External HDD, can it be fixed?

[madartiviv]

Hi, everyone.
I've got some problems with my external Toshiba MK5059GSX. It makes strange noises, like some creaks then continuous peep or chirp (whatever). And write speed went down, like 5MB/sec (was 25-30MB/sec). I'd appreciate some recommendations in "What best program you would use to reallocate bad sectors?" Or just simple chkdsk is enough?

 

[captaincharisma]

if it is making a sound like a "chirp" i don't think any program can help it. although a long shot may be the enclosure itself may be bad so you could try to take it out of the enclosure and install the hard drive internally or in another enclosure to see if it still acts the same way.

 

[smorizio]

if it the drive making the noise then the drive inside on it last leg. your better off buying a new drive and disk copy or drive clone soon before you lose all your data.

 

[captaincharisma]

if it the drive making the noise then the drive inside on it last leg. your better off buying a new drive and disk copy or drive clone soon before you lose all your data.

it might be possible. i had an old 1TB external hard drive that sounded like it was spinning up and down and not being detected but when i took it out of the enclosure and installed it internally it worked perfectly. but i think that was just lucky so it would still be a long shot

 

[rdc85]

Backup the important data from the external drive...
no software can 'repair' hardware failure......

as poster above said u can try to mount it internally, some times it just the interface board that fails not the hardisk itself, but backup first before trying anything else.......

edit:
before dismantle the enclosure make sure if it will void the waranty. If u still can RMA it, it better to claim the waranty than try to fix yourself...

 

[madartiviv]

Thanks, guys. I'll try connecting it internally, but that doesnt leave much hope =) Warranty has been expired like year ago, I bought it 4 years ago and since then there were some "falls" and "fails", one or two time I've even lost the file system, but fortunately I've restored it.
I heard that HDD has some internal small util (like S.M.A.R.T., or smth) that does reallocating of bad sectors, I've tried chkdsk but it took too long time, like 1 or 2 hours per percent (sometimes even slower).

 

[rdc85]

S.M.A.R.T is not for relocating bad sector. it just log utilities that record hdd activities and for early warning if drive start to fail... (Sometimes it need to be enabled at bios first...)

Chkdsk will run as how big the hdd the bigger it will longer since it check one sector by sector. but by increasing your memory (RAM) could help the process..............