D-Man wrote: > > Hi all! > > I have 2 hard drives in my computer: > > o an 8GB Quantum Bigfoot that came with the computer, Win98 > preinstalled (/dev/hda) > > o a 10GB Maxtor that I bought ~1 year later and installed myself > (/dev/hdc) > > I also have a DVD-ROM (/dev/hdb) and a Zip drive (/dev/hdd) > > On /dev/hdc I have RH7 on the first half (not gone yet ;-)) and Debian > potato on the second (with swap in the middle) > > Recently when I was in RH using X it began to drag, then just stopped > responding. The hd was making a repetitive clicking noise (didn't > sound good). I had to kill the power and cold reboot to get the system > back. > > Shortly after that I was in Debian using 'find' to find a file. The > same thing happened, except that I was using the console so I saw lots > of hdc: IRQ timeout, Device Busy error messages and a some ide1: reset > success messages in between. Some of the hdc: messages gave read or > write errors on particular sectors. > > I was thinking that it must be a hardware problem, but my dad said > that some low-level disk access programs can have a similar effect on > a disk if they try to read/write beyond the end of the disk. > > Does anyone have any ideas as to whether it is a software or a > hardware problem and what I might do to find out (and correct it!)? > I'm looking for my warranty information (the drive is ~ 1.5 years old) > in case it is hardware and still covered. If I do need a new drive, > what would you suggest I consider? What should I flee from? > > Thanks for any suggestions or ideas you might have, > -D >
My advice as a hardware tech,get a replacement drive from Maxtor,trade it for something else(except Samsung) and never ever touch a Maxtor again.I've replaced a lot of them in the last 2 years(well over a hundred).If it clicks it's as good as dead.The slowdown in apps it's the first sign and it's a strange one becuse if you run specific DOS based diags or hdparm in Linux they'll show a normal transfer rate.
