HDD making some strange noises!

[PsychosonicSid]

Quantum Fireball 10Gb drive on a Gigabyte board with Intel chipset. Running Win 98SE.

A few weeks ago, my HDD developed a sound that sounds that is difficult to describe! Sounds like a loud writing, then a ping! This happens at random timings. At which point the PC freezes, and the dreaded blue screen comes up "Unable to write to drive x:"

I have tried:
a) Norton diagnostics, and Anti-Virus
b) Removed, reseated memory
c) Removed individual memory sticks (2 x 64Mb)
d) Reloaded Win98SE
e) Run Quantum Diagnostics tool (All Passes)
f) Bought new 20Gb HDD, which is now master, so far seems okay!
g) Replaced 10Gb as Slave, and this does the same thing but only if trying to write to this drive, system still behaves as the new drive is the master.
h) Noticed 4 devices sharing the same IRQ, no conflict, but one of them is the Bus master! Is this the probelm?
i) Tried running Scandisk, but this crashes as it gets to a set point on the drive?

So is the drive ready for the bin or is it worth formatting and trying again?

Any advise welcome!

 

[brendanhedges]

well it seems to me that as you have already gone to the expence of a new hard drive, unless there is valuable data stored on the old drive reformat and partition the old one. the reformat should pick up any bad sectors and a scan disk afterwards should afferm this.

the alternitive is that maybe something mechanical has come adrift in the old drive and is getting jambed up at a specific point, there for the drive is rendered usless

hope this helps

 

[teknoguy]

norton disk doctor didn't pick anything up. if there was problems with any sectors it should have picked something up. i have worked on similar problems...it kinda sounds like a ping pong ball bouncing...i wouldn't trust that drive. the similar drive that i was working on failed right before my eyes..and ears. is it still under warranty??? if so take it back to the seller of the computer.

 

[eujay]

Sounds like the drive is on it's way out. I work in a building where I look after about 250 users running various machines with Scsi drives. Typically these are quantum fireball.

Every week I see problems with drives. When they start to make funny noises this ussually means the drive has a hardware problem. Once the noises start they tend to get worse until one day the drive will stop altogether.

What you describe sounds to me like it is spinning up and trying to find some sector which it cannot find so the heads reset. This ussually means a physical problem exists on the platters and/or with the motor. It is good that you have replaced it already.

If you have any data on this drive that you want to keep now is the time to go get it. Don't wait for it to fail completely.

Hope this info helps

Eujay

 

[Guest_imported]

Had them all. I had a hard drive make noises, goto IBM.Com and download 6 different waves files. Different wav has a diferent sound. My sound was like a head crushing but it was because of "POWER DRAIN" not enough power. But I think it was gone. Same message, blue screen cannot write to.

Well called tech support Tried everything you did including using their IBM software to erase, diganostics, boot sectors and suddenly one day when I plugged it back in to give it another try. I had my computer case open, turned the POWER ON AND SUDDENLY POOF!!!!!! SMOKE!!!! FROM THE HARD DRIVE. I couldn't believe it! I smoked my room for the entire day.

I haven't changed the power supply yet but it smells burned a little.... maybe from prev. smoke.

I have another one that does the same thing.... I won't plug back in untill I get a new powersupply. Right now I am running on a 8 GIG West. D. and I get the "PING PONG Bouncing ball sound"

 

[Kspade]

what it is is the mechanism that contorls the head movement is failing, there is no fix for that. if you can save Data, do so, then try for waranty replacement. I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every moment of it.

 

[vitrag]

If you have the warranty then definately go for a replacement. Otherwise try to Low-Level Format the Quantum HDD. You can try the quantum Web-Site for the software. I am looking for a S/w which will low level format any HDD. If any1 comes across any pls mail me at vitrag@hotmail.com

Bye.

 

[hotfusion]

Sorry but your drive is unsaveable. Running any diagnostics on it will simply hasten its demise. Get any valuable data off it and bin it unless there's a warranty. My suggestions are what I would try myself. If incorrect, I welcome corrections to my rather limited knowledge. Andy.