Click of death
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The click of death is a failure mode typical of various kinds of disk storage systems. The term is also used more specifically to refer to failures of Iomega Zip drives. In all cases, the click of death is characterized by a noticeable clicking or buzzing sound and is usually caused by a head crash.
The term became common in the late 1990s, describing a problem particular to Iomega's Zip drives. Zip disks, although popular, were not particularly sturdy (being exposed to the dust and grime of an unfiltered environment), and the drives were prone to developing misaligned heads. These damaged and dirty heads would try to read a disk, receive only a marginal signal, then the controller would quickly snap the head arm back into the drive and out again, producing the "click" and (in many cases) tearing up the edge of the disk and even the heads themselves. Compounding the problem, the damaged disks would often go on to damage the heads of any other drive they were used in.
Iomega received thousands of complaints about the click of death, but denied all responsibility — often claiming, to the fury of Zip drive owners, that the problems were caused by the use of (functionally identical) third-party media. A class action suit was filed against them in September 1998. The case was settled in March 2001 and Zip drive owners were given a rebate toward the future purchase of an Iomega product.
Iomega also manufactured a smaller-sized version of the Zip disk, called the Clik! drive. This product, perhaps for the reasons above, was renamed to PocketZip.
On non-Zip systems (usually a hard disk), the click of death refers to a similar phenomenon; when a hard disk has a hard error or servo failure, the head actuator will buzz and click as the drive tries to recover from the error. Since the media is not removable on these drives, the defect is almost always due to physical abuse or a manufacturing error. IBM's storage division had their own click of death problems in 2001 with the mass failure of their popular Deskstar, dubbed "Deathstar", 75GXP hard disks.
In more recent years, this term has also been used to describe hard disk failure in Apple's iPod.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Comprehensive account of the click of death at grc.com
- More click of death info at grc.com including a drive testing program (TIP)
- grc.com's article on 'How Can I Cure Click Death' including drive replacement information and recordings of David Hellier, Iomega's General Manager of the Zip Aftermarket Business, saying "If our customers have a problem specific to this issue, whether it's in or out of warranty, we're going to take care of and replace the product if necessary."
- News article on the Zip click of death, from 1998
- Information on the Iomega class action and settlement
- 75GXP FAQ at anandtech.com
- Charles Technique repairs click of death
