Songs to make backups to

January 23, 2006 6:27 AM

The Hitachi Hard Disk Drive Knowledge Base does very little to distinguish itself from other knowledge bases, except that it includes some fantastic examples of what your hard drive may sound like when it's dying or dead. Note: all links except first are .wav (via)
posted by furtive (18 comments total)

The hard disk, it vibrates ?
posted by elpapacito at 6:39 AM on January 23, 2006

Commercial Exploitation. You agree not to reproduce or commercially exploit any Content in any form, other than as expressly provided in sections 3 and 6.

Damn. I was going to use this for a soundscape for a film/audio project...

Quite an interesting way of approaching a tech support issue. Seems quite practical as resources go. More than a few times I've been able to figure out hardware issues based on sound. Anyone else had to learn to recognise the beep codes with PCs?
posted by slimepuppy at 6:53 AM on January 23, 2006

Beep codes have saved me so much time over the phone with family members.
posted by furtive at 6:58 AM on January 23, 2006

I had one of these drives, and they make strange noises constantly, it doesn't sound entirely unlike they trapped a kitten in there.
posted by public at 7:04 AM on January 23, 2006

As I used to tell folks who brought in hard drives making clicking, crunching, grinding or high-pitched squealing sounds - "You hear that? That's your drive singing it's death song."

BTW, elpapacito, you know what time it is when your hard disk vibrates?
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Time to get a new hard drive! (Badump-bump)

Yeah, it's old and lame. But it's a rainy Monday.
posted by JB71 at 7:05 AM on January 23, 2006

Nice post
posted by caddis at 7:53 AM on January 23, 2006

Scary noises! I shall cover my ears so that I can't hear them, then my hard drive will be ok, right?
posted by Cranberry at 8:21 AM on January 23, 2006

(off FPP topic)
Odinsdream, aren't they? I'm confused...
posted by slimepuppy at 8:30 AM on January 23, 2006

via digg? no digg.
posted by crunchland at 8:34 AM on January 23, 2006

My ipod sounded very like that first link last week. Fortunately it was still within warranty ...
posted by dickdotcom at 8:56 AM on January 23, 2006

I do tech support. We have recently installed dozens of new IBM- Lenovo think Center PCs. Soon after we were besieged by calls of " My computer keeps playing a song every 10 minutes". I asked the user what song, they said that they couldn't identify it because it only lasts about 5 seconds. I waited and listened to what sounded like a sound coming from the television in Poltergeist.. Very low wirey wailing sound... That turns out to be the drive heads cycling to avoid sticktion.
posted by Gungho at 9:17 AM on January 23, 2006

.
posted by |n$eCur3 at 9:53 AM on January 23, 2006

Commercial Exploitation. You agree not to reproduce or commercially exploit any Content in any form, other than as expressly provided in sections 3 and 6.

Damn. I was going to use this for a soundscape for a film/audio project...

That's exactly what I was thinking. Doh.
posted by Foosnark at 9:54 AM on January 23, 2006

Commercial Exploitation. You agree not to reproduce or commercially exploit any Content in any form, other than as expressly provided in sections 3 and 6.

I don't agree to nothin, my good friend Hitachi Seisakusho.

TO ABLETON LIVE!
posted by Jairus at 12:02 PM on January 23, 2006

Thanks. This is going to help with someone I support who is unconvinced about his hard drive death. He took it down to an undersea lab where the pressure was in excess of two atmospheres. It came back crushed. But he's having a hard time accepting it.
posted by 3.2.3 at 1:40 PM on January 23, 2006

Cringing while listening to them, I recognized a couple of those from personal experience :(
posted by pantsrobot at 3:10 PM on January 23, 2006

saw this on digg and thought it was both funny and nostalgic. But oddly enough, none of the sysadmin types around thought it was funny when I started playing the .wav files.
posted by lastobelus at 3:26 PM on January 23, 2006

When working as the sysop with a DEC disk farm with a couple hundred drives, when I heard one squeal-like-a-piggy I knew my day was going to be shot.
posted by skeeter1 at 3:57 PM on January 23, 2006