Stoked! Fixed Dead HDD!

[NightrainSrt4]

I've had a 'dead' 160GB IDE hdd from an WD MyBook that I knocked over that started clicking and wouldn't be recognized. Last year I ripped it out of its casing and tried just about everything to get it to work again to get some important pictures and such off of it, but to no avail.

It would go "Click...Click...Click ... ... ..." Then try again like 2 more times before just spinning down.

Today I saw it lying there in the corner of my desk and said "You know what, let's try again to get this thing working, and if it doesn't just rip it open and check out the innards". Wouldn't work again, and wouldn't be seen in bios or windows as it would just spin down after clicking.

I let it spin up and right as the first click was about to go I gave it a light tap on the side where the screws go with a hammer and BOOM! it started working. YES! Have transferred over 40GB worth of data without a hitch, and turned off and on again a few times. SMART status said it was okay.

I'm not sure how long it will last, if its just temporary or permanent, but I am happy. I think the heads just got stuck in their locked/resting position as I knocked it when it was off.

[Luke122]

That's great news! When I did the freezer trick on that one hdd that died, I still had to smack it before it spun up. I guess if all else fails, hit it.

Fonzie was on to something..

[NightrainSrt4]

It ran chkdsk on the first bootup and I just looked through the log file.

"Windows has checked the file system and found no problems."

"0KB in bad sectors"

Woot! I'll run some more tests and use WD's utility, but on a quick run through there wasn't any bad sectors on the disk. So hopefully its just a matter of the head getting locked and couldn't get out for some reason. It's started and shutdown several times now with no issue. Woot!, hopefully it stays this way.

And yup, just a light tap with the hammer on the side right as it was trying to pull the head of out its rested/locked position. I guess hitting things sometimes does do the trick hehe.

[NightrainSrt4]

Hmmm... So I wonder how much a PASS on WD's Extended Diagnostic should tell about the hard drive's longevity?

I got my data off it so I am happy, but I would love to have my drive back in a useable state. Edit: By useable I mean dependable OS/Storage drive.

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST 
Model Number: WDC WD1600JB-00REA0 
Unit Serial Number: WD------------
Firmware Number: 20.00K20 
Capacity: 160.04 GB 
SMART Status: PASS 
Test Result: PASS 
Test Time: 14:24:57, May 26, 2009 

Test Option: QUICK TEST 
Model Number: WDC WD1600JB-00REA0 
Unit Serial Number: WD---------------
Firmware Number: 20.00K20 
Capacity: 160.04 GB 
SMART Status: PASS 
Test Result: PASS 
Test Time: 14:27:12, May 26, 2009

[LiTHiUM0XiD3]

Fonzie was on to something..

the fonz is never wrong.... everyone knows that

[SgtM]

So I guess the old addage is true.. a BFH fixes everything!

[NightrainSrt4]

In this case it really did, at least long enough to get data off.

Today I am going to take the 100GB out of the fiance's computer and toss the 160GB in there and install Vista Ultimate. If it dies out its okay, as I will just store the 100GB safely for a bit so I don't have to reinstall the XP installation and get all her games back on it.

[altec]

the fonz is never wrong.... everyone knows that

That's right! He's never wr...wr...wro!


Lol, I just did a similar thing today. I saw a SATA drive I had sitting on my desk, and remembered I had a couple extra SATA cable in my basement. After braving the spiders, I got the cable, and found a old Duron board, and CPU I had forgotten about. Dunno what I'm gonna do with it! ANYWAY! Found a cable, plugged the drive in, and it is working flawlessly. Guess the drive just need a break!

[crenn]

I have a 200GB drive like that, but I'm not sure the test of time will fix it (It was readable but clicking a LOT) and it was about 5 years old when it happened.

[NightrainSrt4]

Well hopefully mine doesn't go into clicking like yours. The drive had maybe 25 hours on it before I knocked it while it was off and it started doing the triple click set spindown thing. But this was over like a year or so. Also I'm pretty sure ripping it out of its casing voided my warranty otherwise I would just RMA it, though I did knock it over, so I probably wouldn't have anyway.

So far it is dead silent. Way quieter than any of my other drives, and I had it out on a table on some antistatic bags when it was doing its thing.