[Techtalk] periodic loud hard drive noise--solved

[RobertWichert]

Do you really shoot your drives?

I don't know if my shooting range will let me do that sort of thing.


Robert P. Wichert P.Eng +1 916 966 9060 FAX +1 916 966 9068




On 1/17/2010 4:39 PM, Carla Schroder wrote:
> OK, I know I've nattered on way too long about this, violating my own rule
> of 'one test is better than a thousand theories.'
>
> The noisy drive is the old 20GB IDE drive; I couldn't shut down the PC and
> disconnect the disk until today. smartctl is supported on this disk, though
> not fully, and the only error it reported was
>
> Power_On_Seconds  FAILING_NOW 40531h+24m+05s
>
> That doesn't mean the drive is failing, it means it has exceeded the value set
> by the manufacturer for the expected lifetime of the disk. Grinding noises
> are bad no matter what smartctl reports, so it now resides in the
> stuff-to-shoot bucket.
>
> It was good for getting useful suggestions, thanks everyone!
>
> Carla
>
>