# HDD not detected and makes horrid clicking noises. HELP!



## benanderson (Sep 22, 2006)

As the titile says, I baught an old second hand computer from my dads office, I don't have alot of money and I need one to install my Linux Distro onto.

Anyway... I plug all the cabels in and boot it up. It starts up and it wasn't detected in bios, then it makes two VERY loud clicks, revs up again, clicks twice again, revs up again and so on and so forth until I turn the thing off. So I dusted all the components and then moved tham to a better tower and redid all the cabels thinking that the old case was too small for the HDD. (It was a VERY tight fit, and a problem like this happened to me before due to an old, crappy, and slightly warped drive cradle that almost crushed the disc beyond repair!)

But the problem persists. Is there any way to fix this or should I wave good bye to the old drive and pull out every penny I have to buy a new one? If so... anyone know any good online stores in the UK that sell hard drives cheap? Preferably looking for a 20GB (at the very least) 3.5" IDE drive. I have Â£30 to spend (told you I didn't have alot of money >.< )

Thanks in advance


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## Suule (Sep 22, 2006)

Backup your data and replace the disk ASAP


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## benanderson (Sep 22, 2006)

Suule said:
			
		

> Backup your data and replace the disk ASAP



So a new disk is a must... oh well, gonna have to shop around for an obsolete IDE style drive and spend what little money I have... at least I don't have to spend loads of money backing up the data on it. Second hand from an office, Probably be full of some business crap that I wont understand. X3


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## Torin_Darkflight (Sep 22, 2006)

You can get a 40GB IDE harddrive for about $50 at NewEgg.com. If 40GB isn't enough, they have 500GB IDE harddrives on there, and I think even a 750GB one (I don't recall any prices ATM).


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## benanderson (Sep 23, 2006)

Torin_Darkflight said:
			
		

> You can get a 40GB IDE harddrive for about $50 at NewEgg.com. If 40GB isn't enough, they have 500GB IDE harddrives on there, and I think even a 750GB one (I don't recall any prices ATM).



$50 is nice but I'm British X3

And I found a nice SeaGate Baracuda 80GB on ebuyer.co.uk for Â£27 (incl. VAT)
I might get that one.


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## Ruiner (Sep 24, 2006)

Your HDD is shot, I don't think the programming is corrupted in the HDD per se, but that the arms arn't responding right, especcially since you were shuffling it around between cases.


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## The Sonic God (Sep 25, 2006)

Yeah, that Hard Drive is on a one-way trip to the tech graveyard, as everyone else said.

Go with Western Digital or Seagate for a new hard drive. Those work pretty well. And you don't need a huge one, an 80GB should suffice for most functions.


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## benanderson (Oct 21, 2006)

The Sonic God said:
			
		

> Yeah, that Hard Drive is on a one-way trip to the tech graveyard, as everyone else said.
> 
> Go with Western Digital or Seagate for a new hard drive. Those work pretty well. And you don't need a huge one, an 80GB should suffice for most functions.



It was a western digital drive that failed. I've always had a bad streak with them, they always flake out on me even after moderate use. I went with a Seagate drive, 80GB. Works fine and it quiet as a mouse. ^.=.^ The old drive makes for a nice ornament for on my shelf X3


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## benanderson (Oct 21, 2006)

Ruiner said:
			
		

> Your HDD is shot, I don't think the programming is corrupted in the HDD per se, but that the arms arn't responding right, especcially since you were shuffling it around between cases.



Shuffling it around between cases, it's 6 years old etc etc. It had it's day, and was pushed hard, after all it was from an old engineering firm. although I was expecting it to last a lot longer since my old 30MB AMIGA HDD from 1992 went strong for 12 years before going dead! and that was used for engineering CAD/CAM and 3D rendering for my brothers engineering course in college. Just as much strain went into it.


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## DavidN (Oct 21, 2006)

Just one thing before you bin it - it's possible that the BIOS is detecting your hard drive as the wrong size, particularly if it's an old one (I had that problem with the hard drive in my seven-year-old laptop when its HDD sort of fell out, but that's a long story). If you're given a number of cylinders, heads, etc on the disk label, try setting those manually in the DEL menu at startup.

This might restore it, but if it does, be warned that it probably won't work for very long!


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## Rhainor (Oct 21, 2006)

"Loud clicking noises" coming from inside the case, followed by the HDD spinning down to a stop, then spinning back up again, is the death knell for that HDD.Â Â The sound you're hearing is the read/write heads actually _hitting_ the data platters, which is never supposed to happen.

One thing you can try as a *temporary* fix is to stick the dying HDD in the freezer for a bit.Â Â The cold will cause the metal to contract slightly, and that may be enough to keep the R/W heads from contacting the platters long enough to back up some data.

Either way, that HDD is unavoidably on its last legs.


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## DavidN (Oct 22, 2006)

So that's why the freezer technique works. I thought the last person who told me it was just winding me up.


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## Rhainor (Oct 22, 2006)

Nope, they were telling the truth...although it's not guaranteed to work at all.  Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.


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