is my hard drive crapping out????

[drdeath]

i was just running scandisk as part of my regular computer maintenance, and a window popped up saying that there might be a severe error (or something like that) and that i should run a thorough test. i did so, and got to the surface scan without errors, and after a few blocks, the hard drive went *CLICK* and the motor stopped, and the computer froze. i hit the reset button, but it wouldnt boot off the drive - it just sat there froze. i turned off the power and turned it back on, and it started up. i started directly to DOS and ran scandisk from there, but got the same problem. i havent been having any problems with it lately, tho. it is a maxtor drive, 6.8 gig, and only like 5 months old. is it gonna die soon?

[Underclocked]

Doesn't sound too good. I would get the diagnostic programs from Maxtor and run them.
Also, you might want to be sure the drive isn't getting too hot.

[drdeath]

ok - heres what the deal is now:
before i ran scandisk and had this problem, i was working on the guts of the computer frequently, so i had the side off for a good week or so. i had just put the side back on, and then this happened - so maybe heat was the problem (?). i took it back off and tried again, and this time scandisk ran fine the whole way thru, but it found a bad sector at about the same spot where it "clicked" before and froze - could this 'click' have damaged the drive in that particular spot? there werent any other bad sectors on the drive - just at the spot that it froze before....

[Underclocked]

Certainly sounds like heat is the problem. Better investigate some better cooling and/or some arrangement within the case that gets some more airflow to that drive. I would still run the diagnostics on it to see what it tells you.

[drdeath]

i got the diagnostic utility from maxtor, but in the readme it says that it will wipe the drive of all information - is there any other utility that will do the same thing without wiping the drive? its just gonna be a pain in the **** if i have to try to back up my whole drive blah blah blah.....

[Dominus]

It won't wipe the drive as long as you do not perform the "Write Test", which is just another way of saying Low Level Format.

All the other tests are comletely safe.