[mpenney]

I have a 120gb maxtor that powers up and ticks.

Any suggestions?

If it is the drive it self is it possible to take it to a shop and have the files recovered or how to do it myserf.

Thanks in advance,

[philthomas]

If it's clicking/ticking .... that is usually the click of death.

If it's a standard 3.5" IDE Drive, you could try removing the drive from the enclosure and slaving it to a PC, to determine if it's the drive or the enclosure circuit that is faulty.

To be honest though, it sounds like the drive to me.

[Dave Hybrid]

Sounds like it is dead.

[mpenney]

Originally Posted by philthomas If it's clicking/ticking .... that is usually the click of death. If it's a standard 3.5" IDE Drive, you could try removing the drive from the enclosure and slaving it to a PC, to determine if it's the drive or the enclosure circuit that is faulty. To be honest though, it sounds like the drive to me.

How would make it slave to the PC?
Any ideas on why they die so often?
My Buddy had a differentt model and his did the same thing,
are just small jump drives more reliable?

[Mike0001]

Originally Posted by mpenney How would make it slave to the PC? Any ideas on why they die so often? My Buddy had a differentt model and his did the same thing, are just small jump drives more reliable?

There is always a "jumper panel" on the HDD with at least jumper settings for master, slave and cable select. Look at the end of the drive and you will see a small array of 6 or 8 pins in 2 rows of 3 or 4.

. . . .
. . . .

Possibly there will be a jumper across some of them, which is just a push-on short circuit. You need to match this array to the slave config on the side. With usual economy, since the side of a HDD is so small the configs may be labelled MA, SL, CS or something like and you need to match SL.

All you need now is an IDE cable inside your PC running to its HDD with a spare connector on it. Plug that into the HDD, and a spare power output also, make sure your HDD in the PC is jumpered as MASTER and away you go!

Some HDDs get very hot, and I guess that is what causes them to fail, as they are in small enclosures. Ideally you need a drive that generates little heat inside a metal enclosure that is well ventilated.

[philthomas]

Also external drives are more prone to knocks, drops and shocks, which can prove fatal, if the drive is spinning at the time.

[Mike0001]

Originally Posted by philthomas Also external drives are more prone to knocks, drops and shocks, which can prove fatal, if the drive is spinning at the time.

I have this image in my mind now of being killed by a falling disk spinning at 12000rpm!

[philthomas]

.... yeah they are heavy too.