Possible Hard Drive Issues, Unsure, Need Advice

Alright, so my mom asked me to build her a new rig because she killed her last one (Burnt out motherboard). I built the thing, and to save money my buddy tossed me up a 2TB external he wasn't sure about. We tore it apart and popped it in. It ran fine at the time of, and appears to be running fine (I'm using it to type this as we speak). It's not a constant noise, only periodic. I can't describe it as it hasn't happened in a little while. And it only seems to be when installing something. So my first instinct was "Aw crap, it's failing". So I ran a chkdsk (Which I'll include). Nothing. Appeared fine. But I wasn't convinced. I didn't want to transfer her 400GB of saved garbage just for the hard drive to crap out on me. So I downloaded Seatools for DOS. 39% along it freezes with an ear piercing noise coming out of the internal speaker. Looked it up online, it says it means the hard drive is dying. But yet Chkdsk comes up saying no errors (It's a Seagate external by the way). So I check it with SMART, SMART says it's healthy too. I'm now Runnning Seatools for Windows hoping to get a different result, but I'm still a bit worried. Is there anything else I can run that will be surefire to let me know if it's safe or not? I know there's a few sales coming up tomorrow and this weekend which I can probably take advantage of if it is dying, but I just want to be sure to keep costs as low as possible for her.

Much thanks in advance, I've attached the chkdsk.

 

Greetings, Chaos_Is_Fun.

IMO the Windows Disk Error Checker (CHKDSK) is very good at detecting Windows file system errors. Hardware-wise, not so good. I'd trust the SeaTools.

Try the DOS test again, see if you get the same symptoms.

And everything depends upon how valuable that "400GB of saved garbage" is to your mother - if I were in your shoes I'd bite the bullet and get her a new drive.

 

Well Seatools for Windows ran last night - Found no issues. I'm going to run it for DOS again, but regardless of what it says, should it be something to worry about?

Seatools for Windows, Chkdsk and SMART all say the drive is fine, and tools for DOS froze but didn't say anything in regards to it failing. I know the safe bet is to buy a new one but she's strapped for cash so it's not exactly an option for her (She needs a comp so it means she'll have to somehow find the money).

 

Good morning.

Depends upon your level of unease - I worry about my truck starting every day.

If you feel confident with the results of the tests that you have run, then fine - fire up the drive. If not, then you're left with another path to follow.

To answer your question:

No - not surefire. Because of that one "Aw crap, it's failing" moment, that drive might always be suspect.

You just have to go with your gut sometimes. Good luck!

 

I'm not familiar with seatools myself, but vivard is my go to hard drive test. You can find it on the Ultimate Boot CD, along with a lot of other helpful programs.