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Data Transfer from Crashing Drive 1

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Idont

Technical User
May 3, 2005
3
US
My 250gb Hitachi went out a few days ago and started clicking constantly and would not show up under my computer. It started working again a few days later so I tried to copy its contents onto another drive. The question I have is if the drive was making some noise and the transfer window sometimes paused but started again and completed with no errors, is that data reliable and true to its original form? I only got one error, one time, when the drive failed totally inbetween the transfer of a few files - I was moving everything in parts so it wouldn’t be pushed too hard. The files are total 140 gb of mp3s and they all seem to play normally. No errors = no problem? or is there something more to it?


 
You are likely ok, the only thing with mp3 files is that sometimes a certain player wont accept one if its slightly altered or missing some sort of "tag". Im not totally up on that jargon so i cant say much more than that. However, anything you transferred over if it works it works, pretty much says it all.
Its very possible all your data will be ok. Maybe only time will tell but you likely wont do a future computer any harm in trying any programs you saved or any other files you saved.


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Thanks for the star!
By the way, if you havent got all your data from the drive, you could try the freezer method, it often works for those clicking drives that are failing. You put the drive in a baggie, first set it at slave, then in a baggie and take the air out, put in freezer for about 6 hrs and take out and put it on system real fast. It may give you access to more data til it warms up. That is, if you havent done all that.



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Yea I did that for an hour. It didnt work after that, so I should have done it longer but that is as long as someone had suggested. I got it started after letting it sit for a long time (about a day) and it was only by luck I think. When it threatened to fall back into clicking I would browse all the files on the drive and it would crunch back into working smooth again. You can tell this is not scientific but it worked. It went out a few times after that when I let it sit without watching it.

Everything seems to be playing back smooth on my new Hitachi and I put the bad one back into its box. Im wondering if this is covered by a warranty. You can see the heat marks on the drive where it was touching the dock. Guess it overheated.... Clicking sound crashing heads? Now I have a temp monitor on a new dock so hopefully I wont torture this new one. This time Ill be smart and back this stuff up!
 
There are free backup programs that you can get by using google.
Sounds like you have gotten all the data you needed from that drive.
As for the warranty, its usually as easy as looking on the drive for the date or going to the mfgr website, say Maxtor if its a Maxtor drive, and there is a place where you can enter the serial number and find out if the drive can be replaced under warranty.
Most hard drives are sadly only one year, they started doing that when prices fell so low. However, some drives with 8mb cache are 3 yrs, i believe. And at least one mfgr has gone back to the once standard 3 yrs, i forget who that is at this moment, just woke up.


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I was the victim of a dock with a fan that went out which is worse than just having the drive outside of the computer because it overheated in my case. I’m seriously going in the heat sink direction from now on. I have disconnected other drives n such but it still does the same thing - fan turns off and on randomly. Is this the power supply or the dock itself? The power supply powers other drives and the drive itself but that fan turns off and on. I have had poor performance from fancy docks and have stopped using them.
 
WEll, it could be the power supply but it could be a faulty thermistor or whatever controls the fan, maybe a thermistor
or maybe even a software program, or both. Personally, i dont really know.
Im also guessing you are talking about a notebook, of which i know even less.
Either way, do you have a manual that will give you info on the dock and fan? Or try the website of the mfgr for such a manual or other info like their FAQ section.
Another possible problem could be worn or faulty, shorted wiring i suppose.
We would need info from you on the setup, notebook, mfgr, age, etc.
That other h drive, did you get all your data off of it and get an rma? If not, you can try the freezer trick until it wont work any longer and you can leave the h drive in as long as it works, if you need to and still have it.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips
 
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