[Ham-Computers] From K3ASI

[Ken Sprouse]

k3asi wrote:

> My WD 40 gig  hard drive started making a clicking noise and some 
> times it boots and other times it says the HD can't be found. I took 
> out the HD and had it laying upside down looking at it and it seems to 
> be working again as long as I keep it in this position. I bought this 
> drive six months ago. This is the second drive that has given me the 
> same problems, what am I doing wrong?
> Running Win98, FAT 32, partitioned for drive C:/ only, 550 mhz computer.
> Thanks, Dave, K3ASI
>
>
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Sounds to me like the only thing you are doing wrong is buying drives 
from a run of bad ones.  I have had problems with Western Digital drives 
in the past but I have to say they have always stood behind their 
products.  Defective drives that I have run across have been replaced 
even ones that were reaching the end of their warranty period.  I would 
contact first the dealer that you purchased the drive from and then the 
manufacturer.  I think you will find they will replace the drive.

As always since you have been given advanced warning of a problem with 
the drive get your data off the media into a safe place.  Consider 
getting a program like "Ghost" or "PowerQuest" and just image the drive. 
 Then consider changing something about your disk requirements.  Buy a 
drive of larger or smaller capacity or from another manufacturer.  It is 
possible given the large number of drives produced every year that it is 
just coincidence that you got two bad ones in a row.  So a third 
alliterative would be to simply try another drive of the same make and 
model.  Third time might be the charm. :-)  I know what a pain it is to 
keep swapping hardware is the machine is in everyday use but it is one 
of the costs of having cheap computers.

-- 
Ken Sprouse / WA3FKG  Oakmont, PA
Ask me how you can have any picture on your mouse pad.
Pittsburgh Area Scanner net on Sunday evenings 9:00PM local time 147.090 mHz.
Glock - The ultimate point and click user interface.  (c)