Does anyone know the cause of the Death clunk that some drives get right befor they fail? I want to know what causes the clunk of death in a hard drive. I have opened up several after they get this and the stylus does not travel freely accross the platter anymore and seems to be magnetized to the platter. Especailly the center of the platter. When they are plugged into a system you can watch the stylus slam back and forth across the platter. What makes the drive do this? I cant seem to find an answer as to why they do this just that they have to be replaced because they dont function anymore. I have emailed Western Digital tech support but will probably be waiting on them till next week. I will post what information I get from WD when I get it.
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Hard drive Clunk Of Death 1
- Thread starter yourpc
- Start date
TheMacgyver
Technical User
Good Q YourPC.
The inability for the head to read track 0 on the disk.
If i don't know my alication, I don't know my placement on the disk,via electronic fail or platter fail.
I wonder what they have to say.
The inability for the head to read track 0 on the disk.
If i don't know my alication, I don't know my placement on the disk,via electronic fail or platter fail.
I wonder what they have to say.
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1
- #4
CapitalData
MIS
Drives fail due to many reasons. Mechanical, electrical, firmware, logical (file system).
The last one is not critical for the drive; however first three causes are.
Mechanical - this can be caused by overheating, drop, media defect, wear and tear.
Electrical - bad components, bad PC power supply -> power surge, overheating.
Firmware - if the heads get dirty or platters are slowly degrading, read/write heads are not able to read and write firmware properly, and therefore drive may fail. Let's say the drive goes through its boot sequence and instead of sending the heads to track 0, the drive sends them to a negative track -999 which doesn't exist. It did send it there, as the firmware was corrupt and the drive wasn't able to "understand" that it was track 0 and not -999. So, heads try to go all the way out and hit either the spindle or start clicking. Clicking distorts the performance of the drive (high speed rotation, heads are flying microns from the platter) and the heads may touch the platters. What happens? Scratch. Scratch is bad...
Again, as I have already mentioned in one of my posts; if the drive failed - seek help from professionals (if it's critical), if not - use your imagination.
Best Regards,
Karen
Capita Data Recovery Inc.
The last one is not critical for the drive; however first three causes are.
Mechanical - this can be caused by overheating, drop, media defect, wear and tear.
Electrical - bad components, bad PC power supply -> power surge, overheating.
Firmware - if the heads get dirty or platters are slowly degrading, read/write heads are not able to read and write firmware properly, and therefore drive may fail. Let's say the drive goes through its boot sequence and instead of sending the heads to track 0, the drive sends them to a negative track -999 which doesn't exist. It did send it there, as the firmware was corrupt and the drive wasn't able to "understand" that it was track 0 and not -999. So, heads try to go all the way out and hit either the spindle or start clicking. Clicking distorts the performance of the drive (high speed rotation, heads are flying microns from the platter) and the heads may touch the platters. What happens? Scratch. Scratch is bad...
Again, as I have already mentioned in one of my posts; if the drive failed - seek help from professionals (if it's critical), if not - use your imagination.
Best Regards,
Karen
Capita Data Recovery Inc.
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