Shoutbox

I have this WD120GB internal EIDE HDD which I bought in 2002. Last year it started to make this loud clicking noise and it was not recognized by Windows, either as an internal or external drive. So i was not able to run any diagnostic software to try to repair sectors as a consequence of not even being recognized. Having nothing to lose, I placed the HDD  in the freezer for a few hours and after letting it warm up I connected it again but the loud clicking noise was still present and unable to be recognized. So instead of trashing it I kept it for months at room temperature. Today out of curiosity I connected the drive externally (using a USB2 enclosure) and guess what? It works flawlessly!. No clicking noise, WinXP recognized it  and I could write/read files to it without any trouble. Question:
- Is this an unusual thing to happen?
- Can I trust this drive? Or given what happened I shouldn't use the drive as a backup?
- I'm running Western Digital's Diagnostic tool to detect/recover any bad sector. Is there anything else I should run to assure everything's fine?
Thanks.

Hmmm

Are you sure the cable were connected ok and not causing a short circuit or bad contact?

Harddrives are fickle things

I wouldn't use it for something to important.

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Originally posted by Voldemort
Hmmm

Are you sure the cable were connected ok and not causing a short circuit or bad contact?

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Yes, I'm 100% sure...

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Originally posted by Wabz
Harddrives are fickle things

I wouldn't use it for something to important.

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True, but until flash drives emerge there's no other option!

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Originally posted by Wabz
Harddrives are fickle things

I wouldn't use it for something to important.

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True, but until flash drives emerge there's no other option!

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Wabs dosn't mean dont use hard drives, since obviously theres no way around that. What he's saying is to not use THAT harddrive, since there is more of a chance it will die.

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Originally posted by lizard.boy

Wabs dosn't mean dont use hard drives, since obviously theres no way around that. What he's saying is to not use THAT harddrive, since there is more of a chance it will die.

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I completed the extended test of Western Digital Diagnostic Tool (it exhaustively checks/repairs any error) and it did not detect any problem. All results were ok. So there seems to be no damaged sectors, etc. Would you still consider it more unreliable than any other used hard drive?

I heard that if you put a broken hard drive into a fridge it does something and repairs itself.

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Originally posted by Max
I heard that if you put a broken hard drive into a fridge it does something and repairs itself.

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ok thats just weird, how? why???

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Originally posted by alegator
as an internal or external drive. So i was not able to run any diagnostic software to try to repair sectors as a consequence of not even being recognized. Having nothing to lose, I placed the HDD  in the freezer for a few hours and after letting it warm up I connected it again but the loud clicking noise was still present and unable to be recognized. So instead of trashing it I kept it for months at room temperature. Today out of curiosity I connected the drive externally (using a USB2 enclosure) and guess what? It works flawlessly!. No clicking noise, WinXP recognized it  and I could write/read files to it without any trouble. Question:
- Is this an unusual thing to happen?
- Can I trust this drive? Or given what happened I shouldn't use the drive as a backup?
- I'm running Western Digital's Diagnostic tool to detect/recover any bad sector. Is ther

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The same thing happened with my sisters ipod. I left it in the freezer for a while and it still didn't work. Then I left it to defrost overnight and the next morning it worked and has been working ever since.

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Originally posted by Wabz
Harddrives are fickle things

I wouldn't use it for something to important.

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That's why we have something called RAID.

I don't know *why* it works, but I do know that sticking a broken hard disk in the fridge for a while will allow it to boot for a few hours.

After that, it's gone.