Storage

Anatomy of a failed hard drive

By // March 19, 2007, 1:15 AM PST // billdetwiler

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  • Failed Western Digital WD200 hard drive

    The failed drive, after thousands of hours of tortured service. This poor disk ran everything from Windows 2K to Red Hat Linux, powered desktops and later test servers, and gave its life trying to birth a new Fedora Core installation.

    Erik Eckel

  • Screws removed

    Eckel started by removing the screws, all requiring a proprietary bit to remove. Then he pealed back the protective stickers, voiding the (expired) warranty, to remove the last two screws.

    Erik Eckel

  • Drilling out a stripped screw

    One of the drive's two remaining bolts refused to loosen. The head stripped in the process of extraction. The solution? A 3/8" drill bit.

    Erik Eckel

  • Removing the hard drive lid

    Once the screws were removed, the lid slid away to reveal the disk's innards. No scalpel required.

    Erik Eckel

  • Internal hard drive components

    Minus better tools, the dissection ends here. However, a precursory examination revealed no obvious failures: no dents, scratches, imperfections or foreign matter was present.

    Erik Eckel

Failed Western Digital WD200 hard drive

The failed drive, after thousands of hours of tortured service. This poor disk ran everything from Windows 2K to Red Hat Linux, powered desktops and later test servers, and gave its life trying to birth a new Fedora Core installation.

Erik Eckel

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By Bill Detwiler

Bill Detwiler is Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and Tech Pro Research and the host of Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Prior to joining TechRepublic in 2000, Bill was an IT manager, database administrator, and desktop supp...