Oh my God that was scary (click of death faked?)

[nstgc]

So I "fuck it" finally and decided to just us that crap'tastic Seagate made F4 and had put my other 2TB drive in along with this new one. I turn on the power...click of death. No shock there right, it has to be a DOA Seagate. I disconnect it so I can at  least see what on the existing drive and force fsck it. My heart beat jumped to new highs as the CoD returned. I panic run around like an idiot before collapsing on the floor -- normal reaction (right?). I calm down enough to chant "panicking solves nothing" and try to put it back in my external enclosure where it was last time it worked. I force fsck the drive and everything seems okay. I'll be copying over those files now.

That said, what the fuck was that about?!

[edit] Oh I should also mention that all the SMART data checks out just fine.

[edit] It seems as if in my great relief I failed to properly retell my little story. the drive that was screwing up is an ordinary Spinmaster F2 manufactured by Samsung. It was not initially meant for external enclosures. The Drive I thought was DOA was the new Spinmaster F4 manufactured by Seagate. I thought it was DOA, but in reality it was the old Samsung drive.

[kitamesume]

you lost me there, how about wiring the drive directly into your motherboard and psu?

[nstgc]

I did. When the drive was actually in my computer connected to the motherboard, and PSU, I got the click of death. I then put it back in the external enclosure and it works fine again.

[edit] I'm thinking that the Marvel controller on my MB and my HDD don't get along.

[Clannad_92]

why is there click sound in hdd?
i mean loud click...is it normal?

btw the hdd mention is in portable mode...

[nstgc]

Clicking. As in the actuator head is slamming against a hard stopper. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_of_death

Portable mode? Why would it be in portable mode? I never put it in any particular mode ever. Intentionally I used it was an internal drive, then I got scared that I'd break the power connector and put it in an external enclosure. For fear of what the enclosure would do to my poor old drive I put it back in the case. When I powered on I was getting a click of death.

[Freedom Kira]

I'm thinking it's the controller. I've never had the problem before myself, though... Perhaps Seagate put some firmware on the drive that acts up when you connect it out of spec, i.e. outside of the enclosure?

(BTW, DOA = dead on arrival. Since it seems like you were using the disk for storage, it wouldn't be considered DOA)

[nstgc]

Did I really screw up writing the opening post that badly? The drive I thought was DOA was the new Seagate drive, which I have never used before. The drive that was having a problem was the old Samsung drive. The old Samsung dive is not an external drive, and it was not manufactured by Seagate. The Samsung drive was initially used inside a real computer connected to all the stuff internal drives are use to. This has never happened before.

I think its just that the Marvel controller is a piece of shit.

[Freedom Kira]

Haha, nicely done. You pretty much didn't mention at all that your story about the CoD involved two disks. =P

So if I understand correctly, your new drive appears to be fine now, which I assume is in an enclosure? I still don't really get what happened with the F2 that caused you to panic, because you say you had to disconnect the new drive. So was it initially connected internally, and you had brought it out to put in the enclosure and it worked? Then you put it back inside and it CoD'd, but it still worked in the enclosure?

[nstgc]

No the new drive is in my computer connected to the Intel controller.

Here is the chain of events:

01) I put both drives into my computer
02) I connected the new drive (the Seagate F4) to the Intel controller an the old drive (Samsung F2) to the Marvel controller
03) I turned the power on
04) CoD
05) Assumed that the F4 was DOA
06) Disconnected F4
07) Powered back on
08) Click of Death
09) Panic
10) Remove F2
11) put F2 in enclosure
12) reconnect F4
13) power back on
14) Copy files

I'm not exactly the most articulate person, but I think a list like that should make it clear.

[Clannad_92]

Clicking. As in the actuator head is slamming against a hard stopper. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_of_death

damn...my drive is starting to produce the CoD...
if i recall, all drive that in portable mode using custom ExHDD(not like WD/SeaGate ExHDD) produce CoD, but when in internal mode, no CoD...thats weird...

14) Copy files

I'm not exactly the most articulate person, but I think a list like that should make it clear.

the most important step...but in my case, it always failed...drive dead during copy...

[Freedom Kira]

That definitely makes more sense. One thing is still bugging me though - you said your F2 was used as an internal drive. Was it previously connected to the Intel controller, then?

I actually got four F2s just under three years ago. They always click for a few seconds when they cold start, for some reason, but I've only ever had one drive temporarily cut out though (broke my RAID5 array and caused it to rebuild). I hope that is not the click you're hearing? Did you let the computer POST, at least? It's usually gone by then.

[nstgc]

This drive has never been connected to an Intel controller. It originally, and for most of its time used, had been connected to an AMD controller. It started its life as an internal drive and I would just connected and disconnect it as needed, but then I had another drive get a chip in the power connector and got an external bay (just so that its clear, the drive with the chip was NOT the F2).

I've heard clicking before, and the only other places I've heard this particular type of clicking was on a Maxtor when it died (which is really the only thing Maxtor drives do). And no, I could not post.

[Freedom Kira]

Hmm. Yeah, I don't know. Sounds to me like your drive may or may not go.

I have an old 200GB Maxtor in my desktop that's around 5-6 years old. I've never heard it click. I must have the only non-clicking Maxtor in the world, because I can definitely relate to the Maxtor clicking annoyance with other drives I've come across.

[GoGeTa006]

I felt that way on various ocasions including (but not limited to):

- my 1 TB drive died
- I installed a new video card and forgot to connect 1 cable onto the motherboard and I was freaking out cause the BIOS didnt even start