HD Clunking

[Paddy]

One of my new WD SATA 120GB drives seems to be on the way out. I am getting random freezes in windows associated with 'clunking'.

Is there any HD diagnostic software out there to determine the cause of this?

[Wombat]

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

All sorts of drive utilities, and other stuff.

100MB ISO image.

[KvHagedorn]

Maybe this is why Circuit City is selling them off for $40 apiece.

[az]

Does it make a noise as if it tried to read something over and over again? This may just be NTFS acting up (Had this once, lost me lots of data )

AZ

[schmosef]

You should download the Western Digital diagnostic utilities from this page: http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

As I recall the download will create a boot floppy that you can use to test the drive.

The diagnostic will give you an error code that you'll need to provide when you apply for an RMA. It can also help contain certain errors long enough for you to backup your data in prep for replacing the drive.

Good luck.

BTW, I'm not sure about how they are in the UK, but in Canada, Western Digital has always offered advanced replacement hard drives, secured by a credit card. I've sold many WD drives. I think that they are the best IDE drives in terms of performance and support.

About 5 or 6 years ago (not exactly sure) WD had a bad run of drives in the 1.6GB to 4GB range. I'd say every drive I sold in that period needed to be replaced. Luckily, they started knocking before they failed so I was able to get the drives replaced without any data loss. WD never gave me any problems when requesting RMAs and all replacement drives were shipped right away. Once I realized that I'd forgotten to return a dead drive that they had replaced under RMA. A year had past and they hadn't billed my credit card. I called them about it and they told me to forget it and to toss the dead drive.


edit: added info about RMA and advanced replacement

[Paddy]

nope, this is a definate pathological clunking sound... I hope it's just a faulty power connector.

Looks like i'll have to try and find a floppy disk drive again

[MultimediaMan]

Most WD Drives come with a Diagnostic CD nowadays...if you need an image or iso of the utility, just let me know.

[Paddy]

My drives were OEM so no CD.
If you have a link to an iso i'd appreciate it!

[schmosef]

Is WD selling hard drives at Walmart these days?

If I ever go out of business I can blame it on them.

I only deal with the OEM drives so I can't help you there. I didn't even know they had a diagnostic CD.

[schmosef]

Originally posted by Wombat
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

All sorts of drive utilities, and other stuff.

100MB ISO image.

Hey I just checked out this link provided by Wombat. Seems like a very cool project. Thanks Wombat for the info.

The WD diagnostic tool is included in their CD ISO so Paddy, if you're stuck on getting an ISO of WD's diagnostic cd, you can download and use the ultimatebootcd.

[MultimediaMan]

Schmosef: Wal-Mart sells Seagate IDE Drives, Sam's Club sells Western Digital. wm.com sells both, I think.

[schmosef]

I was just being silly. As you'll remember from that other thread, I don't have a beef with Wal-Mart (I actually like Wal-Mart), I have a beef with trade regulations.

[MultimediaMan]

We just opened up a couple of Sam's Clubs in Canada. :-)

[DentyCracker]

Western Digital
*shudders*

[schmosef]

Originally posted by DentyCracker
Western Digital
*shudders*

with excitement?