Posted by Brad on November 28, 19101 at 13:19:44:
I purchased this hard drive about a year ago, and it has 19.9GB left on it, and have noticed sporatic problems with it, major sporatic problems. Every now and then, the hard drive will make a loud banging tick, then a whining sound, then a scraping sound. Sometimes it will occur only once, but usually afterwards it will not stop. When it does this, the whole system freezes up (this 45GB hard drive is one of two Slaves, not the Master.). I then have to turn the computer off, and when I restart it, it will not start. I then have to pull out the 40 pin connector, so the computer doesn't recognize it. Then I have to turn the hard drive onto a new position, as it is not attached to an anchor, as there are no anchors for it in my computer. I then put the 40 pin connector back in and restart the computer and it works fine.
One theory as that the computer, an Emachines PIII 256RAM can't recognize all 45GB of the harddrive, and is struggling to cope with it. So, I installed the EZBios that came with the drive, which trick the computer into thinking it can handle a 45GB drive. It seems to work slightly, but not too well. Another theory is that I have too much stuff on it, as it is a little over half-full.
I asked a friend of mine about this, and he said that one or more of the 2 or 3 levels of disk in the hard drive are out of balance, and when the parts that are not even run into each other, they cause the reader fingers to get stuck between the disks and cause all of the problems. He suggested, but not recommended, taking the hard drive out of the computer and placing it in a moisture-proof container, and freezing the hard drive for a few days. After saveral days the disks should be in perfect balance again.
My question is, do you think that is what it could be, and are there any ways to re-balance the disks without calling a technician, or freezing the drive?
Thanks
Brad