As I reported last October, when I returned from a 10-day trip and turned my PC on, the main hard drive just made clicking sounds and Windows XP failed to boot. Oddly enough, if I left the machine on long enough and attempted to reboot it enough times, the Linux GRUB boot loader on the first drive would eventually load. I could then boot into Linuxon the second drive. Even better, I was able to read the NTFS partition on the first drive from Linux. However, Windows still would not boot.
For the record, the problematic drive is an 80 GB Seagate ST380021A that came with my Dell Dimension 4400. I think the Dell is still under warranty, so I may see if I can get them to replace the drive.
While I was away last week, my wife told me on the phone that the drive (which usually behaved itself once Linux booted) had started clicking. Rather than torment her with the sound, I told her to shutdown the system. When I got back a few days later and booted the machine, the drive would not even load GRUB.
On the assumption that the problem with the drive was stiction (a.k.a., static friction), I tried to break it loose by rotating the drive with a quick wrist snap while it was running and making the clicking sounds. I also tried thumping the drive on all four sides, but no luck. If the problem is stiction, it will require a pretty strong force to overcome it.
Since I was already down to the last GB or two of free space on the second drive, I decided to go to Fry’s Saturday and I picked up a 200 GB Hitachi Deskstar ($195 – a $90 mail-in rebate). Is there a problem that can’t be solved by going on a shopping spree at Fry’s? I didn’t think so.
Since I had already aquired the Fedora Core 1 CDs with a copy of Linux User & Developer magazine that I bought in Biloxi last week, I decided to go with a fresh Fedora install on the new drive, rather than upgrading my RH 9 install. Since the RH9 install was the first Linux install I had tried to heavily customize, I had a few learning experiences that I wasn’t sure how to undo. Problem solved. More to come on the Fedora install, which is mostly going very, very well.