Advices for HDD failure diagnosis

[S.Redd]

Hello HDD gurus !

I need your help to find a proper diagnosis to my friend's HDD (WD6400AAVS)

It is part of an external toshiba HDD. When she gave it to me, I could hear (and see) that the HDD was not properly fixed to the external metallic support.

Apart from the slacks in the fixation screws, there was no sign of burning or visible mechanical problem. I have not opened the disk itself.

If I plug it (with USB), my computer can recognise it and I am able to see all the folder in the main directory of the HDD. I am also able to open SOME folders while other seems to make the HDD bug, like if the access to some files was corrupted : the drive then start to make an unusual clicking noise pattern (repeating over and over with the LED changing color synchronously with the click noise) and it freeze the explorer.

So based on your precious experience, what kind of failures is the most likely for an HDD with a cyclic clicking noise (when accessing SOME files, not all time) that can still partially be accessed but fully recognised ?

Thanks for your help

[pcimage]

Quite possibly a bad head.

[lcoughey]

Possibly heads, PCB, media damage or even firmware. It is difficult to diagnose without being able to inspect visually and with PC3K.

[Kum Ruzvelt]

One or more heads are bad.

[H13]

yes , head or more bad .. u have to image the drive head by head .. u can't .. if u dknt have right tools like mrt or pc3k cards ..

[S.Redd]

Thank you guys !

So, as I understand, there must be one of more heads that are still functioning properly while some are dead, which explains why some files are readable and some not ?
My first intuition was also into such mechanical problems, but just wanted to be sure I didn't miss another obvious explanation…

Just by curiosity, could PCB problems or software issues really cause such situations ?

Thanks again for your hints

[lcoughey]

Just by curiosity, could PCB problems or software issues really cause such situations ?

Yes, a failing WD PCB can make a drive behave like it has head issues.
No, software cannot cause the issues.
Yes, firmware could, if it were something like the slow responding issue that is somewhat common with Western Digital drives.

That said, it probably is heads, but you need to rule out the simple and obvious causes first.

[pcimage]

Just by curiosity, could PCB problems or software issues really cause such situations ?

Yes, a failing WD PCB can make a drive behave like it has head issues.
No, software cannot cause the issues.
Yes, firmware could, if it were something like the slow responding issue that is somewhat common with Western Digital drives.

That said, it probably is heads, but you need to rule out the simple and obvious causes first.

Agreed. A proper diagnosis is what's required.

Anything else is a guess, an educated guess but a guess nonetheless!!

[fzabkar]

Can you show us the SMART report? Look for reallocated, pending or uncorrectable sectors.

http://crystalmark.info/software/Crysta ... dex-e.html

You can use HDDSuperTool to deal with "slow responding" problems. This involves reading and patching firmware modules 02h and 32h.

http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsu ... e/download
http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsupertool/scripts
http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsu ... ects=0&d=1
http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsu ... ects=0&d=1
http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsu ... ects=0&d=1

You might also clean the HDA contacts on your PCB.

Oxidisation on Western Digital PCBs:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=649

Ddrescue would be the best freeware tool to clone your drive. It understands how to deal with bad sectors.

[northwind]

I've never seen oxidisation cause partial access to a drive. Interrupted, yes. No access, yes. Partial, no.
Nor have I seen slow responding cause partial access to a drive. Slow access, yes. No access, yes (esp. over USB). Partial, no.

[S.Redd]

Thanks guys for those precious advices.

I'll have look at what fzabkar is suggesting, I'll keep you posting (a bit busy these days)

[drHDD]

I've never seen oxidisation cause partial access to a drive.

I saw on tornado three times.

[colanco]

I've never seen oxidisation cause partial access to a drive.

I saw on tornado three times.

And how would this be possible?

Contacts are the same for all heads and can cause random/interrupted access, but always in the same sectors/zone (partial access) ???