Is My HardDrive Bad?

[DoctorZoidberg]

During the past few days my WD 2tb Green, Nearly 7 years old started to act a bit funny.
I was trying to get the new tomb raider game to install, And steam had allocated space for it, during this time I was getting strange noises in my headphones, I brushed it off, as my music is on the same drive and I was listening to it.

The next day while trying to listen to music the same noise would come back, and then my computer would freeze.

Steam had told me my drive could have bad sectors.

So I began to remove items from my drive to back them up, With many crashes and freezing during the process, I used safe mode and it seemed to transfer longer before crashes.

However it got to the point where the drive would freeze my computer rite when I logged in.
SO I remove the hard drive, and the computer ran fine.

But the aggravation of having no music to listen to prompted me to place the hard drive into my tower's Top Docking bay, so the hard drive is now Up-Right, And not crashing at all, and I have backed up much data.

I found a great deal on a 3tb hard drive. "http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822235012" "promo code ESCEHGH34"

However, now that my drive is acting fine, I am curious as to if this problem may be related to a bad connection, Or how the hard drive is sitting now, perhaps the connection on the mobo?

Looking for your advice on this situation to attempt to find the exact problem I am facing to determine if I should buy this new hard drive.

(this new drive has more space and cost less then the 2tb when I had gotten it, and I will probably buy it regardless, but I still have about 1tb I need to backup"

I should also state that the drive was checked several times during boot and nothing was found.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there DoctorZoidberg,

Sorry that you are facing some issues with your WD drive. 🙁
It's great that you've backed up the important data.
Now, you can just run both short and extended test of WD's DLG tool on the drive: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=0bcNI4
If the tests results show that the HDD is fine, then it may be a good idea to try to attach the drive with different cables(both SATA and power ones), to another SATA port.
If the tests results show that there is something wrong with the drive, you will need to back up the rest from the data and replace the drive.

Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD

 

[Ubrales]

A hard drive orientation in the computer (or elsewhere) should not make any difference. If the orientation changes the HDD performance, there is something mechanically wrong with the HDD.

You may run "HDTune" and/or "CrystalDiskInfo" to verify the integrity of the HDD. Look for bad sectors; "re-allocated sectors raw value" in particular. If this number is 1 or more, replace the drive.

 

[davmazin]

srry but bad orientation can even damage a HDD if the HDD isnt in a proper position it can be damaged if its working if its not in a book like position or vertically oriented (i preffer book like) it can be damaged without any way to recover the data i had that happend to me with my 2 pc wich was also my 1st custom build anyways if he still have got the data he should back it up soon and get another drive just in case

 

[drtweak]

No the Orientation does NOT damage a hard at all. If you look at servers and PC's they mount hard drives verticaly, hozontally, upside down, right side up it doesn't matter.

Run Crystal Disk Info. Check the health status. It may just be simply failing. for 7 years old it has lasted you well IMO.

 

[DoctorZoidberg]

Hi there DoctorZoidberg,

Sorry that you are facing some issues with your WD drive. 🙁
It's great that you've backed up the important data.
Now, you can just run both short and extended test of WD's DLG tool on the drive: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=0bcNI4
If the tests results show that the HDD is fine, then it may be a good idea to try to attach the drive with different cables(both SATA and power ones), to another SATA port.
If the tests results show that there is something wrong with the drive, you will need to back up the rest from the data and replace the drive.

Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD

The program you gave me will not launch, neither in compatibility mode nor admin mode, I can accept the terms, but after clicking next it just crashes.

 

[drtweak]

Download and install the crystal disk info in my signature

 

[davmazin]

drtweak if orientation doesnt matter use all your hdds in angles of 36º or 45º and see if they last for long

 

[drtweak]

Those sounds like some very off angles to begin with but hard drives are designed to work at any angle I don't see how a hard drive mounted at 0 45 90 etc make a difference. Besides your case, i have never heard of a hard drive failing due to the angle. you more than likely just had a bad hard drive.

 

[DoctorZoidberg]

it was a bad sata cable.