound they're making when they spin up.. *beeep* *slowly starts spinning*

Definition of crappy???

Smallest: 2GB 2.5" oldy that makes weird noises

Which brand/model???

Smallest HD, an old 4MB drive in an old Atari from the early 90's. Can't remember the manufacture of it.

4MB hard drive??? Early 90s???

[Shocker]

Western Digital selling assets to Toshiba

http://www.storagereview.com/western...assets_toshiba

[Scenic]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

Fleabay???

No luck. There were only like 5 of them in 3 years, all for totally ridiculous prices like 49eur (~65usd)
The fact that most people don't even know wtf MFM or RLL is doesn't help either. I've seen those things sold as "floppy drive controllers" multiple times

Definition of crappy???

Old samsungs and fujitsus and of course the crappy connor-seagate hybrid f*cktards which are ridiculously slow and cheaply made, yet still survived all those years. Probably because no one used them for long lol

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

One of the Caviar HDDs, a 2008 Caviar WD2500AAJS, got bit-rot. SMART reported a "UNC" and possibly a write error, but SMART then showed nothing after I wiped the HDD! It's gonna be used as part of a RAID 0 array on my Dell Vostro 200, which has ICH9R RAID.

I can't find bad sectors on it.

[Shocker]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

Old samsungs and fujitsus and of course the crappy connor-seagate hybrid f*cktards which are ridiculously slow and cheaply made, yet still survived all those years. Probably because no one used them for long lol

The early Samsungs were indeed horrible, but the Fujitsus were OK for the most part. It was the MPG series with the faulty Cirrus Logic chip that was infamous.

No wonder the Cabos were slow, as the 1.6GB models were the last 3600RPM 3.5" drives made.

So: What was the greatest drive manufacturer of all time???

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Seagate 1tb Click Of Death

The early Samsungs were indeed horrible, but the Fujitsus were OK for the most part. It was the MPG series with the faulty Cirrus Logic chip that was infamous.

No wonder the Cabos were slow, as the 1.6GB models were the last 3600RPM 3.5" drives made.

So: What was the greatest drive manufacturer of all time???

I had a Fujitsu 4 GB that could be the MPG series and not even one bad sector that I saw, but when powered on after sitting, it went to a click of death. Seems to be a chip problem.