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Message: 6712

Author: Jeremy Cooper

Date: 04/12/2010

Subject: Re: Sendy's hard drive

 

Failures are certainly rare for new hard-drives. However, there is also the issue of life expectancy to factor in. With the platters rotating at 54,000 or 72,000 revolutions per minute (RPM), over time they will start to produce unrecoverable sector errors, and eventually fail completely. I've seen it happen. Obviously, any knocking or moving the drive while its on, can increase the chances of such failures.

Having said all that, my hard drives have been spinning constantly, with only a few rests, for over 3 years. All Seagates, in case you're wondering.

With the faulty drive disconnected, slowly rock it in all directions. Normally you will hear the faint clicking sound of the drive's head. If it is very pronounced (i.e., more like a rattle than a click), then its likely that the drive has no life left.

To: manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com

jetsetdanny wrote:

Sendy, I would be happy to have a look at your drive and try and
recover the files from it. Would you consider sending it to me by
mail or courier service? I would then re-send you the drive and the
recovered files on DVDs or whichever medium would make most sense to
use, taking into account the drive capacity. All this keeping the
strictest confidence as to the content of your files.

This may sound like a joke, but in fact I am dead serious. Please
let me know if you are interested. If you are, I will send my postal
address to your e-mail.

Sendy, I don't know whether you accepted Daniel's offer, but I just found an article by Rick Maybury in the UK's Daily Telegraph (21st August 2010) that may be of interest:
These days, total hard-drive failures are comparatively rare. However, if it is going to happen, it's usually in the first few weeks of operation. Either way, it requires expert attention, and since it is still under warranty, this shouldn't be a problem.

If you are handy with PCs, then prior to taking it back to the shop, you could try booting the laptop with a `live' Linux CD or USB drive. This is a compact version of the Linux operating system that runs directly from a CD or USB drive, so it doesn't need to be installed on the hard drive. It will tell you straight away if the drive is working; if so, you can copy your daughter's files to a flash drive. You'll find details of how to make a Linux rescue disc in Boot Camp <http://tinyurl.com/35bn6d5>.

Alternatively, the drive can be removed from the laptop and connected to another PC using an external drive caddy or drive reader. Again, if it is working, it's a simple enough matter to copy the files, but be warned that this may invalidate the guarantee.

If you can't secure the data yourself, then you should make it very clear to the engineer that the drive contains valuable files, so if the drive is working but the operating system cannot be repaired, they must first be copied.

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