ticky ticky ticky

LewisStuart · 20 Jul 2008 at 00:15

Is my drive dead?

Just turned on my Maxt

r 750gb external & its making at repetitive ticking noise just after spool up,

Windows can see it in management as raw but I can't access my files.

Indy500 · 20 Jul 2008 at 00:17

Ouch, thats not good...I used an IBM drive that made a scratchy\scraping sound every so often before it died. Kept freezing a lot too.

Naqi · 20 Jul 2008 at 00:21

LewisStuart said:
Is my drive dead?

Just turned on my Maxtr 750gb external & its making at repetitive ticking noise just after spool up,

Windows can see it in management as raw but I can't access my files.

I had this the other on a Maxtor 500GB, before I knew it, a folder containing about 200GB of downloaded tv progs bacame corrupt and in-accessible. Panicked, set the drive to run chdsk at reboot, rebooted and a very long three hours later, all seems fine and said noise has gone. Needless to say, got anothe drive and backed everything up anyway.

MikeHiow · 20 Jul 2008 at 00:26

chdsk could possibly work, as it'll spin the drive up, regardless of data, so it may cause something to move inside, allowing the drive to work again?

Alternatively, Give the freezer trick a go.

Stick the HD in a freezer bag, trying to keep as much air out as possible, and stick it in the freezer for 2 hours. Plug it back in, if it works, get data off in order of importance.

Whilst I've never tried this, I've seen various reports of it working, some people get a minute, others get a few hours. Worth a try, even if it does turn out to be just a myth, nothing to lose.

edscdk · 21 Jul 2008 at 13:02

If its external maybe try removing it from the case and powering it from something else might be the PSU in the box is up the spout and not giving the drive enought power to spin up properly (this really is a long shot) - and careful not to invalidate your warranty!

LewisStuart · 21 Jul 2008 at 18:51

I would but there's one of those 'warranty void if broken' stickers covering a screw.

manic111 · 21 Jul 2008 at 20:46

Naqi said:
I had this the other on a Maxtor 500GB, before I knew it, a folder containing about 200GB of downloaded tv progs bacame corrupt and in-accessible. Panicked, set the drive to run chdsk at reboot, rebooted and a very long three hours later, all seems fine and said noise has gone. Needless to say, got anothe drive and backed everything up anyway.

Karma

digitaldreams · 21 Jul 2008 at 21:04

Usually occurs when the drive repeatedly tries to access a corrupt area....try a 'chkdsk' (from a DOS prompt box) as above.....or chkdsk/? (for a list of options)

....if the drive contains valuable data - all is not lost, try an on-line quote at http://www.mjmdatarecovery.co.uk/

regards