Hardware Extern WD HDD with 160 Hours - about to fail ?

[Alexander1970]

Hello.

A few Minutes ago I plugged this HDD (WD Elements 2 TB SATA) on my PC and "heard" that clicking Sounds,that a PC User does not want to hear.
After 3 - 4 Seconds the HDD appears in the Windows Exporer and all seems ok.

A Look into Crystal Disk Info says unfortunately an other Language......



This means,the HDD is about to "stop working"....after 6 Weeks...?
It is the HDD with Games for the Wii.

Is Data Backup still rational or the Data maybe already be damaged....?
And also,how big is the Chance to "survive" the Backup Process...?

Thank you for your Help,fellow Community.

 

[FAST6191]

Some mechanical drives fail in fairly short order -- manufacturing defects and whatnot that don't get caught as nobody wants to pay for a burn in rather than just use warranty, or it got thrown around in the warehouse or in the van on the way to you.

Data backup... always a fun one and depends upon the data -- someone spending 5 hours reformatting something that got corrupted is nothing when it is a 500 hour project, and you can fix corruption in images too. However isos is a tougher one.
You can always verify the isos. I am not sure what tools we are suggesting nowadays for that one (there are some good iso rebuilders).

The three red things. I am not sure why they are that. 5400rpm is a fairly standard rotation rate for a slow external drive or laptop drive (7200 is standard desktop, though some went a big higher at one point) and not a slowing down to not die sort of thing.
Those power on hours and count is nothing either. Fairly impressive count but if you are going back and forth between machines I can see it.
Crystaldisk there is reading the SMART data. SMART is basically a coin toss -- if it says jump I will take note but at the same time there is a rather famous study from google (who have a lot of drives) that give it a mediocre prediction rate
https://research.google/pubs/pub32774/
If you hear a click of death then definitely take note of that one. I have had ones that last months longer but it can also be next time it won't spin up.

To that end yeah don't power it off (or if you do then don't let it cool off) and dump everything you can/are likely to want to another drive and go from there.

 

[Alexander1970]

Thank you.

I have connected to the PC since I made the Post and everything seems ok.
One important Thing I unfortunately forget to mention:

When the "Clicks" appeard,I had connected the HDD to an HUB/Card Reader.After my post here,around 2 Hours later,
I disconnected the HDD and layed it aside.

Now,after reading your Post I connected the HDD directly to the USB Port on the PC´s Motherboard.All seems ok.

I started the first Part (Wii Apps and some GameCube Games/ISO Format - around 80 GB).
It says around 2 Hours (EDIT: 40 Minutes actual),average Speed actual around 35 MB/sec.
I hope it works.
EDIT: Successful

(Part Two is around 1,5 TB,in maximal 4 Gb Parts because of FAT32)
(EDIT:Actual backup)

Thank you for your Help,my Friend.

 

[tech3475]

According to WinDLG and using my 2 WD drives (1 'good' another known bad), the 'reallocated sectors count' is the same.

Years ago I remember hearing regular 'clicks' on laptop drives but it was 'normal'.

If you want to be sure, I'd suggest making a backup anyway and then running the extended test on WinDLG and chkdsk /r

 

[Alexander1970]

According to WinDLG and using my 2 WD drives (1 'good' another known bad), the 'reallocated sectors count' is the same.

Years ago I remember hearing regular 'clicks' on laptop drives but it was 'normal'.

If you want to be sure, I'd suggest making a backup anyway and then running the extended test on WinDLG and chkdsk /r

Thank you.

I am actual backing up.
Thank you for the Suggestion with the Tool.

 

[Alexander1970]

Update:

I have successfully backup the Data.
The HDD does not showed any Signs of the "Click Sound" again.

I think it has really to do with the USB Hub and also with Wii.
When it was plugged in and the Wii is on,the HDD seems to "run un-smooth"...
When plugged directly to the Mainboard USB on the PC all is "calm"...
Maybe the Wii/USB Port 0 has Issues...
(The Wii is my first one and works as Test Wii,so many plug/unplug Operations have been performed.)

Actual checking the HDD with the DLGDIAG Tool.

 

[Hayato213]

Your drive is fine, unless it show caution that is when you should be more cautious, you usually get clicking sound when there isn't enough amp to power the drive, you would want to use a y cable with that.

 

[Alexander1970]

Your drive is fine, unless it show caution that is when you should be more cautious, you usually get clicking sound when there isn't enough amp to power the drive, you would want to use a y cable with that.

Thank you for this Advise.
The HDD has an "special" USB Cable:



That was exactly my Thoughts last Night,so I ordered this Y-Cable Extension:



I hope this helps.

Thank you.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

It's not a "special" cable, it's just "Micro USB" B (also called Super Speed). Generally standard format for most external HDDs for the most part, so it's quite common

 

[IC_]

A few weeks ago when I connected my server's external hard drive to my computer to make a backup there were some weird click sounds at first too but then it just appeared in the system, mounted correctly without any errors and backing up all data from it was normal without any errors too
After that it went back to the server and it's still running 24/7 to this day without any issues

 

[Alexander1970]

It's not a "special" cable, it's just "Micro USB" B (also called Super Speed). Generally standard format for most external HDDs for the most part, so it's quite common

Thank you,I did not know this,because this was my first "new" WD Drive.

A few weeks ago when I connected my server's external hard drive to my computer to make a backup there were some weird click sounds at first too but then it just appeared in the system, mounted correctly without any errors and backing up all data from it was normal without any errors too
After that it went back to the server and it's still running 24/7 to this day without any issues

Thank you,it seems so too.No Issues,the WD Tool also says no Errors.


Thank you both for your help.

 

[tech3475]

It's not a "special" cable, it's just "Micro USB" B (also called Super Speed). Generally standard format for most external HDDs for the most part, so it's quite common

In addition you can still use the old micro USB 2.0 cables, just plug the smaller cable into the right/smaller part of the port.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

In addition you can still use the old micro USB 2.0 cables, just plug the smaller cable into the right/smaller part of the port.

You can, but I wouldn't recommend it anyways since you'll lose UAS from USB 3.0, which will drop performance a fair bit (assuming you're using it with a USB 3.0 port).

 

[tech3475]

You can, but I wouldn't recommend it anyways since you'll lose UAS from USB 3.0, which will drop performance a fair bit (assuming you're using it with a USB 3.0 port).

Of course, but it's still handy to know.

I had a customer think their phone was gone because they didn't know this as they couldn't find any stand alone micro usb 3.0 cables, but we sold sold 2.0 ones.

 

[Alexander1970]

Your drive is fine, unless it show caution that is when you should be more cautious, you usually get clicking sound when there isn't enough amp to power the drive, you would want to use a y cable with that.

Now I am pretty sure this was the Issue.
Thank you.

 

[Captain_N]

Drives can fail regardless of what smart data says. If you really care about the data then back it up just to be safe. I have had drives fail with no warning at all. As long as you backup then it wont matter if the drive fails. You only have a 2tb drive so id get a another 2tb or 4tb just to backup. also if you see any direct tv dvrs (or any dvr)in the trash you can take the hard drive out of there. all direct tv dvrs from 2013 on have at least a 1tb drive.

 

[Alexander1970]

Thank you.

Drives can fail regardless of what smart data says. If you really care about the data then back it up just to be safe. I have had drives fail with no warning at all. As long as you backup then it wont matter if the drive fails. You only have a 2tb drive so id get a another 2tb or 4tb just to backup. also if you see any direct tv dvrs (or any dvr)in the trash you can take the hard drive out of there. all direct tv dvrs from 2013 on have at least a 1tb drive.

At the first Moment,I was surpprised,a WD fails after some Weeks..
The Backup on USB 2.0 Port lasts around 7 Hours.No Sign of any Troubles.

Also on the Wii (after a really "continuous" Playing and Game Loading) no Signs again.
It was really the USB Hub and a "Lack of Power".

I also did a second Run with the WD Diagnostic Tool and all seems good now.

Thank you for your Advise and your Help.

 

[godreborn]

I recently had an hdd fail. well, actually, it got bad sectors over where a certain game was. it also kept disconnecting from the wii u. it only had 6,000 hours or so. that's still very low for an hdd. it was about a year old. I keep it on nonstop. do you think I should turn it off when not in use?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

here it is (bottom right with the blue leds). I put it in a sabrent enclosure. the enclosure seems to be fine. I have a second enclosure (hdd) on the second shelf next to my ps3, so you can get a better look at what the enclosure looks like in light. it has a toggle switch to turn on and off. it's for my virtual wii.

 

[HideoKojima]

Update:

I have successfully backup the Data.
The HDD does not showed any Signs of the "Click Sound" again.

I think it has really to do with the USB Hub and also with Wii.
When it was plugged in and the Wii is on,the HDD seems to "run un-smooth"...
When plugged directly to the Mainboard USB on the PC all is "calm"...
Maybe the Wii/USB Port 0 has Issues...
(The Wii is my first one and works as Test Wii,so many plug/unplug Operations have been performed.)

Actual checking the HDD with the DLGDIAG Tool.

Don't use it anymore, I'm not a pro but I had one before, it started by "clicking" then with time PC didn't recognize it.

 

[Alexander1970]

Don't use it anymore, I'm not a pro but I had one before, it started by "clicking" then with time PC didn't recognize it.

Thank you for your Advise,it is only for the Wii so if it really fails,the Games are already backupped.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I recently had an hdd fail. well, actually, it got bad sectors over where a certain game was. it also kept disconnecting from the wii u. it only had 6,000 hours or so. that's still very low for an hdd. it was about a year old. I keep it on nonstop. do you think I should turn it off when not in use?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

here it is (bottom right with the blue leds). I put it in a sabrent enclosure. the enclosure seems to be fine. I have a second enclosure (hdd) on the second shelf next to my ps3, so you can get a better look at what the enclosure looks like in light. it has a toggle switch to turn on and off. it's for my virtual wii. View attachment 212379

For the Consoles,in my personal Opinion I would say yes.
But also for the PC,I always turn HDDs off if they have the Option/Button.

Thankfully,I do not have really much important Stuff that is really worth for Backup.
Most of the Games for the Consoles can be "re-organized" but if they really disappear,then it should be.
"Important Games" for me (except Resident Evil 2..)...not really - but many thanks to GOG/Steam.

And my really important Things fits on an normal DVD-R.

Thank you.