hd failure (maybe), please adivse
Hi all!
I have 2 hard drives in my computer:
o an 8GB Quantum Bigfoot that came with the computer, Win98
preinstalled (/dev/hda)
o a 10GB Maxtor that I bought ~1 year later and installed myself
(/dev/hdc)
I also have a DVD-ROM (/dev/hdb) and a Zip drive (/dev/hdd)
On /dev/hdc I have RH7 on the first half (not gone yet ;-)) and Debian
potato on the second (with swap in the middle)
Recently when I was in RH using X it began to drag, then just stopped
responding. The hd was making a repetitive clicking noise (didn't
sound good). I had to kill the power and cold reboot to get the system
back.
Shortly after that I was in Debian using 'find' to find a file. The
same thing happened, except that I was using the console so I saw lots
of hdc: IRQ timeout, Device Busy error messages and a some ide1: reset
success messages in between. Some of the hdc: messages gave read or
write errors on particular sectors.
I was thinking that it must be a hardware problem, but my dad said
that some low-level disk access programs can have a similar effect on
a disk if they try to read/write beyond the end of the disk.
Does anyone have any ideas as to whether it is a software or a
hardware problem and what I might do to find out (and correct it!)?
I'm looking for my warranty information (the drive is ~ 1.5 years old)
in case it is hardware and still covered. If I do need a new drive,
what would you suggest I consider? What should I flee from?
Thanks for any suggestions or ideas you might have,
-D
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