[Ubuntu-US-CA] Failing/failed hard disk advice

[Nathan Haines]

On 06/17/2014 12:00 AM, Grant Bowman wrote:
> My new friend who is trying Ubuntu with a disk from Lyz (thanks Lyz)
> just sent me an email. An external hard drive Seagate (1TB, model #:
> srd0sp0, newegg carries them for $79) with USB interface is not mounting
> automatically. When plugged into the MacBook Pro computer a slight
> clicking sound is heard, then it gets quiet and the light starts blinking.

Try this drive on a desktop computer.  Sometimes laptops don't provide 
enough power for 2.5" external USB hard drives.  I know this is silly 
but it's true.  This is a differential diagnostic step.

Otherwise, it's probably toast.

When I worked there, Western Digital had the lowest failure rate in the 
industry.  As I occasionally said to customers when I was doing support, 
"It's not that our competitors make bad drives, it's just that ours are 
better."  So I can definitely recommend WD drives, but the real moral of 
the story is that you should always have three copies (the original and 
two backups) of any critical file.

Regards,
Nathan

-- 
Nathan Haines
Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com/