Please advise most likely problem - IBM Travelstar hit the floor, clicks while "spinning."

On Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:58:34 -0500, "-Lost"
wrote:

Response to kony :

Boot the system to the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostics
program, either with it in the laptop or pull it and put it
in another laptop, or a desktop via an inexpensive adapter
(a web search will find such adapters if you have none).

"...Or a desktop via an inexpensive adapter..."

How about a laptop with an inexpensive adapter?

Ok, but I'd meant a 2.5" 44 pin to 3.5" (drive) 40 pin plus
PSU cable type adapter, like this:
http://www.cablestogo.com/product.as...3004&sku=17705
I was lazy about linking the first one a web search found,
they're usually cheaper like around $5.


That is actually
how/when/where it was dropped.

I pulled the OLD HDD from the laptop and put it in one of those USB
external cases. Could I leave it in there and run the diagnostics
as suggested?

Maybe, it depends on whether the diagnostics are
sophisticated enough. Many that run in windows might be
able to do this, but the bootable CD or floppy type
generally can't. You can try that but the most sure way is
using a direct connection to the notebook or desktop PATA or
SATA controller.




Or is a desktop computer somehow more competent in this regard?

Thanks!

No, a desktop doesn't necessarily mean more competent, it
just needs an adapter if your external enclosure doesn't
work with the manufacturer's diagnostics which are the
variable you have no control over.

-Lost wrote:
snip...

Could it be that I should leave it on and running for a time to see
if Windows will eventually detect the drive?
snip...

Ahhh. A bit of information we didn't have befo Windoze does not detect
the drive. That certainly suggests that something serious happened during
the drop. But not just the drive is involved here. It could also mean that
the enclosure suffered some damage or that the cable was damaged (or even
that the USB port on the computer suffered). In a case like this I'd really
prefer to follow old Bill of Ockham's advice and minimize the complications
by installing the drive in a computer rather than an external enclosure.
With it in a computer you can see during the boot whether the BIOS detects
the drive and that at least indicates whether the drive electronics are
still among the living. If the drive can be seen that will also be a
starting point for running diagnostics.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com

-Lost wrote:
Response to Sjouke Burry :

Those clicks are the result of recalibration attempts,
quite reasonable after that fall.
Also the disk might have a lot of bad blocks, due to
surface damage.
As the bad blocks get re-assigned to the spare tracks
reserved for repair, those clicks become less and less.

Thanks, Sjouke. In my reply to Jon I touched on what you said here
(I'm always so confused as to how to reply to a thread where I had
numerous responses.)

Any thoughts on leaving it powered on and seeing if it corrects its
own problem? Or did I totally miss the point?

Thanks!

I think that in such cases you are lucky if you can get
your files off it.
Dont gamble on a "maybe" recovery, the price of disks
has become so reasonable, that the gamble is not worth it.
I would try to clone it with GOST2003 and an usb drive.
Make a clone swap drive and hope for the best result.