Hard drive constantly ticking over

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#1069410 19-Jun-2014 17:33

A discussion I found online suggested it could be wear levelling. I just had it defragment over the past two days, maybe it is some kind of self maintenance.

nzcloud9

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#1069415 19-Jun-2014 17:40

Sounds like what my WD 1tb drive did a month ago with all my movies on it (daughter now not happy).
Turned the computer off and now no drive, only spinning and click sometimes.
Drive now does not show up in bios. Friends computer can see it in the bios but 0mb.

Hope you can save it.

timmmay

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#1069457 19-Jun-2014 18:06

It seems to have stopped, at least for now, and the drive's working fine. Must've been some kind of internal maintenance function. Very strange though, haven't heard of it before.

I'm definitely starting a backup.

MadEngineer

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#1069468 19-Jun-2014 18:16

Event viewer -> system will show logged disk errors. Sort by level and look at the red + yellow ones, looking for any with source of disk

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

timmmay

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#1069505 19-Jun-2014 19:15

Nothing comes up, must've been some internal function.

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#1069666 20-Jun-2014 00:32

Yup, if only connected to power and still ticking, it's on its way out... Copy all that data worth keeping off ASAP.

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timmmay

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#1069680 20-Jun-2014 05:50

I'm not sure that's true. The ticking went away and it seems fine, the SMART data is fine too. I think it was some kind of internal wear levelling.

MadEngineer

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#1069753 20-Jun-2014 09:38

Smart data is like a pregnancy test - you can't trust negative results :)

Even drive testing software isn't always reliable. A drive should not tick when idle.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

timmmay

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#1069760 20-Jun-2014 09:55

It wasn't ticking exactly, it was definitely data access. I'd done the first defragment in a year the day before. The issue speed after a day or so, probably 4 hours of doing something.

I've definitely backed up important data, but I don't have spare 2TB.

grant_k

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#1069773 20-Jun-2014 09:29

I had a similar issue with a Seagate 3TB drive last year, and when I looked at the SMART data, it had only 5% health. The 'Reallocated Sectors' pool was almost exhausted. So I think the constant noise was caused by the drive shuffling internally between one lot of sectors and another.

That was the second Seagate drive which had failed on me in recent years, so I replaced it with a WD 2TB Green series. My motherboard at the time couldn't access beyond 2.3TB, so there wasn't much point in having a 3TB. That drive too has recently failed after little more than a year. Again, SMART saved my a*se as it gave early warning that the drive was on its way out. I should mention at this point that my PC runs 24/7 logging data from my weather station.

So this time, armed with a new motherboard, I decided to bite the bullet and get a WD 3TB 'Black Edition' drive which is rated for enterprise 24/7 usage with a 5-year warranty. We will see how it goes over the next few years. Meanwhile, I am very thankful for my NAS, which has allowed me to escape these failures without losing any data.

afe66

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#1070772 20-Jun-2014 09:46

My drive stared clicking a couple of weeks ago and the windows backup utlity struggles to complete...

This weekend I'm going to clone it to a bigger 1Tb drive. (all the important stuff is on a NAS box)

Ive just moved my weather display to my HTPC which is on most of the time and has a ssd. Using Teamviewer to access the HTPC over the LAN.

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timmmay

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#1070773 20-Jun-2014 09:46

This drive (WD Black) has no reallocated sectors, and the SMART software's happy. If that count increases even by 1 it reports it to me.

WD Black do seem like good drives, but pretty pricey these days. They have a good warranty.

If you constantly write to a drive maybe you should use an SSD, to minimise moving parts. Interested to hear about your weather station too, i've been half looking for a good temperature monitoring solution with multiple sensors for a while.

grant_k

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#1070818 20-Jun-2014 10:13

timmmay: This drive (WD Black) has no reallocated sectors, and the SMART software's happy. If that count increases even by 1 it reports it to me.

WD Black do seem like good drives, but pretty pricey these days. They have a good warranty.

If you constantly write to a drive maybe you should use an SSD, to minimise moving parts. Interested to hear about your weather station too, i've been half looking for a good temperature monitoring solution with multiple sensors for a while.

I did think about an SSD, but they too have a write-cycle limitation so far as I'm aware. Weather data is logged every minute, so that shouldn't be too much to ask from an 'Enterprise Grade' drive IMO. The extra $100 or so for a Black Edition drive will be money well spent if it lasts 5 years.

My weather station is from Davis Instruments. Their products are pretty expensive, but are unrivalled for the variety of sensors which can be connected, and the range of the RF comms. Like most, I started out with a cheapie, made in China but one by one, the sensors died and I couldn't buy replacements on their own. Next move was an Irox and that was a lot better, but the inaccuracy of the outdoor temperature sensor under bright sunlight became apparent, and again I was plagued by reliability problems with the RF comms and repeated UV sensor failures.

If you buy a Davis from the authorised NZ importer, you will pay an absolute fortune, but there are distributors in the US who will sell to international customers and one in particular carries an excellent range of spare parts. You will eventually need a replacement fan and rechargeable batteries for the radiation shield. After almost 4 years now, I have replaced bits and pieces as necessary, so have accumulated a bit of knowledge about which spares to carry. PM me for details, as some of the info. is on hidden web pages.

The other really important thing to consider is which software to use with your weather station. There is a free one called Cumulus, but my favourite is Weather Display. For only US$70 you get an incredibly comprehensive product, even if it does take some learning to get the most out of it. WD is written by a Kiwi, and is well supported by a community of very helpful users.

timmmay

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#1070821 20-Jun-2014 10:17

SSDs are pretty robust - see here.

What's the ballpark to create a system that would have temperature monitors in maybe 6 places? Not too bothered about general weather, just to figure out things like heating, cooling, and insulation. Probably more than I want to pay, just curious :)

grant_k

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#1070829 20-Jun-2014 11:18

timmmay: ...

What's the ballpark to create a system that would have temperature monitors in maybe 6 places? Not too bothered about general weather, just to figure out things like heating, cooling, and insulation. Probably more than I want to pay, just curious :)

Almost certainly way more than you want to pay! If it's just 6 temperature monitors, I would probably use a Raspberry Pi or Arduino board, teamed up with the appropriate sensors. Or if it's at a remote outdoor location, you could use an Analogue I/O module with RS-485 comms.

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