Is my disk gone?

[ringo747]

I have a hard disk in an external caddy connected up via usb and recently it has started some random clicking noise. Usually I was still able to copy stuff over without issue.

Now when I load windows it says there is a problem - do you want to scan and fix. I do that but it only ever goes as far as the first 30000 file records. Is there any way I can check the disk health without using this wizard?

I tried a chkdsk but no joy either. Once the wizard fails I get an 'access denied' message. I think the drive is zonked but occasionally I can still read info from it.

Any suggestions? It is an old Hitachi and probably still under warranty. Just about.

 

[Priapus]

It sounds like it is on it's last legs bud.

Take the drive out of the enclosure and stick it in the PC - see if problems persist? It might just be the enclosure giving kak.

However having said that - doing the above will void warranty if you bought the external drive in the enclosure already from a retail store.

 

[ringo747]

I tried last night taking it out of enclosure and stuck it back in. Still got errors running chkdsk.

Then deleted all the files, formatted the drive, and now its perfect again - strange! Must have been a dodgy connection on the enclosure but that wouldn't really explain the clicking would it?