laptop hard drive problem

[squishio]

I have just been given a 60gig hitachi laptop hard drive.
I was told that it had some bad tracks due to overheating or somthing. so every time the head goes over these tracks it goes into spasm and gets stuck. So I can't format it because of this.
Does anyone know if I can repair it or if there is some piece software that could stop it going over these bad tracks.
Ps. I only want to use it as an external drive.

 

[wolluf]

Sounds like its toast - I'd just throw it away, you'll almost certainly just be wasting your time trying to get it working.

If you do want to try something, get diagnostic from drive manufacturer's site and run that to see what it thinks. If it can read the drive it will probably tell you its failing.

 

[wahnula]

While on the mfgr's website, check the serial # online to see if it is still under warranty...there is a 3-year warranty and I got mine replaced free.