Help! Dropped Ext. Hard drive

I dropped my WD Mybook yesterday and I do not know if anything is wrong with the hard drive. Is there anything I can do or check to make sure that the hard drive is working properly? The drop was probably 3-4 feet.

Thanks

 

have a look here for diagnostic software.

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

good luck.

John.

 

Was it running? Modern hard drives have non-operating shock tolerances that would really surprise you, and I doubt it would be hurt if the drive was shut off when it fell.

The only way you can really check to see if it's working properly would be to plug it in and try it. Maybe run a S.M.A.R.T. test on it, too, although I'm not sure what the best program to use would be now - I just use an old copy of the free version of Everest, which isn't available any more.

 

I've tried the hard drive and it does work. I'm just worried about any future problems. By the way, the hard drive was off when I dropped it. My files are still there and it doesn't seem to be making any noise.

 

That's a good sign. You shouldn't trust single drives in the first place. Look into SMART monitoring tools for the drive, but it sounds like you got away without much of a problem.

 

I downloaded the diagnostics from WD's website. It was the Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. It says that my hard drive failed the SMART status, because of the spin up time. What should I do now?

 

Get it replaced under warranty.

 

(and dont' tell them you dropped it)

 

Thanks for the help!

I shall call tomorrow and see what will happen.
By the way, my laptop is making a clicking noise intermittently and I'm assuming that it is the hard drive. I asked this in the sony forum and someone said its a sign of a failing hard drive I believe. Is this true?

My luck with hard drives isn't too great as you can see....

 

I'm fairly certain that is the general consensus from comments that I've heard. Granted, I've never had one long enough to fail on me...

Maybe you are the one that is stealing my share of failed-drive issues .

Seriously though...back up your data now just in case. Multiple copies, multiple locations. Check the number of files on each copy, as well as the number of bytes actually used. Just in case.

 

yea the clicking is the tracking arm, or reader as some people call it, this is a sign of a ton of use, a just bad harddrive, or its over heated at some point, this happened to my desktop, and thats what everybody said, it sucks when it happens, so good luck you ya

 

If it has a big dent on it, they are gonna catch on quick...