Hardware Old Lenovo Thinkpad ruining HDDs

[Tom Bombadildo]

So my little bro has this old Lenovo Thinkpad...something or other. It had an old 80GB HDD in it, but about a month or so ago it seemed to have ruined the HDD. How, I have no clue, but it wouldn't spin up at all. So we put a brand new WD 320GB HDD in it and the same thing is happening now, however at times it does seem to be able to spin up and work for a few hours. Is the laptop itself causing harm to the HDDs? If so, what could be causing it?

 

[DinohScene]

Maybe the HDD controller is sending way to much power to the HDD?
Altough I strongly believe that cause that would also burn out other components on the traces.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Everything else seems to work fine on it, I have Ubuntu running on a 2GB thumb drive and so far there have been no issues.

 

[DinohScene]

Hmm it's unlikely that it's the HDD's fault.

You have another spare HDD willing to test it ?

 

[raulpica]

Test the HDDs on another PC. I'm 99% sure they work fine.

You probably have a SATA controller issue, some ThinkPads have that.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Not one I can spare.

However, I have the newer HDD in an external HDD enclosure and it's having trouble being read now. I'm running a chkdsk on it now and it's been stuck at about 1% for the past hour or so.

 

[raulpica]

Not one I can spare.

However, I have the newer HDD in an external HDD enclosure and it's having trouble being read now. I'm running a chkdsk on it now and it's been stuck at about 1% for the past hour or so.

They might've been badly corrupted if the system cut off the data line while writing.

Format 'em and see if they do work. Also run a surface test with HDDScan or something after formatted. Also do a SMART test. If everything's clean, then the HDD itself is fine.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

They might've been badly corrupted if the system cut off the data line while writing.

Format 'em and see if they do work. Also run a surface test with HDDScan or something after formatted. Also do a SMART test. If everything's clean, then the HDD itself is fine.

Will do and report back when finished.

 

[Originality]

Not that this really applies here... But,
HDDs are one of the two parts most common to break in a laptop. People don't tend to realise that a HDD has moving parts, so picking up the laptop, knocking it around, shaking it, etc, can all lead to damage on the drive and will sooner or later make the drive fail. The other factor is vibration and heat from inside, but neither is controllable.

I have seen a brand new laptop (HDD from it at least) die in 4 days after purchase because the owner has "shaky leg syndrome". Using the laptop on his lap when going to a gaming party, getting excited, shaking his legs, shaking the laptop... He got lucky in claiming it was DoA and got a replacement, but after that he made sure to use a laptop desk at the parties.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Well, after various attempts to format the drive with any and every program I have, it seems it's the HDD itself. Everything has trouble reading it.

@Originality
This is, of course, a possibility as well as I know he doesn't generally take good care of PCs. This would be his 4th laptop in the last 3 years, so it's entirely possible he ruined both HDDs.