On Thu, Jan 02 2014, walt wrote: > On 01/01/2014 03:28 PM, gottl...@nyu.edu wrote: >> On Wed, Jan 01 2014, walt wrote: >> >>> On 01/01/2014 02:07 PM, gottl...@nyu.edu wrote: >>>> My home desktop has had a seagate external 750GB drive ST3750640cbrk for >>>> a number of years and the disk is starting to fail. >>> >>> Maybe I'm weird or something but I've never once had a hard drive fail >>> gradually/gracefully. They all just stop working, usually when I power >>> the machine on for the first time in the morning. >>> >>> What warning is the disk giving you of early failure? >> >> First it wouldn't mount in during startup. >> >> Then I tried switching the USB ports on the desktop and rebooted. >> It mounted but fsck took forever with pauses. > > The open-source culture in general seems to frown upon promotion of > proprietary software (as opposed to proprietary hardware) so I usually > avoid recommending proprietary software. > > But, based on reports I consider reliable (how's them for weasel words!) > I'd suggest that Spin-Rite has a chance of restoring that drive to normal > function. ("Has a chance" == more weasel words). > > Anyway, consider buying Spin-Rite here: > > https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm > > My own hard drives usually fail catastrophically within the the first month, > so I just return them for replacement under warranty. But if I ever have > an older drive fail I will certainly use Spin-Rite before giving up hope.
Very interesting. I plan to buy the new disk since the old one is old, I can use the extra space (750GB --> 2TB), and the price is right. But I may get spin-rite anyway; the author's explanation of how it works was good. thanks, allan