Is my HDD broken?

[Gravesent]

Hello, I have a Segate baracuda 7200rpm sata 80gb hdd, I was defragmenting all 3 partitions simultaniously when I (in my infinite stupidity) touched a component on the hard drives belly to see if it got too hot, the hard drive made a soft *CLANK* the system stopped responding and I had to reset the computer, after the reset the PC locked in the hdd detecting phaze, I turned it off completly I turned it back on and it works, I found no bad sectors (thou I'm not sure about the system partition because I didn't get to see the report) and I want to know if there is any risk that my HDD is in any way broken and how can I check, it appears to work normally with the exception that it seams a little slower than before.. or it's just my paranoia.

 

[Nodsu]

Download the diagnostic utility from Seagate and run it.

Before touching stuff inside the computer, always touch the computer case to "ground" yourself. Touch only the top of chips - making contact between any leads is a bad idea.

 

[Gravesent]

Generic short test failed No Sens Data Available (half way to the end it starts to make a lot of noise, just like it makes when copying lot's of stuff or loading something, when it's about 75% throught it stoppes and sais that)

Generic Long Test passed (althow the long test happened in two secconds)

This bad? I have 5 years of waranty but what do I tell those guys?

 

[dimchopicha]

It is normal to make such noises. You can reduce the level of that noise by using hdd fan (10$) to reduce the temperature and by defragmenting your hdd regularly; best defragment software: O&O Defrag Pro, Diskeeper (own opinion; using both; they are the best).
O&O Defrag Pro:

http://www.oo-software.com/en/

Diskeeper:

http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/diskeeper.asp

You can check your hdd by using checkdisk. "Start menu->run", write "cmd" in the comand prompt write:"chkdsk c:","chkdsk d:","chkdsk e:" and so on all your partitions on your hdd. After you check it you can defragment using one of the above programs but do not use microsoft defragmenter it is a pain in the ***.
If you want to check the temperature of your hdd you can use:
free: speedfan

http://www.almico.com/speedfan428.exe

paid: hddlife pro

http://www.hddlife.com/eng/compare.html

About speedfan you can see the current temperature of your hdd and you can see the S.M.A.R.T. attributes of your hdd. Read help to know how is your overall performance of your hdd and you can see really good analysis by pressing "in-depth analysis" button.
I just saw that my max temperature for my hdd model is 48 C and mine is 47 C. I think I will get hdd fan too .
And finally if you want to feel how hot your hdd is just touch it on the covered metal side not the one with all the chips on it and like Nodsu said you should always make sure you are grounded.
The temperature is always a problem in the summer.
You can test your hdd for a month to see is it fine and then if it is not just use your warranty. Of course you will not tell that you touch the chips while hdd was running ).

 

[Gravesent]

So the segate diagnost shouldn't worrie me?
Thank you for the links I was sort of looking for something like that (the free one of course), a single question thou? Is S.M.A.R.T. activated by default and at all times for S.A.T.A drives? Because my S.M.A.R.T. setting in the BIOS is at the ATA controllers section.

I touched it on the bottom because my HDD never really heats up on the top I knew it was stupid but it was one of those urges you can not controll.

Appart from bad sectors (wich I'm almost certain I didn't gain) what other problems could the HDD develop? (no only from this incident)

Edit: Speedfan online analisys:

Do you think the "Spin up time" value is a problem or just how this hard drive was made?

 

[dimchopicha]

Mine is Seagate SATA 250GB 8MB cache. It is 8 months old. No problems. Look the attachment.
I think your hdd is just fine.

 

[N3051M]

try running the seagate disc diagnostic in the dos mode (bootable cd/floppy). that should give you a more accurate result (if you've done that, try it again just to make sure). with one component failing the test, i'd advice you to consider backing up your important data soon, just to side on precaution..

SMART is on by default for SATA drives.. although that depends if your motherboard can support SMART..

Spin up time is well, basicaly the time it takes for your hdd to go from 0RPM to its optimum RPM, your case 7200RPMs.. if it is underperforming, it could be from a badly fragmented drive, unclean drive or a drive that is recieving not enough power from the PSU..

Seagate's warranty service is probably the best i've seen from large manufacturers.. very clean, tidy and fast.. international too... but they do send back a repaired replacement hdd, which is still ok, but you still loose your data from it.. and if you need to use data recovery service, lets just say you might have bought yourself 20 of those hdds instead.....

 

[Gravesent]

After several tests that you all suggested the HDD appears to be just fine, thank you for the help