Jump to content

Hard Drive Failure


Recommended Posts

Just yesterday my 8 years old HDD died (1Tb Seagate Barracuda). Thankfully I had backups on spare drives + flash, so I didn't lose too much important data. In over 20 years of PC usage, that's my first dead HDD.

 

What's most curious is that there were absolutely no noticeable signs of any kind of malfunction or slowdowns, noises, nothing, I just turn on PC one day and it doesn't boot (Windows was on it). While this HDD was connected, BIOS took a good while to load (probably tried to identify it) but when I finally got into BIOS, this drive wasn't indicated anywhere. After windows reinstall on spare HDD, which I connected on same plugs, dead one was on (to confirm there is no connection failure) it booted fine and now works. So, I'm 100% positive it was an actual HDD failure.

 

Out of curiosity, it's not really critical, but is there a possibility for me to bring that dead HDD to life or somehow find out what exactly caused it to fail? Any ideas? For the record, it's just dead silent, isn't identified in BIOS or Windows interface if connected, just like it doesn't exist.

 

Also, is there a way for me to somehow spot and prepare for sudden HDD failure like that? Because if I lose another, I just don't have a spare to save ~500Gb worth of data, I'd hate to lose.

 

And as a side note: Should I set windows disk optimization (autodefrag) on or off? Any positive or negative effect there? I do manual defrags and checks every 1-3 moths or so. Any other settings/tools to keep that stuff in check?

Edited by Signette
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Controller board failure. It happens, and sometimes, there is zero warning. It's entirely possible, that you could replace the board, and the drive would continue to work. Of course, it's possible that something internal to the drive caused the board to fail as well, so, it may smoke the new one as soon as you power it on, or, it may last another ten years. :smile: Most of the time, you will never know what caused a drive to fail, unless it's something obvious, like a bearing failure. Those tend to get pretty loud before they quit completely. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

agree with "heyyou"....controller board failed...and just like he said you could replace the board but if the drive motor or head movement motor is dead you wont get anything out of it....to be blunt 8 years out of a seagate is a good run....i have had seagate drives die on me in as little as 2 years....if you were not using it as a OS drive it would have lasted longer....Kingston 120gb SSD drives can be had for 23 dollars on newegg....get one just for the OS plus a storage drive....getting the OS off the drive will make it last longer never mind the fact it will make the computer 5 times faster in everything you do....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, that's unfortunate... Over the years, pretty much all the folks I knew, who had experienced HDD failure, were saying that it's hard to miss when drive is about to die. That's why I was favoring HDDs and didn't get into SSD. Loading times don't bother me much, as newer Win version are already loading lightning fast even on HDD. Although I do agree that this piece of hardware served me well over the years, it's just surprising how suddenly it ended.

 

And on SSD, many folks recommending it nowadays, but statistically, how long can I expect for the drive to last if I have it for OS and maybe some games (with slow load times) are on it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Early SSD's suffered from short life spans but that's a thing of the past, these days they last as long if not longer than a HDD, of course how long depends on usage just like HDD's. The other upside is speed, the computer will run a lot faster and be far more responsive, no more starting the PC and going off to make a coffee while it starts up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SSD technology has come a LONG way since they first came out. Today, I actually recommend SSD's over mechanical drives, even for the O/S, or single HDD systems. At this point, SSD's are more reliable, and last longer, than their mechanical brothers. Of course, start going larger than around 500gb, and they get expensive REAL fast. My solution was just to use multiple drives. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I totally agree to what HeyYou says. I have one 120 gb and two 240 gb SSD's and that give me all the HDD space I need. I wouldn't even consider a mechanical HDD now as the SSD's of today are as said very reliable, providing that you buy from the mayor brands.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...