Frequent HDD failure

I'm using a Dell Inspiron 1100 that is about 4-1/2 years old. In the last 12 months, I have replaced 3 internal HDD and 1 external USB backup HDD. I just replced the 3rd internal HDD about 5 weeks ago and I am already starting to hear that dreaded "click" that seems to happen right before the drive gives up the ghost. Is this just random bad luck or possibly a defect with the notebook? If it's a defect, how would that affect my external HDD? Aside from my personality, there is never anything magnetic around it.

 

I posted something here awhile back that helps you determine BIOS beeps and what they all mean.

Let me check.

Clicking sound -- Is it a click from the HDD or FROM the speakers?

IMO your motherboard is having issues. Replace (expensive) or buy another laptop.

Read this article. It will help you determine a lot of things: http://www.hddsaver.com/content/20/index.html

 

It is not normal to be going through hard drives like that. I think there might be something wrong with your system that could be affecting the HDD, though I cannot fathom what.

 

Yeah, it might be because the HDDs s/he is buying are used and already have issues.

OP: Do you run check disk and find out if there are any bad sectors on the drive?

Edit: Here are some utilities that you might want to check out. Especially the first link at it gives access to

different HDDs types:

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

http://www.tucows.com/preview/412014

 

what exactly do you mean by failure? Mechanical Failure or crash (needing rebuilt)?

 

Yeah I forgot to ask this too: Are you getting any error messages?

Do you remember any blue screen errors with codes like:

# “Hard disk configuration error”
# "Hard disk 0 failure"
# "Invalid drive specification," "Error selecting drive"
# "Invalid command interpreter"
# "No boot device available"
# "Missing operating system"
# "General failure reading drive C:"
# "Not ready reading drive C:"
# "A serious disk error occurred while trying to read/write drive C:"
# “Corrupt system files”
# “Hard Drive Circuitry Error"
# 1701 Fixed disk general POST error
# 1702 Drive/controller time-out error
# 1703 Drive seek error
# 1704 Controller failed
# 1705 Drive sector not found error
# 1706 Write fault error
# 1707 Drive track O error
# 1708 Head select error
# 1709 Error Correction Code (ECC) error
# 1710 Sector buffer overrun
# 1711 Bad address mark
# 1712 Internal controller diagnostics failure
# 1713 Data compare error
# 1714 Drive not ready
# 1715 Track O indicator failure
# 1716 Diagnostics cylinder errors
# 1717 Surface read errors
# 1718 Hard drive type error
# 1720 Bad diagnostics cylinder
# 1726 Data compare error
# 1730 Controller error
# 1731 Controller error
# 1732 Controller error
# 1733 BIOS undefined error return
# 1735 Bad command error
# 1736 Data corrected error
# 1737 Bad track error
# 1738 Bad sector error
# 1739 Bad initialization error
# 1740 Bad sense error
# 1750 Drive verify failure
# 1751 Drive read failure
# 1752 Drive write failure
# 1753 Drive random read test failure
# 1754 Drive seek test failure
# 1755 Controller failure
# 1756 Controller Error Correction Code (ECC) test failure
# 1757 Controller head select failure
# 1780 Seek failure; drive 0
# 1781 Seekfailure; drive 1
# 1782 Controller test failure
# 1790 Diagnostic cylinder read error; drive 0
# 1791 Diagnostic cylinder read error; drive 1

More error codes: http://www.bnuol.com/english/types_of_hard_drive_failures.htm
http://pompone.cs.ucsb.edu/admin/530_Workstation/2codes.htm

 

I would recommend investing in a copy of Spinrite at grc.com. It is a great utility for hard drive maintenance and data recovery. I just got it and ran it on my two computers under maintenance mode. It found hundreds of thousands of problems on my older Dell desktop.

 

Each time my internal HDD's have failed, I got the message "Operating System Not Found". When my external backup HDD failed, it just wouldn't spin up. I got that yellow exclamation point on my devices that told me the drive wasn't working properly.

The "click" I hear and heard before when the others failed is a mechanical click like the reader is struggling to move across the disk. The disks have always been silent except right before they crash.

Another question. Why does the internal fan on my laptop fire up everytime I run Windows Media? I'm normally playing files off of the hard drive as opposed to playing a cd or dvd.

 

Do you frequently hard shutdown or hard reboot your system?

As in, do you not follow the shutdown procedure (Start->Turn off computer->Shutdown) ?

By not following this procedure, I can see the HDD getting bad sectors, and if there are enough bad sectors, the HDD will start failing.

 

Normally, my laptop is only shut down when the system calls for it. Like after a new installation or update. Otherwise I leave it on 24/7.