I know runs of bad luck are a fact, but this long . . .
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Psychophysiological entity
Joined: Jun 2001
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From: Walton on the Naze Essex.
I know runs of bad luck are a fact, but this long . . .
I lugged not only my 'new' laptop back to my final resting place, but also the MB and HD from my den PC. I purchased a case from a local family run computer company and in an utterly warn moment, agreed to pay for them to do the rebuild. He called today to tell me the HD had failed.
Sad fact of life they fail, but this was my first ever failure since 1982. That's if you don't count the Seagate Black Armor network drive just a few weeks ago.
I picked up the drive and put in onto my laptop via a vantec SATA/IDE adapter. It made various high speed sequences of vibrating noise and later settled into a donk donk . . . . donk donk routine. However, moving the plug caused windows to report connecting and disconnecting with its coded tones. At no stage did a drive letter appear in Explorer.
There was a clear lack of solder in one of the PCB points adjacent to the plug and with great excitement I shorted that out. Buggah all.
Short of swapping the main drive circuit with an identical one, I'm out of ideas, and it's not likely I'll find one of those. It's a WD5000AAJS Caviar, and with a silly name like that, it's probably been waiting years to get its revenge on the human race.
Thousands of scanned photos. Many on laptops and the like, but the solid filled folders were the ones on the two drives that failed in quick succession.
Any ideas? A hammer perhaps, but is this an indicator that one shouldn't carry conventional drives through security check machines. The MB was carried in checked baggage and was opened by security. They did not re-wrap the memory very well, but computer man tells me the MB is okay. I'm too disheartened to even look at the new case.
Oh, and do I now lose my OEM copy of W7 Professional?
Sad fact of life they fail, but this was my first ever failure since 1982. That's if you don't count the Seagate Black Armor network drive just a few weeks ago.
I picked up the drive and put in onto my laptop via a vantec SATA/IDE adapter. It made various high speed sequences of vibrating noise and later settled into a donk donk . . . . donk donk routine. However, moving the plug caused windows to report connecting and disconnecting with its coded tones. At no stage did a drive letter appear in Explorer.
There was a clear lack of solder in one of the PCB points adjacent to the plug and with great excitement I shorted that out. Buggah all.
Short of swapping the main drive circuit with an identical one, I'm out of ideas, and it's not likely I'll find one of those. It's a WD5000AAJS Caviar, and with a silly name like that, it's probably been waiting years to get its revenge on the human race.
Thousands of scanned photos. Many on laptops and the like, but the solid filled folders were the ones on the two drives that failed in quick succession.
Any ideas? A hammer perhaps, but is this an indicator that one shouldn't carry conventional drives through security check machines. The MB was carried in checked baggage and was opened by security. They did not re-wrap the memory very well, but computer man tells me the MB is okay. I'm too disheartened to even look at the new case.
Oh, and do I now lose my OEM copy of W7 Professional?
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Psychophysiological entity
Joined: Jun 2001
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From: Walton on the Naze Essex.
In various places (Q: reserved and locked for MS office) properties show this drive as a USB device and give its correct model. Drive manager showed it as drive 1, and unallocated. I altered its cache setting and it vanished, never to return.
In the meantime, the PCB developed a hot spot. Hot enough to avoid putting one's hand on it for very long. Buggah. It was getting hot via the mains adapter 12/5v? supply. Thank goodness. Don't want the laptop to fry via the USB supply.
The screws holding the PCB on the base of the drive are intended to stay put. Hemispherical star drive. It'll be worth a look at the other side before binning it.
I've never worked on a Gigabyte drive, just old MB sizes. I doubt working under shrink wrap would cut it these days. Once, I serviced a drive on a nothing to lose basis after it was reported to squeal. I found about three thimbles full of oil in there! The company had been oiling its bearing regularly. It was after all an 80 Mb drive, and so very costly.
In the meantime, the PCB developed a hot spot. Hot enough to avoid putting one's hand on it for very long. Buggah. It was getting hot via the mains adapter 12/5v? supply. Thank goodness. Don't want the laptop to fry via the USB supply.
The screws holding the PCB on the base of the drive are intended to stay put. Hemispherical star drive. It'll be worth a look at the other side before binning it.
I've never worked on a Gigabyte drive, just old MB sizes. I doubt working under shrink wrap would cut it these days. Once, I serviced a drive on a nothing to lose basis after it was reported to squeal. I found about three thimbles full of oil in there! The company had been oiling its bearing regularly. It was after all an 80 Mb drive, and so very costly.
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From: Dorking
Right. It's not just me then.
HDDs. I had a Maxtor, and it's replacement fail in 2001. Since then I've only ever bought Western Digital Caviars, taking the advice of PcPro magazine at that time.
In the last 18 months six 1Tb Caviars have failed. The following is the final email to them when they refused to offer anything other than a replacement:-
Subject: Re: Goodwill gesture [ ref:_00DU0Jpn7._500U0Btj8y:ref ]
I just had a look at the package that you sent this drive in. It's clearly labelled as 're-certified'. I'd love to know how that was done, because (and I forgot to mention this) it screams as it starts.
I have bought only WD drives since 2001, possibly 50 of them. This was because you won a reliability test.
My position is that I can't trust these drives. One client lost a year's worth of photographs, and holds me partially to blame. Ex-client I should say. To have six out of seven fail means that there is nothing that I will use one for, and the replacement you send me will be used as a paperweight. The only one of the seven that I have left is used for temporary builds, and makes more noise than it should, so it's probably failing and you'll get that too.
Your reply, refusing any goodwill gesture, means that:-
1. Anybody who asks about the paperweight will be told the whole story about Western Digital and it's allegiance to loyal customers.
2. I will never buy a WD product again. Hello Samsung.
I am very disappointed in you.
Back to your woes. I've recovered drives by swapping the controller pcb, but you really have to try and get one with a very close serial number, which can take a while. A clunk fault (tm) is a bit more likely to be mechanical, but the controller is still worth a shot in case its throwing the heads the wrong way electrically. Probably teaching you to suck eggs, but don't think about opening the case. Spend your time buying the closest controller and don't get too morose. I lost two years worth of pictures - yes, of course they were backed-up. To a dying Western Digital drive.
I've never used, or known anyone that has used, one of the data recovery companies. Some of the advertising sounds highly suspect so I'd be looking for personal recommendations.
HDDs. I had a Maxtor, and it's replacement fail in 2001. Since then I've only ever bought Western Digital Caviars, taking the advice of PcPro magazine at that time.
In the last 18 months six 1Tb Caviars have failed. The following is the final email to them when they refused to offer anything other than a replacement:-
Subject: Re: Goodwill gesture [ ref:_00DU0Jpn7._500U0Btj8y:ref ]
I just had a look at the package that you sent this drive in. It's clearly labelled as 're-certified'. I'd love to know how that was done, because (and I forgot to mention this) it screams as it starts.
I have bought only WD drives since 2001, possibly 50 of them. This was because you won a reliability test.
My position is that I can't trust these drives. One client lost a year's worth of photographs, and holds me partially to blame. Ex-client I should say. To have six out of seven fail means that there is nothing that I will use one for, and the replacement you send me will be used as a paperweight. The only one of the seven that I have left is used for temporary builds, and makes more noise than it should, so it's probably failing and you'll get that too.
Your reply, refusing any goodwill gesture, means that:-
1. Anybody who asks about the paperweight will be told the whole story about Western Digital and it's allegiance to loyal customers.
2. I will never buy a WD product again. Hello Samsung.
I am very disappointed in you.
Back to your woes. I've recovered drives by swapping the controller pcb, but you really have to try and get one with a very close serial number, which can take a while. A clunk fault (tm) is a bit more likely to be mechanical, but the controller is still worth a shot in case its throwing the heads the wrong way electrically. Probably teaching you to suck eggs, but don't think about opening the case. Spend your time buying the closest controller and don't get too morose. I lost two years worth of pictures - yes, of course they were backed-up. To a dying Western Digital drive.
I've never used, or known anyone that has used, one of the data recovery companies. Some of the advertising sounds highly suspect so I'd be looking for personal recommendations.
Joined: Jan 2006
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From: Dorking
We crossed posts.
Those screws are Torx type - most hardware shops have the drivers.
Does sound a bit more like a controller problem now though. Well worth trying.
As I said, don't open it up. It will have two or three discs in it, with inter-leafed read/write fingers so that you can only see one head anyway. They are now so tiny that a decent breath would move them. There are no parts that can be changed without disturbing the disc and heads, and if you were to disturb the discs there will be no chance of recovering anything!
Those screws are Torx type - most hardware shops have the drivers.
Does sound a bit more like a controller problem now though. Well worth trying.
As I said, don't open it up. It will have two or three discs in it, with inter-leafed read/write fingers so that you can only see one head anyway. They are now so tiny that a decent breath would move them. There are no parts that can be changed without disturbing the disc and heads, and if you were to disturb the discs there will be no chance of recovering anything!
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From: Timbuktu
LR, here are some things you should note:
- HDD chips get very warm, this is normal
- Unless you are in a cleanroom and know exactly what to do, opening a HDD will render it permanently useless
- As boguing says, you need to find a drive controller board with a very close serial number - but if the drive is less than a few years old, even that may not work, as individual drive controllers are now calibrated for the drive in question during manufacturing.
But really I have little sympathy, because as mixture says, you should have backed this stuff up.
- HDD chips get very warm, this is normal
- Unless you are in a cleanroom and know exactly what to do, opening a HDD will render it permanently useless
- As boguing says, you need to find a drive controller board with a very close serial number - but if the drive is less than a few years old, even that may not work, as individual drive controllers are now calibrated for the drive in question during manufacturing.
But really I have little sympathy, because as mixture says, you should have backed this stuff up.
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Psychophysiological entity
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From: Walton on the Naze Essex.
I blame Zolpidem. The last few years it's been a crutch, but it does leave me with spells of . . . loss of drive. (sorry about that.) Now, with nice British fresh air I'm sleeping with bags of REM-sleep and regaining some of my high-level functions. I have to say, the last few months seems like a haze so nothing very orderly in the rivets world. Backing up? Well, that's what the Black Armor was for.
I'll spend part of today looking into laptops (3) and two diddy drives that should contain at least part of the collection. The other part of the day I'll spend looking for somewhere to live - for the first time in my life.
This is what I got from my son, who earned good pocket money when he was a grad student, by taking over the department's computer care needs. It's just a ramble now, for no more than general interest.
I was able to hook up the BlackArmor drive to my network after resetting its username and password to the default “admin”, but it’s having difficulty transferring files.
I’ve managed to transfer about 11%, but the file transfer now repeatedly slows to a crawl and then the drive reboots itself. When that happens, Windows asks me if I want to try copying the file (the one it hung up on), which I can do for a v. short period before the device reboots. It seems to be getting worse, so I’m not sure if it will stop me getting past this 11%. Anyway, I’ll do my best. 11% of 45GB is still a lot of photos (more than none, anyway).
I’ve just done a series of three timed reboots. The files will transfer for almost exactly 60 seconds, then the drive will reboot (which takes about 2 mins). There’s about 4hrs of total transfer time left – which will take a nightmarishly long time to work through…!
Interestingly, it didn’t reboot when I didn’t resume file transfer (just left it waiting for me to hit “try again?”)… at least, not for the 2-3 minutes that I tried waiting. So the file transfer seems to consistently cause it to reboot, every 1min
And later:
So, not all bad, but my main computer has been my eyes and ears on the world for too long now. I'll miss that setup.
There's one more thing. There are some photos in that lot I hope he doesn't happen across.
I'll spend part of today looking into laptops (3) and two diddy drives that should contain at least part of the collection. The other part of the day I'll spend looking for somewhere to live - for the first time in my life.
This is what I got from my son, who earned good pocket money when he was a grad student, by taking over the department's computer care needs. It's just a ramble now, for no more than general interest.
I was able to hook up the BlackArmor drive to my network after resetting its username and password to the default “admin”, but it’s having difficulty transferring files.
I’ve managed to transfer about 11%, but the file transfer now repeatedly slows to a crawl and then the drive reboots itself. When that happens, Windows asks me if I want to try copying the file (the one it hung up on), which I can do for a v. short period before the device reboots. It seems to be getting worse, so I’m not sure if it will stop me getting past this 11%. Anyway, I’ll do my best. 11% of 45GB is still a lot of photos (more than none, anyway).
I’ve just done a series of three timed reboots. The files will transfer for almost exactly 60 seconds, then the drive will reboot (which takes about 2 mins). There’s about 4hrs of total transfer time left – which will take a nightmarishly long time to work through…!
Interestingly, it didn’t reboot when I didn’t resume file transfer (just left it waiting for me to hit “try again?”)… at least, not for the 2-3 minutes that I tried waiting. So the file transfer seems to consistently cause it to reboot, every 1min
I’ve been running it with a strong fan blowing on it, which has helped a great deal. Now at 80% complete, but it’s 2am so I’m headed to bed.
It’s likely to reset/hang up, but I’ll hopefully be able to continue tomorrow.
It’s likely to reset/hang up, but I’ll hopefully be able to continue tomorrow.
There's one more thing. There are some photos in that lot I hope he doesn't happen across.
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Psychophysiological entity
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From: Walton on the Naze Essex.
I'm surprised he didn't do that, especially as he suggested same when it first happened.
Interesting what you say about the file system, I may not have cottoned on to that. I should have, it's how I came by my third laptop. I was given it when I rescued some pictures from it here last summer using Ubuntu. It was kind of frustrating, because when I'd got the thousands of photos (no other copies anywhere) off, I put my Vista discs in that I made for my original Sony OS and it was fixed in a trice. Still, she's got them all - with backups in OZ.
I'm pulling data off the little Seagate USB drive as I type, so should be fairly safe now. Just can't find the latest data - having copied dozens of photos of old Colchester from the Colchester old Farts Faceboook thing. Wonderful shots some of them, but very time-consuming pulling them out of that site.
I guess that's it, unless I can get a PCB for that drive. I'll keep it just in case.
Thanks folks. Just a quick look back at life before I go to bed on the ones I've recovered. Life seemed simpler then.
Interesting what you say about the file system, I may not have cottoned on to that. I should have, it's how I came by my third laptop. I was given it when I rescued some pictures from it here last summer using Ubuntu. It was kind of frustrating, because when I'd got the thousands of photos (no other copies anywhere) off, I put my Vista discs in that I made for my original Sony OS and it was fixed in a trice. Still, she's got them all - with backups in OZ.
I'm pulling data off the little Seagate USB drive as I type, so should be fairly safe now. Just can't find the latest data - having copied dozens of photos of old Colchester from the Colchester old Farts Faceboook thing. Wonderful shots some of them, but very time-consuming pulling them out of that site.
I guess that's it, unless I can get a PCB for that drive. I'll keep it just in case.
Thanks folks. Just a quick look back at life before I go to bed on the ones I've recovered. Life seemed simpler then.
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Psychophysiological entity
Joined: Jun 2001
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From: Walton on the Naze Essex.
Now the frikkin' HD in the 'new' Vaio sounds bad. Just don't believe it. Finally decided it was safe to make this the PC replacement, (largely due to the blurb on 'Core Temp's site seemingly saying the temps were not too bad) and now the HD sounds as though it laboring and I can clearly hear it even before I clap my ear onto the damn thing.
It seems to be varying in speed while showing little activity. Do they spool down the speed as an economy measure? Because this whole machine seems to be continually altering screen brightness and keyboard back-lighting. As I've mentioned, the BIOS seems to have so few controls it's almost not worth looking in it. Anyone know if there are other ways to gain more BIOS control?
I'd swap the whole thing out in a New York minute, but I hate UK keyb layout. I suppose I need to replace the drive - a WD6400 BEVT.
Trying to set up a base in a friend's house while I find accommodation. That's tough enough without a string of computer failures. They really are my link to . . . well, everything, really.
It seems to be varying in speed while showing little activity. Do they spool down the speed as an economy measure? Because this whole machine seems to be continually altering screen brightness and keyboard back-lighting. As I've mentioned, the BIOS seems to have so few controls it's almost not worth looking in it. Anyone know if there are other ways to gain more BIOS control?
I'd swap the whole thing out in a New York minute, but I hate UK keyb layout. I suppose I need to replace the drive - a WD6400 BEVT.
Trying to set up a base in a friend's house while I find accommodation. That's tough enough without a string of computer failures. They really are my link to . . . well, everything, really.
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Psychophysiological entity
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From: Walton on the Naze Essex.
hard drive sounds fairly normal now, but I'm sure it was hunting this morning. So, can't trust it.
The screen and keyboard do respond to a sensor just above f9 - But I don't want them to, and I can't turn it off.
The Asus had an f key or keys dedicated to this issue. Auto screen dimming is a bit like owning a modern car that makes decisions for you.
There HAS to be more items in the BIOS - just have to reboot loads of times and hit every key.
The screen and keyboard do respond to a sensor just above f9 - But I don't want them to, and I can't turn it off.
The Asus had an f key or keys dedicated to this issue. Auto screen dimming is a bit like owning a modern car that makes decisions for you.
There HAS to be more items in the BIOS - just have to reboot loads of times and hit every key.
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Psychophysiological entity
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From: Walton on the Naze Essex.
MS site said something about the BIOS update allowing certain ( C3?) advanced settings. So, I updated it.
Fan ran flat out during the procedure.
So, searching for more settings later tonight.
Fan ran flat out during the procedure.
So, searching for more settings later tonight.
