Knackered HDD? :S

Forum: Laptops
Topic: Knackered HDD? :S
started by: libretto

Posted by libretto on Dec. 10 2004,23:59

I installed Windows, that died after a few weeks. So I decided to install DSL as a frugal install.

That appeared to be running merrily. But a couple of days ago, the laptop starts playing up (IBM TP240). I think the HDD is the IBM 6.4GB original. Now it seems to boot off the drive, but then can't find the DSL image and throws me into a LILO prompt.

Does this mean my HDD is corrupt and that I should get a different one?

(As it failed under windows as well)?

P.S.: Would be fun to have a go (and probably more expensive) to have a compact flash disk and adapter in there :;):

Posted by cbagger01 on Dec. 11 2004,02:24

Since the hard drive is made by IBM, my guess is that it is failing on you.

Try getting a replacement from a different company like Seagate.

Posted by libretto on Dec. 11 2004,09:58

Very well ebay it is then!

I have bought IBM before and have had no problems thus far. (quickly touches the nearest wooden surface, damn, varnush in the way)

P.S.: Couldn't find any 2.5" compact flash/IDE converters on ebay.

Posted by skaos on Dec. 11 2004,15:25

If you don't mind wiping the disk, you could download tomsrtbt and run badblocks -svw (not quite sure about the options though). This will write bit patterns to the disk which then is read.

Posted by libretto on Dec. 12 2004,21:19

Typical after several HOURS, it reports no bad blocks

Will frugal install again and see what happens.

Posted by AwPhuch on Dec. 13 2004,04:35

< Ultimate Boot CD >
Has tons of utilities to help you check your hardware...
Check RAM and then run diagnostics on harddrive...you might be suffering from premature "click of death" which means when harddrive gets hot it will stop reading or click loudly a few times then start reading again

I use the activekilldisk to write 0's to the drive then run the harddrive diagnostics...it should have IBM compatible harware detection on it

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by libretto on Dec. 13 2004,09:23

Well the laptop doesnt have an internal cd drive

and it wont boot of the pcmcia cddrive

The hdd has been clicking a bit before and I have read reports from other TP240 websites.

Will see how long it lasts.

Posted by AwPhuch on Dec. 13 2004,17:00

Quote (libretto @ Dec. 13 2004,04:23)

Well the laptop doesnt have an internal cd drive

and it wont boot of the pcmcia cddrive

The hdd has been clicking a bit before and I have read reports from other TP240 websites.

Will see how long it lasts.

Yah that sounds like the "click of death"

This is how I lost all my webserver content before...(teach me to not backup!)
20 Gig Maxtor drive...will spin up and gets detected and loads for like 5-10 min, after that I hear a loud click/clunk and the drive will no longer read, even though it shows up as being there it can no longer read/write...

Might start looking for a new drive cause that one wont last much longer

Brian
AwPhuch