Solved Listen to what a dying HDD sounds like - most common makes!!!

Hi Carmine,

I've heard some of these sounds from experience in my business over the last 20 years, but I've never actually seen a site where they are documented so we can get people by phone (or here) to compare and listen to them. I frankly wasn't aware there were so many and that they varied so much by brand. I knew that was true for BIOS beeps, but didn't know hard drives varied so much.

This is helpful and I've added it to my favorites (though I have so many, I have no idea how to find anything anymore without scrolling through all of them - LOL! - and yes, I could create sub-folders and do some type of sorting but that seems like so much work that it's easier and faster to just search with Bing unless I can't find something I know I have and then I just have to take the time).

Thanks for posting this.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inc. MP061 Inspiron E1705
    CPU
    2.00 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo 64 kilobyte primary memory
    Motherboard
    Board: Dell Inc. 0YD479 Bus Clock: 166 megahertz
    Memory
    2046 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM) [Di
    Sound Card
    SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP Monitor (17.2"vis)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00 [Hard drive] (160.04 GB) -- drive 0, s/n SB2411SJGLLRMB, rev SB4OC74P, SMART Status: Healthy
    Case
    Chassis Serial Number: 5YK95C1
    Keyboard
    Standard PS/2 Keyboard
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    Logitech HID-compliant Cordless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    1958 Kbps download ; 754.8 Kbps upload
    Other Info
    Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-5540A ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]

    Dell AIO Printer A940

    Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 Modem

    6TO4 Adapter
    Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller
    Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter
    Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
    Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

    Router Linksys / WRT54G -01
I too have many favs. collected in 6yrs
 

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My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    gateway/m6881
    CPU
    centrino core 2 duo 2.2ghz T7500
    Memory
    3GB
    Hard Drives
    500GB WD
    Mouse
    logitech
    Internet Speed
    fios 35MB not!!!!
Very nice collection of favouriotes there! I found this website once, while diagnosing my dead hard disk. To be honest, it sounded so bad that I didn't really need this website. The closest one was this one:

Seagate laptop drive with bad heads making clicking/knocking sound.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 420
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.50GHz
    Motherboard
    Stock Dell 0TP406
    Memory
    4 gb (DDR2 800) 400MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 3870 (512 MBytes)
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    Onboard
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    1 x Dell 2007FP and 1 x (old) Sonic flat screen
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 1200 and 1280 x 1204
    Hard Drives
    1 x 640Gb (SATA 300)
    Western Digital: WDC WD6400AAKS-75A7B0

    1 x 1Tb (SATA 600)
    Western Digital: Caviar Black, SATA 6GB/S, 64Mb cache, 8ms
    Western Digital: WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA Device
    PSU
    Stock PSU - 375W
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    Dell XPS 420
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    Stock Fan
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    Dell Bluetooth
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    Advent Optical ADE-WG01 (colour change light up)
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    120 kb/s
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    ASUS USB 3.0 5Gbps/SATA 6Gbps - PCI-Express Combo Controller Card (U3S6)
Very nice collection of favouriotes there! I found this website once, while diagnosing my dead hard disk. To be honest, it sounded so bad that I didn't really need this website. The closest one was this one:

Seagate laptop drive with bad heads making clicking/knocking sound.


Seagate ??? !!!

I have 3 portable Maxtor drives since 2005 that are still good as new.(full)
my internal Maxtor & Seagate drives from 2001 too are in great shape.
what I do is every once in awhile, I create a file and put it in a folder as deep into the drive file/dir structure as I can. reboot then delete it. I was once told that doing that, the magnetic fields or whatever keep the drives alive. so far so kewl!
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    gateway/m6881
    CPU
    centrino core 2 duo 2.2ghz T7500
    Memory
    3GB
    Hard Drives
    500GB WD
    Mouse
    logitech
    Internet Speed
    fios 35MB not!!!!
What I do is every once in awhile, I create a file and put it in a folder as deep into the drive file/dir structure as I can. reboot then delete it. I was once told that doing that, the magnetic fields or whatever keep the drives alive. so far so kewl!

Hi Carmine,

I've never heard about that before (in over 20 years), but if it seems to be working for you that's great. What I don't understand is this. We actually do that in a way all the time (or at least some of us do if not many of us even if not intentionally). I'm not sure what "as deep as I can" means, but when you think about it, temporary internet files are stored fairly deep in the structure (I don't know about "as deep as you can" or how you even figure out which folder is the deepest on your system unless you checked them out individually or created one that's certain to be the deepest just to do this) and if we run TFC periodically as recommended by Jacee, then recently added files that are fairly deep in the structure are deleted and the system reboots. No they aren't folders, but I can't believe that a folder versus a file makes any difference to the magnetic fields in the hard drive.

On the other hand, I haven't had my drives as long as you - I tend to buy new computers and larger drives faster than that (though I've never lost a drive either and I'd guess they're used for about 5 or 6 years before I eventually upgrade for other reasons). But I only recently started using TFC. Before that, it was merely normal maintenance and while I did do clean-ups periodically (and sometimes reboot or shutdown for the evening right after not by plan but by fluke so perhaps I was doing what you suggest merely by accident), I never used a process like this intentionally (but I also haven't tested a drive for 11 years either and have only rarely had clients using drives that old and typically get them to upgrade computers shortly after identifying a situation like that).

Do you shutdown every night or use sleep/hibernation or just leave them on all the time? How often do you defrag? How often do you chkdsk /f /r? I know you add a LOT, but how often do you actually delete much (and how much)? How often do you install/uninstall programs (maybe just to test them out - I mean both, not just the installing part)? How full do you keep the drives (I mean, at 50% or at 95% or higher)? Are the drives heavily partitioned or mostly one or maybe two? What's the most you do that stresses the drives - I mean, makes them run more or less nonstop for long periods - defrags or chkdsks, AV scans, re-indexing, playing movies back-to-back, intensive programming, backups, ...? I'm trying to see if some other factors may be involved in your preservation success.

Thanks and take care, my friend!
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inc. MP061 Inspiron E1705
    CPU
    2.00 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo 64 kilobyte primary memory
    Motherboard
    Board: Dell Inc. 0YD479 Bus Clock: 166 megahertz
    Memory
    2046 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM) [Di
    Sound Card
    SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP Monitor (17.2"vis)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00 [Hard drive] (160.04 GB) -- drive 0, s/n SB2411SJGLLRMB, rev SB4OC74P, SMART Status: Healthy
    Case
    Chassis Serial Number: 5YK95C1
    Keyboard
    Standard PS/2 Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech HID-compliant Cordless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    1958 Kbps download ; 754.8 Kbps upload
    Other Info
    Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-5540A ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]

    Dell AIO Printer A940

    Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 Modem

    6TO4 Adapter
    Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller
    Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter
    Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
    Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

    Router Linksys / WRT54G -01
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