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Vintage hard drive refuses to die - but possibly on its last leg?

TH2002

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2020
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California, United States
Vintage hard drives failing is obviously nothing strange or unusual at all, but what about one that sometimes makes the dreaded "click of death" and other times doesn't?

It's the original HDD in my beloved Toshiba Satellite Pro 420CDT and I haven't seen anything like this. I take note that sometimes when I hit the power button the drive clicks and the system doesn't boot. One would assume the drive is just dead but when I remove it from the machine and hook it up to my IDE-USB adapter, it starts working normally again.

Is this just a drive that one would refer to as "on the verge of failure"? Aside from the occasional clicking and failure to boot, there are no other issues. Not even a single bad sector so I have to admit I'm perplexed.

Still should probably image ALL of my drives though, and I know this has probably been asked a million times, but what program(s) have you generally had good luck with for creating image backups of similar old hard drives?
 
The clicking indicates that it has trouble reading from the platter with the servo tracking information. So the data there is starting to fade. I would backup the drive as soon as possible.
 
Yeah, I'd class it as "on the verge of failure". Back it up now.

I have a 10GB drive that squeals loudly like the head has crashed, but it keeps working. I know that one day soon it will be dead.
 
It's the original HDD in my beloved Toshiba Satellite Pro 420CDT and I haven't seen anything like this. I take note that sometimes when I hit the power button the drive clicks and the system doesn't boot. One would assume the drive is just dead but when I remove it from the machine and hook it up to my IDE-USB adapter, it starts working normally again.
What IDE-USB adapter do you use? I had a cheap one and it failed to work with an IDE drive when connected to my test PC via USB.
 
What IDE-USB adapter do you use? I had a cheap one and it failed to work with an IDE drive when connected to my test PC via USB.
No brand name on it. Bought it on eBay some while back. Has 2.5 IDE on one side, 3.5 on the other, SATA on the end, and then of course the USB cable. Didn't pay that much for it but it turned out to be one of the most useful things I have bought so far.

I would backup the drive as soon as possible.
Yeah, I'd class it as "on the verge of failure". Back it up now.
Any idea on what programs I can use to back up the entire contents of the drive to a bootable image, which I can also write to a replacement drive?
 
For this sort of stuff, I usually just us an old Linux Live CD and then "dd" the drive to a file on a larger hard drive.

You may also wish to try refreshing the drive by using Linux "dd" to copy the drive back on to itself (for example, "dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sda"), or use a "low level" formatter like MaxLLF to wipe the drive. Depending on what exactly the issue is, that may force bad sectors to re-map and then it may behave better.
 
No brand name on it. Bought it on eBay some while back. Has 2.5 IDE on one side, 3.5 on the other, SATA on the end, and then of course the USB cable. Didn't pay that much for it but it turned out to be one of the most useful things I have bought so far.
Sounds like the one I have. Maybe mine is defective. They're inexpensive so I may as well purchase another one.
 
Sounds like the one I have. Maybe mine is defective. They're inexpensive so I may as well purchase another one.
Maybe the drive was just not compatible. Only drives supporting LBA can be used with an USB adapter.
 
Is it an actual Toshiba brand drive? If so, then it sounds like the rubber bumper that the head rests on while in the park position is starting to get sticky. The Toshiba drives are the latest ones to start having this issue. I have successfully repaired two Toshiba drives so far that has this issue, a 500MB and a 1GB one.

It's pretty tricky to get the the bumper in these drives, as there's very little room in there, but what I did was put a coating of superglue over it (the bumper), giving the head arm a non-sticky surface to rest on. So far, the two I repaired have been holding up just fine.

Does it make a very fast "tick tock, tick tock" sound, spin down, spin back up and repeat a few times?
 
Is it an actual Toshiba brand drive? If so, then it sounds like the rubber bumper that the head rests on while in the park position is starting to get sticky. The Toshiba drives are the latest ones to start having this issue. I have successfully repaired two Toshiba drives so far that has this issue, a 500MB and a 1GB one.

It's pretty tricky to get the the bumper in these drives, as there's very little room in there, but what I did was put a coating of superglue over it (the bumper), giving the head arm a non-sticky surface to rest on. So far, the two I repaired have been holding up just fine.

Does it make a very fast "tick tock, tick tock" sound, spin down, spin back up and repeat a few times?
Yes. Toshiba branded drive and the scenario fits the symptoms you are describing.

Do you need any special tools or screw bits to complete the repair?
 
Yes. Toshiba branded drive and the scenario fits the symptoms you are describing.

Do you need any special tools or screw bits to complete the repair?
You need a pretty tiny torx bit. What I did was use a little metal stick, put a drop of superglue on the end of that and kind of "paint" the bumper with it, which worked great. You will have to move the head out of the park position to get to it, but it won't hurt the drive, just don't move the head too much. If you need any help just ask. I can even provide pictures if needed (I have a dead one I can open up and snap some pics).

Oh, and you will have to remove the upper magnet, which requires some force, just be careful. Without removing that, access to the bumper is almost impossible.
 
I have successfully repaired two Toshiba drives so far that has this issue, a 500MB and a 1GB one.
Unless you did that in a clean-room - no, you did not repair them. We are talking about 2.5" IDE drives here, which are still cheap and easy to obtain. It makes no sense at all to do this sort of "repair". Just replace the drive.

Oh, and using superglue inside a hard disk is the worst thing you can ever do (well, apart from opening it anyway). Superglue leaves a white residue around the area while it dries out, especially on anything made out of metal. If I was you, I'd trash the "repaired" drives.
 
Unless you did that in a clean-room - no, you did not repair them. We are talking about 2.5" IDE drives here, which are still cheap and easy to obtain. It makes no sense at all to do this sort of "repair". Just replace the drive.
*SIGH* I have been through this so many times with people, I can't believe I'm doing it again. People can't ever just say "that's cool you were able to breathe some new life into that drive," they must talk sh!t and say "what's wrong with you?" Or "you're wasting your time?" Or "stop playing with that garbage and get a CF adapter!" Really, what is you people's goal? Why do you care if someone repairs an old drive or not?

Yes, I repaired these drives, I can proof video-proof if you want it. How long will they last? I don't know, but I have been repairing and tinkering with hard drives for years with mostly good results. Most particles will be collected in the filter once the drive has run for a bit. If it dies, it dies. It won't be the end of the world, but I already had the drives, so it cost me nothing to try, and I ended up with two working drives in the end without spending a dime. How is that a bad thing? I'm not storing anything irreplaceable on these drives, so why does it matter? It doesn't.

Low-capacity 2.5" drives aren't nearly as plentiful as they were a decade ago by the way. They certainly aren't "rare" by any stretch, but they aren't just covering the shelves of every thrift store like they used to.

And these old laptops don't usually play well with drives larger than 6GB or so, so it's not like you can just throw some common 60 or 80GB drive in there.

Here's the thing, I like taking on the challenge of repairing things because I feel it's good education for myself. I feel it betters my skills of solving problems with things, which is what the hobby of vintage computing largely is, solving problems.

Lastly, I don't give a damn if you repair an old drive or not. If you'd just rather replace them that's totally fine, but don't try and invalidate something I did successfully just because you personally feel like it wasn't a "real repair." It was broken when I started and it works now, that's what I (and most) people call a repair.
 
I don't have CF card adapter in a single one of my vintage computers. Don't ask me why I prefer fully sized, mechanical hard drives, I'm just weird like that.

And I do think there is no reason to be apprehensive about attempting to repair a hard drive that is already dead/non-working. If it doesn't work anyway and you can get it working again, what are you losing? That being said, I do have Tourette syndrome so my twitchy hands often struggle with precision repairs.
 
^ Lots snipped, but very well said. Two thumbs up!
Thank you! I just get so damned tired of people getting butthurt every time I mention repairing or using an old drive, so I felt I needed to sit down for a bit and type that up.
I don't have CF card adapter in a single one of my vintage computers. Don't ask me why I prefer fully sized, mechanical hard drives, I'm just weird like that.

And I do think there is no reason to be apprehensive about attempting to repair a hard drive that is already dead/non-working. If it doesn't work anyway and you can get it working again, what are you losing? That being said, I do have Tourette syndrome so my twitchy hands often struggle with precision repairs.
Me too! I love my noisy old hard drives. It's part of the vintage experience to me, but I have had so many people verbally beat me up for "wasting" my time with these old drives, it's insane. I just don't get why people care at all. If I had just taken everyone else's advice and thrown those "junk" hard drives way; I'd have far fewer drives now. I've done some pretty extensive restorations on Conner drives for my Compaqs for example. Crazy thing is some of these drives I "wasted" my time on still work years later! Pretty crazy for a "fake repair," huh? :rolleyes:

But yes, that's my theory, these drives were already broken so what did I have to lose from trying to fix them? Nothing, and in the end, I got two working drives.

As I said, if you need any pictures or assistance in attempting to repair your drive just let me know. Just take your time, be patient and I think you could do it.
 
Oh, and using superglue inside a hard disk is the worst thing you can ever do (well, apart from opening it anyway). Superglue leaves a white residue around the area while it dries out, especially on anything made out of metal. If I was you, I'd trash the "repaired" drives.
I see you added more to your post. Once again, I will take time to write a worthwhile response to this:

Here's what I did: I have a 3.5" floppy disk box that holds about 10 disks. It's a perfect size for a 2.5" drive. I put the drive in it (with the cover off) while the glue was drying and left the cover on the boxed cracked just barley so it could vent. Worked great.

Clearly, you have never done anything like this, so who the hell are you to tell me this doesn't work?

If I was you, I'd trash the "repaired" drives.
:LOL::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
Thank you! I just get so damned tired of people getting butthurt every time I mention repairing or using an old drive, so I felt I needed to sit down for a bit and type that up.

Me too! I love my noisy old hard drives. It's part of the vintage experience to me, but I have had so many people verbally beat me up for "wasting" my time with these old drives, it's insane. I just don't get why people care at all. If I had just taken everyone else's advice and thrown those "junk" hard drives way; I'd have far fewer drives now. I've done some pretty extensive restorations on Conner drives for my Compaqs for example. Crazy thing is some of these drives I "wasted" my time on still work years later! Pretty crazy for a "fake repair," huh? :rolleyes:

But yes, that's my theory, these drives were already broken so what did I have to lose from trying to fix them? Nothing, and in the end, I got two working drives.

As I said, if you need any pictures or assistance in attempting to repair your drive just let me know. Just take your time, be patient and I think you could do it.
Have an old Conner 40MB drive in my T3100e/40 that I got working again by (not kidding) whacking the side of the drive with a screwdriver. I believe doing so was actually suggested to me by someone on the old vBulletin forum (ya know, before all the upgrade madness started?) for an unrelated repair. Didn't work the first time, but it did for the 40MB drive and it has been working flawlessly ever since. I think it shows that these older hard drives certainly can be a lot more reliable than a lot of people are led on to believe, though this is obviously not always the case.
 
No brand name on it. Bought it on eBay some while back. Has 2.5 IDE on one side, 3.5 on the other, SATA on the end, and then of course the USB cable. Didn't pay that much for it but it turned out to be one of the most useful things I have bought so far.



Any idea on what programs I can use to back up the entire contents of the drive to a bootable image, which I can also write to a replacement drive?
The old western digital HDD are known for going out.
 
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