- Jul 27, 2013
- 19
- 0
- 10,510
So, I just upgraded my motherboard, CPU and RAM, but before doing so, when I was taking the computer off the shelf, I had a slight accident. Basically, my computer resides in a Zalman HD160+ HTPC case at the bottom of an open TV stand. The Sky box sits directly on top of it (but does not cover the upper vent in any way). So in my excitement there I am trying to lift the sky box with one hand and shuffle the computer out with the other.... I got to the point where I realised that I needed to reposition my arm, so I rested the case back down on its feet (or so I thought). What I didn't realise, was that I had rested it down on the remaining fraction of the feet and as I was about to take hold of the case again, it slipped and dropped so that the front of the case (just behind the front feet) hit the stand. The drop wasn't far, but it was enough for me to know that it could have shocked the hard drive (1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3).
Anyway, I didn't think any more about it figuring that it would probably be ok, I upgraded the motherboard CPU and RAM and plugged the computer back in. When I switched it on, the Spinpoint F3 started making a bad noise - it spun up ok, but it sounded like the heads were hitting the platter really hard continuously for about half a second, resetting and repeating the pattern. It didn't sound like the usual pattern I've heard in the past when hard drives hit bad sectors, it was much louder (the F3 is a quiet drive so to hear the heads making so much noise immediately set the alarm bells ringing in my head). So I quickly turned the computer off.
I then tried again, the first thing that I noticed is that I couldn't hear the hard drive spin up, when I went into the BIOS, I could see my SSD but not my Spinpoint F3. Anyway, I jumped back out of the BIOS and allowed Windows 8 to load (that's on the SSD), As Windows was loading, I suddenly heard the F3 spin up. By the time I was in to Windows, I could view the partitions on the F3. So, after reactivating Windows due to the upgrade I figured that I would try booting into Linux (thats on the primary partition of the F3) so I restarted the machine and started to try to load Linux. Anyway, Linux failed to boot (I assumed that it had got confused due to the upgrade, but at the same time, due to the post-upgrade symptoms realised that the hard drive was probably failing) so I shut the computer down.
By this time, I figured that I should get myself another hard drive (popped out to the shops quickly and got a Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003) before switching the computer on again with the thought that I should back up the Spinpoint ASAP before it failed completely.
Alas, I seem to be too late. The F3 doesn't seem to spin up any more. To be honest, there isn't anything on the F3 that I don't have backed up elsewhere, but it will be a pain in the neck to get all the data together again.
Before I bin the F3, I'm wondering, has anyone else ever experienced and investigated this kind of behaviour from a hard drive before? I've taken a look at the PCB and can't see anything obvious. Is there anything that I can try before I bin it?
Anyway, I didn't think any more about it figuring that it would probably be ok, I upgraded the motherboard CPU and RAM and plugged the computer back in. When I switched it on, the Spinpoint F3 started making a bad noise - it spun up ok, but it sounded like the heads were hitting the platter really hard continuously for about half a second, resetting and repeating the pattern. It didn't sound like the usual pattern I've heard in the past when hard drives hit bad sectors, it was much louder (the F3 is a quiet drive so to hear the heads making so much noise immediately set the alarm bells ringing in my head). So I quickly turned the computer off.
I then tried again, the first thing that I noticed is that I couldn't hear the hard drive spin up, when I went into the BIOS, I could see my SSD but not my Spinpoint F3. Anyway, I jumped back out of the BIOS and allowed Windows 8 to load (that's on the SSD), As Windows was loading, I suddenly heard the F3 spin up. By the time I was in to Windows, I could view the partitions on the F3. So, after reactivating Windows due to the upgrade I figured that I would try booting into Linux (thats on the primary partition of the F3) so I restarted the machine and started to try to load Linux. Anyway, Linux failed to boot (I assumed that it had got confused due to the upgrade, but at the same time, due to the post-upgrade symptoms realised that the hard drive was probably failing) so I shut the computer down.
By this time, I figured that I should get myself another hard drive (popped out to the shops quickly and got a Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003) before switching the computer on again with the thought that I should back up the Spinpoint ASAP before it failed completely.
Alas, I seem to be too late. The F3 doesn't seem to spin up any more. To be honest, there isn't anything on the F3 that I don't have backed up elsewhere, but it will be a pain in the neck to get all the data together again.
Before I bin the F3, I'm wondering, has anyone else ever experienced and investigated this kind of behaviour from a hard drive before? I've taken a look at the PCB and can't see anything obvious. Is there anything that I can try before I bin it?
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