Two weird Hard Drives

Rod Bishop · 04-16-2005, 06:29 AM

Hey Guys,

I hope someone could help.

A friend has two harddrives he pulled from a working system. He pulled the drives a while back and tried to use them in another computer he was building. One is an IBM, and one is a Maxtor, both around 30 Gig. They were working before in the same computer as master and slave.
He could not get them to fdisk or format or be seen in the system setup.
I thought I was pretty savy with computer but these have me stumped.

I tried to place them in two different computers that I use for testing and rebuilding systems. I TOO could not get either harddrive to be seen in setup. I tried every option I could think of but everything failed.

When either drive is connected and the system is turned on, the drives click.
Click, click, click. The click pattern changes depending on the option set, master, slave, etc, but the system fails to see either drive. Is the clicking sound the sound of a bad harddrive?

Any Ideas?

Thanks

Greg J. · 04-16-2005, 07:13 AM

Are the jumpers (on hard drives or motherboard), BIOS, and ribbon cables correctly configured? Any damage? Static damage? Is the CMOS battery okay? Check those things out.

Rod Bishop · 04-16-2005, 03:59 PM

Yes, to all. When I place any other harddrive back into the system, the system setup sees them all and are ready to fdisk and format and load windows perfectly.
Either test computer I use, the other spare harddrives I have are seen on the spot. These two drives, the IBM and the Maxtor (In Question) from a friends computer are not seen. They both just click.\
I have several other IBM and Maxtor spare drives and they work perfectly.

I have tried other cables, settings, etc. Still either harddrive cannot be seen.

It's not the systems, it's the harddrives.
\
Why do they click? Is the clicking the sign of death for a harddrive?

Thanks

**Praetor** · 04-16-2005, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Is the clicking sound the sound of a bad harddrive?

Yep

Quote:

Why do they click? Is the clicking the sign of death for a harddrive?

If its not the "normal" clicking (which is just the heads tracking stuff) then it's because of mechanical failure.

narafa · 04-17-2005, 01:00 AM

To make sure if it's a physical error, try mounting the Hard disks with different methods, for example, try to make them connected horizontal, vertical and so on, and see how the click sounds.

Check also the power cables of the Hard Disks in question, they might be getting loose, so when you try to connect them, they keep getting power and then disconnecting and then getting power and disconnecting and so on, which means they are not getting continuos power, this will make them click the way you hear. Of course you will check the power of the hard disks themselves and not the power cables coming out of your mother board as you don't need because other Hard Disks are working perfectly as you say.

04-16-2005, 06:29 AM	#1 (permalink)
Rod Bishop New Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 18	Two weird Hard Drives Hey Guys, I hope someone could help. A friend has two harddrives he pulled from a working system. He pulled the drives a while back and tried to use them in another computer he was building. One is an IBM, and one is a Maxtor, both around 30 Gig. They were working before in the same computer as master and slave. He could not get them to fdisk or format or be seen in the system setup. I thought I was pretty savy with computer but these have me stumped. I tried to place them in two different computers that I use for testing and rebuilding systems. I TOO could not get either harddrive to be seen in setup. I tried every option I could think of but everything failed. When either drive is connected and the system is turned on, the drives click. Click, click, click. The click pattern changes depending on the option set, master, slave, etc, but the system fails to see either drive. Is the clicking sound the sound of a bad harddrive? Any Ideas? Thanks

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04-16-2005, 07:13 AM	#2 (permalink)
Greg J. VIP Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 563	Are the jumpers (on hard drives or motherboard), BIOS, and ribbon cables correctly configured? Any damage? Static damage? Is the CMOS battery okay? Check those things out.

04-16-2005, 03:59 PM	#3 (permalink)
Rod Bishop New Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 18	Yes, to all. When I place any other harddrive back into the system, the system setup sees them all and are ready to fdisk and format and load windows perfectly. Either test computer I use, the other spare harddrives I have are seen on the spot. These two drives, the IBM and the Maxtor (In Question) from a friends computer are not seen. They both just click.\ I have several other IBM and Maxtor spare drives and they work perfectly. I have tried other cables, settings, etc. Still either harddrive cannot be seen. It's not the systems, it's the harddrives. \ Why do they click? Is the clicking the sign of death for a harddrive? Thanks

04-17-2005, 01:00 AM	#5 (permalink)
narafa Gold Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Egypt Age: 30 Posts: 450	To make sure if it's a physical error, try mounting the Hard disks with different methods, for example, try to make them connected horizontal, vertical and so on, and see how the click sounds. Check also the power cables of the Hard Disks in question, they might be getting loose, so when you try to connect them, they keep getting power and then disconnecting and then getting power and disconnecting and so on, which means they are not getting continuos power, this will make them click the way you hear. Of course you will check the power of the hard disks themselves and not the power cables coming out of your mother board as you don't need because other Hard Disks are working perfectly as you say.