Advance Notice to the Death of a HDD.

Hallelujah.

Yes, my IBM Deskstar 60GXP 40GB HDD (Read: Suckiest HDD series in the history of IBM storage solutions!!!) is dying.

Well, as it goes, it was a fairly normal Friday afternoon for me, what with breakfast at 1:30pm (yes, u read right.), followed by a bath and finally, proceeding with my "prepping procedures" for my anime marathon watching session. This included copying burned anime from CD-Rs to the HDD (It essentially streamlines my watching experience as my CD/DVD-rom buffers aren't too effective to allow me to watch from the drive directly.).

So happily dee doo! Everything goes fine, hmm, I have time to spare, so I check out online till what episode I should watch to not get stuck in the middle of a story arc. Whoa, I have a few episodes missing! Ok, it's all right, I noe where to get them! Up you go Azureus! Hmm.. ok, run run run... it's only 2 episodes I'm short off till the end of the arc, that's around a 400 MB download only! Shouldn't take too long. Perhaps an hour+ (yes, I do not have optic fibres or insanely reliable connections like the pple overseas!), if I have enough seeds and peers. Right, let's go check out the TV!

Tick tock tick tock... 45 mins pass. Bleh, nothing on TV, mom watching some recorded TVBS drama serial again! What kind of a serial has the name "BLADE HEART"?!? Not to mention, it's starring a HK oldbie! Adam Cheng! Wasn't this guy famous during Lydia Sum's time?? Wait, I think I remember, he is Lydia Sum's ex-husband! Hmm.. or are they still married? Bleh, doesn't matter to me. Better go check my downloads!

Hmm... ok, 50% complete.. not bad! But, damn it! What's that clicking noise?! Oh crap, it's the HDD! /on *PANIC MODE*.

All right, let's compose ourselves men!! We will not falter in the face of danger!!! ARRGH, my data!! ARRRGHHH!! Thank goodness, I backed up my mp3s and photos already! But but but, there's still E-mail and ICQ history! No problems! Shut down Azureus! Shut down ICQ! Shut down MSN! Reboot? NO! Not a good idea, it might just die on me! Okok, pop in CD-R! Open Nero! Find E-mail and ICQ data backups! Done! BURN BURN BURN damn it!!! ARRRGHH, stop that clicking!!! 10%.... 30%... 60%.... 100% "Burn completed successfully!" WOOT! Okok, check back-ups! Anything missing? Nope! Wait... ANIME!!! ANIME!!! Arrgh.. my incomplete series!! "Gundam SEED Destiny", "Samurai Champloo" (Just 1 episode more!). No fear! BURN!

20 mins pass.. phew!! Damn it, still clicking! Time to do a HDD check now. Ahhh.. IBM website... damn you all! Hmm.. what's this? Now hitachi is handling all RMAs and warranties? No time to read the press release! On to hitachi!

Hmm.. this looks familiar... Disk Fitness Test (DFT)! Ok, let's run this! Need floppy disk? Check! Great, DFT now on floppy! REBOOT! Check Check! Quick Test!

OMG. "0x73 (Device Failure. Excessive Shock)"

Hallelujah. (again)

I will not relent!!! Let's do the advance test!!

Hmm... IT LIVES!!! "0x00 (Device is free of errors)"

This can't be! Hmm... let's do a quick test again!

Hmm... "0x00 (Device is free of errors)". Ok, now what?

Ok, let's get out of DOS mode and back to windows! ARRGHH!! The clicking is still there!

I guess, there is only one conclusion then. My HDD has gone symptomatic. It's dying. No doubt. No cure. /off *Panic Mode*

Thus, I sit here now, with the clicking still going on.. pondering my next move. Typing this out. Looks like it's SLS (Sim Lim Square) time! Sigh.

Initialy, I wanted to format... but looking at the first error, it seems to be a hardware failure... ie. formatting wun do much good. Better if I just go with a Western Digital or Seagate I guess. Bleh.

So, end of the day, this is a note to all of you out there! Refrain from buying IBM desktop HDDs and always backup often.

-Cal-

p.s Jeff, you sueh chui ah!!! Ask me go SLS yesterday, today I kenah this liao! Arrgh! >:(

p.p.s For the technically less inclined... I'm sorry if you can't understand much of this. Just read the last sentence! :)

p.p.p.s This would be the 2nd time I would need to replace this IBM HDD, the first being in late 2002.

Edit: Added a link at the top (sukiest HDD blah blah blah...) I'm not alone! Class Action Lawsuit! Woot! does this mean I can get money for this? Woo!

UPDATE (16th Apr 2005 @5pm): Miraculously, the clicking has stopped! But, like a dormant cancer, the problem is probably still there... it's only a matter of time now.. -_-