Unsolved
9 Legend
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15.2K Posts
0
28
January 16th, 2025 23:46
HDD burnt
160GB HDD previously working
when installed in Optiplex 7050 it gives a high pitch ringing sound non stop when powered on
adjust it a bit the sound can go away
MS installation media says no drive found
HDD dx says the drive failed
doing a Delll dx test any way
stepped away
when back there is a plastic burning smell hovering and comes from the hdd
no fire no smoke
hdd cosmetically looks great in condition
never seen this before
when previous hdd died they just went away quietly no bad smell
this one died with bad odor?
how does a HDD burn?
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.1K Posts
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January 17th, 2025 00:54
They are spinning very-fast inside. One thing that old/failing HDDs do is get very hot (and start setting off internal sensors and alarms).
I suggest you trash-it and get yourself a SSD. A 2.5inch SATA-3/600 one should work. They make cheap frame-adapters that let them be installed in a 3.5inch bay.
ejn63
10 Elder
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30.2K Posts
1
January 17th, 2025 00:59
Sounds like a capacitor or MOSFET on the logic board gave up the ghost. A 160G drive would have to be quite advanced in years, which likely contributed to the failure if not caused it outright.
redxps630
9 Legend
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15.2K Posts
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January 17th, 2025 01:51
I am old fashioned and I just like the feel of sold 3.5 hdd, it is like a rock as the song said, it it is stalwart. I have 2.5 ssd but as light as feather and flimsy. I know the latter is fast and more modern but there is still a good share of old 3.5 hdd happily spinning around.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.1K Posts
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January 17th, 2025 03:31
Well, the SSD is no flimsier than a video-card or motherboard. With no-moving parts, SSDs are much faster (even older-tech SATA-SSD's are 3-4 times faster than any spinning-HDD). IOPS are off-the-chart better. Finally, more reliable (if the nice OS/driver/apps machine you built-up OR the actual-data on it is of value to you).
But sure ... if those spinning HDDs are installed and still working ... you should be fine as long as you keep them backed up.
Out of the 30 or so SSDs I know about (in my machines, family, and my clients) only one has ever crashed (an old SATA-2/300 Kingston). An updated-firmware got it going again (for years now). Many are over 10-years old now and still work fine (and their SMART reports "good" still). Just sayin.
bradthetechnut
7 Technologist
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9.2K Posts
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January 17th, 2025 03:55
Many years ago, I was given a Gateway PC with 40GB HDD. It had quite the whine to it. Nothing a drop of oil didn't take of. Not saying that's the case with redxps' HDD.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.1K Posts
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January 17th, 2025 04:20
@bradthetechnut
Good work.
Yeah, I have stories like that. We used to spend a lot of time keeping those HDDs working, cool, backed-up, stress-testing after crash (trying to determine if they are good-enough to reload/rebuild). Most of that time is freed-up now.
But what I remember most is all the problems they caused when they crashed in a business environment. Back-office and Point-of-Sale terminals and servers ... lots of man-hours spent getting it all going again (not to mention the lost end-user productivity). We also did some law-offices. FYI, lawyers really need their court-docs, pics, and spreadsheets.
Much better now. In the business-world ... reliability is better than cheap/saving-money. At least it was in the professional vertical-markets I worked in. Most also opted for performance over inexpensive/barely-adequate.
(edited)