Approximately 48 hours ago, one of my hard drives suddenly got musical. It clicked to the rhythm of the music.

I instantly shut down, let the computer cool down for a few minutes, and restarted. It was still clicking, the drive head obviously not being able to go where it wanted to.

Shit. The IBM Deskstar “click of death.” The reason they’ve been nicknamed “Deathstars.” Click, and they’re dead.

I shut down again, pulled the plug on the drive and restarted. This time, the computer couldn’t find my primary disk. The one with the OS.

This is where I started to panic.

One more reboot, jump into BIOS and autodetect drives, and it’s there again. Phew.

I bought a new case about a year ago. After having moved the hardware to this case, I noted that it vibrated and made a humming noise. I attributed this to the new case. Now that the dead disk is gone, it’s not humming anymore. Great, that means that the disk sat there vibrating madly for a year.

Also, while poking around in the guts of my computer, I saw that the back case fan was out, thanks to my quick dirty hack to get power to it. Heat problems may explain some strange behavior after the disk died. It’s back on, and I’ve ordered a proper power connector, as well as round IDE cables to improve the air flow.

I really need new CPU cooling. I have an Athlon XP 2100+, at 61°C (rising to 63-64° with the incredible heat we’ve had lately) when idle. Not really the optimal work temperature.

…so I guess my tax return will have to go to a new disk.