External hard drive woes?!

[FlyingOfficerKite]

I bought a LaCie Big Disc Extreme 1TB external hard drive about six months ago.

Yesterday it started making funny whirring sounds and today will not mount on my computer's desktop and I cannot, therefore, access the data. The blue power light is no, but not flashing quite as enthusiastically as usual!

Anybody got any ideas whether the disc is simply having a 'moment' and can be re-mounted, or is it likely to be something more serious?

KR

FOK :)

[Spitoon]

In my experience, funny sounds from a HDD usually indicates a hardware problem which doesn't get any better....and usually deteriorates if if isn't completely u/s already.

Even if the OS won't mount the drive, does the system management see the physical drive? Maybe it will give more info about the problem.

[planecrazy.eu]

This has happened to me countless times with my WD Elements drive!

I usually power it up and down a few times, and then it just comes back to life and mounts again.

I also have issues where it mounts as a drive, but you cant get on it.

Sometimes it mounts and asks me for format it too?

Turning it off and on, well pulling the plug, seems to do the trick.

[bnt]

Heat is often a factor in drive failures, so I suggest letting it cool down, before trying to back up the data from it. Some say that cooling a drive in the fridge or freezer gives you more uptime, though I haven't tried that myself.

I had a situation early last year where I thought an internal 250GB SATA drive was failing. It was making clunking noises and dropping offline under load. As a last-ditch attempt to see if I could salvage it, I wiped it with a low-level utility (from the manufacturer) and reformatted it. That was a year ago, and it's still going strong, with no weirdness. I think that it was able to map out bad sectors when I reformatted it, and therefore didn't try to access them ever again.

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

Heat is often a factor in drive failures, so I suggest letting it cool down, before trying to back up the data from it. Some say that cooling a drive in the fridge or freezer gives you more uptime, though I haven't tried that myself.


My external HDD started making worn bearing sounds at the instant the warranty (1 year) expired. If I light the computer before the central heating has taken the room temperature above about 15 deg C, the bearing repeatedly chatters to a near stop until friction warms it. It sounds dreadful in that state; imagine a U-Boot at diving stations!

Accordingly, I think I will keep it away from the fridge. I must also transfer the data while I can still access it.

[FlyingOfficerKite]

Thanks for your replies.

I've had no joy with the device and have contacted the manufacturer direct.

I don't hold out much hope, but you never know.

KR

FOK :)