when my customers are wondering if they’ve got a bad hard drive, I hush them and ask them “does it sound like this?” and then drag my tongue barbell across my teeth

Posted at 2:30 pm on Nov 15th, 2008 by Amy

*click click click*, quickly followed by “fuck fuck fuck!”

Posted at 2:37 pm on Nov 15th, 2008 by metiz

I’ve saved my data once by hearing sound. But it didn’t save an external drive with wrong polarity power supply xD.
Anyone got something to say about SMART status? Does it really work? And why did nobody made this available to external disks?

Posted at 2:53 pm on Nov 15th, 2008 by DarkFader

You can also use DFT to test the hard drive.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Posted at 3:18 pm on Nov 15th, 2008 by avaviel

@darkfader:
SMART is pretty useless.
it’s okay to check it once in a while, but don’t expect it to warn you.
every HD i’ve seen fail so far was fine according to SMART.
it has a few useful features like average/max temps, number of relocated sectors and power on hours count to name a few, but the prediction thing is crap.

so if the drive makes noises though SMART is still fine it’s definitely time to backup your data.

Posted at 3:55 pm on Nov 15th, 2008 by kikkoman

http://www.hotplate.co.nz/projects/zombieservers.mp3 way ahead of you.

Posted at 5:50 pm on Nov 15th, 2008 by michael fincham

I still have a failed maxtor with a stuck spindle that makes that wonderful musical jingle, man did it freak me out the first time I heard it. From my own personal experience, there should be way more quantum and maxtor noises. Remember what the old quantum bigfoots sounded like when they bit the dust? =)

cool site, but it gets way more marketing related if you click the descriptions, did you guys really have to post up a non-diy commercially centered data recovery site?

Posted at 9:53 pm on Nov 15th, 2008 by cprossu

Gizmodo held a competition to compose songs with failing harddrive noises a while ago:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/announcements/hard-drive-dying-dance-track-winner-151666.php

My favourite is Crizzash: “My harddrive crashed, my harddrive crissashed, that’s were all my good porn was stizzashed…”

Posted at 12:54 am on Nov 16th, 2008 by Andrew

My Seagate external drive stopped working yesterday and is making one of the sounds heard on the site. I cannot afford recovery costs. It is a 750GB SATA disk. USB is not even seeing the drive. I do not have any other SATA drives therefore I was thinking of getting a SATA PCI card and putting the drive in one of my desktops to run SpinRite on. Is this the cost effective way or am I kidding myself and I should jus bite the bullet and send it off?

Posted at 5:33 am on Nov 16th, 2008 by syale

@syale
Spinrite is more than likely to kill the drive as it breaks the first rule of data recovery: never write back to a failing disc.

Save your money. You’ll be much safer off using ddrescue to image it to a new drive.

Posted at 5:44 am on Nov 16th, 2008 by Mike

@mike
Thanks for the tip about spinrite! The direction I am going to install the disk in my desktop is still a valid one though I think. The disk is making a small bleep sound followed by a dropping click sound about every 3 seconds. The cost of SATA card and cables I can handle. I am just wary of the fact that I may be doing more damage by spinning it up. When you get a quote for data recovery, is that just the cost for recovery and I have to provide new media for the data to be recovered to? If anyone has any pointers for DIY recovery I would appreciate that…

Posted at 6:10 am on Nov 16th, 2008 by syale

too shitty audio quality to make something out of =( a shame fo real

Posted at 8:35 am on Nov 16th, 2008 by ultrahacker2000

datacent.alepar.ru/wd_loud_clicking.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/wd_5000gb_slowclicking_spindown.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/wd_2500js_slow_click_spin_down.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/wd_250gb_stuck_spindle_chuttering.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/wd_laptop_clicking.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/wd_200gb_bad_preamp_click_stop.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/wd_unstable_clicking_spin_down.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/wd_laptop_stuck_siren.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/wd_500gb_bad_bearings.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/seagate_dying_heads_spin_down.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/seagate_slow_clicking.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/seagate_laptop_clicking.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/seagate_stuck_spindle.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/seagate_momentus_nasty_drilling.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/maxtor_calypso_constant_clicking.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/maxtor_160gb_steady_knocking.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/maxtor_melody.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/maxtor_melody2.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/samsung_sp8002_clicking.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/samsung_clicks_spins_down.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/samsung_40gb_bad_heads_knocks.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/samsung_bad_sectors.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/hitachi_1_click_with_beep.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/ibm_scratching_bad_sectors.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/hitachi_ibm_clicking.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/ibm_40gb_bad_heads_rattles_squeals.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/hitachi_laptop_60gb_nospin_buzzing.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/toshiba_seizure_scratching_no_spin.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/toshiba_degrading_bearings.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/toshiba_60gb_loud_grinding.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/toshiba_60gb_loud_drilling.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/toshiba_clicking_sweeping.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/fujitsu_60gb_clicking.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/fujitsu_60gb_sweeping.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/fujitsu_20gb_bad_media_scratches.mp3
datacent.alepar.ru/quantum_clunking.mp3

Posted at 11:49 am on Nov 16th, 2008 by walt

wow, i can’t wait for that techno track! they could call it “requiem for a hard drive”.

anyway I’m going to bookmark this one just in case my 900gb hard drive fails for no apparent reason.

Posted at 3:48 pm on Nov 16th, 2008 by ross

All right! This should keep me in ringtones for weeks.

Posted at 9:26 pm on Nov 16th, 2008 by dand

@syale

In my experience, these data recovery centers have you send your drive in for them to inspect first to see if they can recover the data. The charge is generally around $100. If they say that they can recover it, but want you to pay the full amount of $(large sum), just tell them you can’t afford it and ask them to send it back.

Chances are they already fixed the drive, but deleted the file table. You can then use a utility like testdisk to restore the deleted file table and access all your files again. I’ve recovered the data from two dead drives this way.

Posted at 7:27 am on Nov 17th, 2008 by Vegiemaster

I have noted that some external hard drives struggle when their power supply units have a problem (voltages fade?). Typically they take longer to fire up and make unusual noises. It’s worth trying a replacement – but check voltage and polarity, this has ‘saved’ my aging Freecom from what seemed to be disk failure. .

Posted at 8:23 am on Nov 17th, 2008 by AJ

I once got a high pitch squeal and had to rma to the drive back hp… thier support has gotten better.. I used to lie to them when they made me “test” the hard ware to prove there really was a problem… recently I delt with them and they actually impressed me… hmmmm.. whats going on here? Radiohead “Big Ideas: Don’t get any” -cheers- video anyone??

Posted at 12:21 pm on Nov 17th, 2008 by kyle007

Thanks for this Hack-a-day. I can’t wait for someone to start to mash this up with a brittany spears album. LOL!!! BTW I used you as a reference for an item on my show today. Thanks for posting.

Here is the episode:
http://dailybuzz.mobuzz.tv/shows/crashing_drives_with_flypaper

Cheers!!!
Gabemac

Posted at 2:58 am on Nov 18th, 2008 by GabeMac

True on aj’s remarks, often external 3.5″ HD’s get shipped with rather dodgy powersupplies that can ruin data while the actual device is OK.
That’s why you should not go too far in trying to save cash on buying one, or on buying a case for an existing HD, there’s just a minimum amount of money needed for a working powersupply and a HD-case.

Posted at 11:41 am on Nov 18th, 2008 by Wwhat

@ vegiemaster. that’s not the way most data recovery centers work. the fees are typically around that range due to shipping costs and the hour or two it takes to connect a drive, see if it ids, and if not then open it up and check for surface rings. i can guarantee that *my* company at least will not dedicate anymore time to your drive unless we have signed paperwork and credit card information to proceed. there are too many drives on the queue to complete every recovery with out a customer’s go-ahead. also, they typically don’t “fix” a drive but instead put it on a crutch for the time-being. so, if you were able to do what you described then the problem was most-likely something that could have been solved before sending it out in the first place.

Posted at 1:33 am on Nov 20th, 2008 by m@!

I am having some trouble with my current hard disk. Unfortunately I cannot afford recovery costs. It is a 750GB SATA disk. USB is not even seeing the drive. I do not have any other SATA drives therefore I was thinking of getting a SATA PCI card and putting the drive in one of my desktops to run SpinRite on. Is this the cost effective way or am I kidding myself and I should jus bite the bullet and send it off?
récupération de données

Posted at 5:18 am on Apr 17th, 2009 by récupération de données

You’re really thankful for this post, I’ve been really enjoying checking up your posts from time to time. Looking forward to see your future posts !!
Regards,
Digital Printing Vancouver

Posted at 2:39 am on Apr 30th, 2009 by Digital Printing Vancouver

I believe this aspect is growing everywhere as business owners learn what it is. For example, Phoenix is much more sophisticated in this regards than here in Tucson. I average small business owner is still way behind in their understanding such incidents.
gardena

Posted at 7:01 am on May 21st, 2009 by South Bay Taxi

As a Noob, I am always seeking online for articles that can help me. Thank you

Posted at 3:03 pm on Jun 14th, 2009 by Galey