Seagate 1TB Drive - Click of Death

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SouthWestern

Prominent
Jun 24, 2017
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510
Recently replaced a hard drive (Also Seagate 1TB) with the "Click of Death" -- it was also showing increasing Reallocated Sector errors in the SMART log so I guessed the drive was failing.
Then the replacement, after a few weeks, had the same Click of Death, and many "The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR6, is not ready for access yet." in Windows Event Log. However, no SMART errors. It was impossible to access the drive,
Now the CURIOUS bit...
I took the drive out of the case, set it on edge, and the click of death stopped. Then I tried the drive the usual way up, and it still worked. Then I put it back in the case, and it was fine for about a week. Now the click of death is back, just now and then; and the drive is possible to access. I have read that this problem can be caused by bad cables, or power supply. (And obviously, a faulty drive.)
Any suggestions how to pin down what is causing the problem?
The drive is a Seagate ST31000528AS
Thanks!
 
Solution
D
The average lifespan of a hard drive of the era of the 7200.12 was 3-5 years. Current drives, I'm more inclined to say 2-3 years, while older drives were 5-7 years. I suspect that this drive is just letting you know that it is time for it to retire. You can change your power supply, if you wish, but you are still left with a failing hard drive.

Good luck.
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SouthWestern

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Jun 24, 2017
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DR_Luke: reminders about backup are always a good idea on forums, yes my data is. But did you read through the post? Notwithstanding a few SMART errors on the drive, I may have replaced one unnecessarily already and am not in a hurry to trash a second without some logic behind it.
 
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DR_Luke

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Dec 1, 2016
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Here are some pictures of most of the 7200.12 drives I get for data recovery these days.

https://www.recoveryforce.com/seagate-7200-12-head-crashes/img_20160817_1105156/
https://www.recoveryforce.com/seagate-7200-12-head-crashes-2/head-crash-rings/

My guess is that if you recently acquired this drive, it was a previously failing drive that someone refurbished (hid the bad sectors and cleared the SMART) and sold you a drive that is destined to crash and burn very soon.
 
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SouthWestern

Prominent
Jun 24, 2017
3
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510
DR_Luke - thanks for the suggestion. However, the drive was purchased from a major distributor just a month or so after the marked manufacturing date, used in a NAS for a while, and then rested unseen in the old NAS for the last year or so after the NAS got upgraded. so not a refurb i think.
Bearing in mind that this is the 2nd drive to show the "click", and with no SMART errors, I think replacing the PSU would be the next thing to try... but was hoping to be more certain before taking this step.
I was hoping to get some advice from the forum on some other diagnostic steps.
 
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DR_Luke

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Dec 1, 2016
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11,160
The average lifespan of a hard drive of the era of the 7200.12 was 3-5 years. Current drives, I'm more inclined to say 2-3 years, while older drives were 5-7 years. I suspect that this drive is just letting you know that it is time for it to retire. You can change your power supply, if you wish, but you are still left with a failing hard drive.

Good luck.
 
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Solution
seagate_surfer

seagate_surfer

Admirable
Mar 31, 2017
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Hi SouthWestern,

we are sorry to hear you were having issues with the same drive repeatedly. This is not supposed to happen and we apologize for your inconvenience!
Nowadays objectively all major hard drive manufacturers are working hard to optimize performance as well as reliability with each new generation of drives. Obviously each physical drive will fail at some point - however, if the right drive type is used in each scenario, modern hard drives usually last much longer than their minimum life time expectancy.

In your case, it's tough to tell what exactly is causing this issue. We would please ask you to contact our Customer Support and / or check your remaining warranty HERE and we will try everything to set you up with a working drive as soon as possible.

And thanks for reacting the way you did!
 
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