In message <Pine.NEB.4.61.0502101022280.9620_at_panix3.panix.com>
John Lawson <jpl15_at_panix.com> wrote:
> All three of the HDs in my previous and current laptops, a Toshiba
> 420CDT, an IBM Thinkpad A21m, and this Dell Latitude - have exhibited a
> sporadic 'snapping' behavior that is quite energetic (and alarming!).
> There is some combination of Windows launched programs that results in,
> occasionally, a small amount of disk activity and then a very loud snap,
> or bang, that can sometimes be felt in the desk the machine is sitting on.
Sounds like a thermal recalibration cycle. Usually the drive seeks all the
way to the inside of the disk platter, then reads a few (seemingly random)
sectors and seeks all the way back out again, often hitting the plastic
(maybe synthetic rubber, depends on the drive manufacturer) endstop in the
process. The ka-thunk is probably the actuator servo hitting the endstop.
As long as the manufacturer's HDD diagnostic tool says the drive's OK, I
wouldn't worry about it.
Later.
--
Phil. | Acorn Risc PC600 Mk3, SA202, 64MB, 6GB,
philpem_at_philpem.me.uk | ViewFinder, 10BaseT Ethernet, 2-slice,
http://www.philpem.me.uk/ | 48xCD, ARCINv6c IDE, SCSI
... Me, indecisive? I don't think I am, do you?
Received on Thu Feb 10 2005 - 14:03:25 GMT