thejackel wrote:
i have a seagate barracuda st31000528a2 1 tb 7200rpms, [...] she winds up about 6-8 times with some clicking in between, then shuts down. i have a external ide- sata/usb cradle but i cant get it to see the drive at all
All of that is consistent with an internal drive fault - whether hardware or firmware corruption, it's not something you could fix easily. If you attach the drive directly via SATA, then you might be able to gather a little more info using MHDD (from this website), but from the behaviour you describe, it's unlikely to change that overall diagnosis.
thejackel wrote:
i dont really care about the stuff on the drive i prefer to wipe it and repartition it for another OS
Therefore, personally, I would give up with that drive. For other drives recently, some other people have suggested you search out a company who could try to refurbish that drive, which
may be at a lower cost than buying a new drive, due to recent price increases of new drives (but could you trust the end result?). Your drive, your choice

thejackel wrote:
i think its in the mbr
No, it isn't. There is no fault with the MBR which could cause the symptoms you describe.
thejackel wrote:
with all going on in china
I think you mean the flooding (and disruption of disk drive production) in Thailand, not China???