Another Mac Hard Drive Question...

I tried to reboot my Powermac G4 into Mac OS 9.2.2 two days ago out of OS 10.5.8 Leopard. When I tried to do this, I heard a clicking sound from one of my hard drives. It would click (once or twice, not sure) spin down, spin up then click, spin down, then spin up. It would do this over and over. The Mac has three hard drives in it, so that makes figuring out which one difficult. All of the hard drives started up again but the system would not boot. After testing the hard drives on my old Dell desktop, I put them (all three) back into the Mac and they all formatted just fine and work. One of the hard drives was flagged as failing on the Mac (in a third-party smart info program), but when I tested it out on my Windows computer, it was OK. I ran chkdsk /r, WD Data Lifeguard from Windows (these are all WD drives), as well as HD Tune and read the smart status with Crystal Disk Info, WD Data Lifegaurd. It was flagged in Crystal Disk Info two days ago, but now it says it is good. Is something being reset or is there a flaw with the hard drive? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Clicking is a mechanical thing, not something that can be reset. Mechanical issues can be intermittent, but rarely fix themselves. If it is a one time occurrence, it might be put down to a momentary issue. But if it repeats, or is flagged by a program, likely that drive will eventually fail. And quite likely without warning. It would be suggested to backup any data that you can't afford to lose. That drive may last for years, but it gave you a warning. Best to keep an eye on it!

A Guy

A Guy said:

Clicking is a mechanical thing, not something that can be reset. Mechanical issues can be intermittent, but rarely fix themselves. If it is a one time occurrence, it might be put down to a momentary issue. But if it repeats, or is flagged by a program, likely that drive will eventually fail. And quite likely without warning. It would be suggested to backup any data that you can't afford to lose. That drive may last for years, but it gave you a warning. Best to keep an eye on it!

A Guy

Can the S.M.A.R.T. data be reset?

Here is a picture. Could you tell me what the errors mean?

There were certainly a lot of errors. That particular error doesn't seem as dire. What does Crystal Disk Info say? Smart value and categories?

A Guy

A Guy said:

There were certainly a lot of errors. That particular error doesn't seem as dire. What does Crystal Disk Info say? Smart value and categories?

A Guy

Is there crystal disk info for Mac? The Windows version said caution, but then said it was good.

Ahhh, Mac, out of my area of expertise. I take it you don't have bootcamp or whatever other windows withing Mac programs. Found this, may help

smartmontools

A Guy

I plugged the drive into a Windows PC of mine and here is what Crystal Disk Info said:

Well, currently the drive has no apparent issues. It is running warm. Did the drive only exhibit errors on the Mac? It checked normal as soon as you 1st tested it in the Windows PC? It may be a Mac issue. At the moment, I'd say the drive is OK, but the clicking you heard is always a warning. Keep an eye on it, if you have the ability to make an image of it, it would be a good idea. A Guy

A Guy said:

Well, currently the drive has no apparent issues. It is running warm. Did the drive only exhibit errors on the Mac? It checked normal as soon as you 1st tested it in the Windows PC? It may be a Mac issue. At the moment, I'd say the drive is OK, but the clicking you heard is always a warning. Keep an eye on it, if you have the ability to make an image of it, it would be a good idea. A Guy

I believe this was the drive that had bad sectors and it was showing up on Crystal Disk info, but after wiping it and error checking, as well as installing Windows on it to see if it would click again, the errors on the PC have gone away, but they are still on the Mac.