[TriLUG] hard drive error/meltdown imminent

[al johnson]

On Tuesday 02 December 2003 12:45 pm, you wrote:
> Jeremy Portzer wrote:
> > No, fsck cannot fix hardware problems.  The drive is dead or near-dead,
> > you need to replace it.  It may very well be under warranty, however, so
> > you should be able to get a replacement from Western Digital.  Go to
> > their web site and type in the serial number, and you can see the
> > warranty status.  Many hard drive warranties are 3 years.
>
> One other suggestion about the drive.  It may not be near death yet.
> I've seen this sort of thing happen when a system didn't quite have
> a powerful enough power supply.  If you have a lot of drives in
> your system and just a generic power supply, you might check into
> that.
>
> Cheers,
> Tanner
=================

Dead or near dead drives can sometimes be resurrected by putting the drive in 
a sealed waterproof plastic bag and placing the bag into a freezer (yes, the 
freezer in your home), and then defrosting it.  This is a technique which I 
first heard about and successfully used about the time when the IBM PC first 
received hard drives.  At the very worst you can retrieve the data from them 
and at best the drive will magically be fixed.
If nothing happens, sometimes a rap on the drive shaft can also work magic.
Hey if the drive's already toast, what have you got to lose?? --- Al Johnson.