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Hard drive revived! by alegator on 07-14-2006 at 02:42 AM

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.


RE: Hard drive revived! by Voldemort on 07-14-2006 at 02:45 AM

Hmmm

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


RE: Hard drive revived! by Wabz on 07-14-2006 at 02:49 AM

Harddrives are fickle things

I wouldn't use it for something to important.


RE: RE: Hard drive revived! by alegator on 07-14-2006 at 07:47 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Voldemort
Hmmm

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

Yes, I'm 100% sure...


quote:
Originally posted by Wabz
Harddrives are fickle things

I wouldn't use it for something to important.


True, but until flash drives emerge there's no other option!
RE: RE: RE: Hard drive revived! by lizard.boy on 07-14-2006 at 02:21 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Wabz
Harddrives are fickle things

I wouldn't use it for something to important.


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


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.
RE: RE: RE: RE: Hard drive revived! by alegator on 07-15-2006 at 04:38 AM

quote:
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.


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?
RE: Hard drive revived! by Max on 07-15-2006 at 11:13 AM

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


RE: Hard drive revived! by M73A on 07-15-2006 at 11:15 AM

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

ok thats just weird, how? why??? :s
RE: Hard drive revived! by Underlord on 07-15-2006 at 11:29 AM

quote:
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
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.
quote:
Originally posted by Wabz
Harddrives are fickle things

I wouldn't use it for something to important.
That's why we have something called RAID.
RE: Hard drive revived! by andrewdodd13 on 07-15-2006 at 11:31 AM

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.


RE: Hard drive revived! by alegator on 07-15-2006 at 12:34 PM

quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
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.

Do you have any sources to back what you're saying??

I always wondered what is it that manufacturers do to dead hard drives to convert them into refurbished ones.
RE: RE: Hard drive revived! by Max on 07-15-2006 at 01:45 PM

quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
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.

It's like dirt when hit with Cillit Bang.
RE: Hard drive revived! by Voldemort on 07-15-2006 at 03:41 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Underlord
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.
And how long ago did that happen?

RE: Hard drive revived! by Thor on 07-15-2006 at 04:55 PM

My harddrive has never made funny noises. Well...

If I go to www.runescape.com, then the processor/harddrive/etc (one of them :P) starts to beep.  And it won't stop until I logg off and on again...
And that beeping noice is really loud... Maybe it doesn't like runescape?


RE: Hard drive revived! by Voldemort on 07-15-2006 at 05:02 PM

Perhaps it is your gpu?


RE: Hard drive revived! by Thor on 07-15-2006 at 05:18 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Voldemort
Perhaps it is your gpu?
If you're talking to me, yes maybe, but why only when I'm at runescape... :S Anyways, I'm not there anymore, so..