My hard drive is NOT failing!

[Goldom]

I've had this new external hard drive that's about 2 months old, and when I would leave it on for long periods of time, it was making this grinding noise.. but otherwise seemed ok. Last few days it was doing it from the moment I turned it on. So I wasn't using it, and today opened it up (at great hardship.. one of the screws doesn't turn and have to use pliers..) and took out the drive, turned the case on, and discovered much to my joy that it was still making horrible grinding noises.. (which is about the first time I've ever been happy about such a thing), meaning it was just the fans vibrating the case, not the hard drive after all. Put drive back in, no change in the sound. Good news, much relief.
Then I had a little scare I am still shaky from, cause I put it all back in, re-plier-screwed the back on, and the computer goes "...new hardware found.." and then shortly failed at setting up new hardware. And I go.. oh (explitive deleted). Opened case up again using mad-lightspeed-plier-skills, and just kind of reoriented the drive.. tried again, and whew, the computer can read it again. I think the IDE (or is it ATA? I get confused) plug was not all the way in, though the power one was, so it was confusing the computer. Now I've got to rescrew everything once again, but all is working fine. Now I just need some sort of foamy surface to put the drive on so the fans don't vibrate so much..

That is my story. I had to share.

And cause I have the question anyway, might as well ask here-
Can drives not read their S.M.A.R.T. info if they are external (through USB)? Or maybe when they are not the boot drive? Cause this external drive, brand new, so I don't know why it wouldn't have the system in it, shows up as not having any... I can see all the stats for my main drive (closest T.E.C. is 2016, yay) but this external one just shows up blank. I'd attach it directly to see, but the only other cable I've got to do so on the inside of the case is tied up way in the back and hard to get at.. not worth it just to see.
So that's my question. Anyone know?

[achtung_circus]

1. The power of positive thought. nt

[notadmblnd]

2. If you know how to change it in the Bios

you can set your external drive to be the boot drive. Is that what you are asking?

[Goldom]

4. no, don't want it to boot

it hasn't got an OS on it or anything. I just want to see the smart data.. the stuff that monitors its stats to predict failure.

[notadmblnd]

5. well I predict that it will fail

if it overheats. The fan is probably making grinding noises because the bearings are going in it. If your fan stopps running, your hard drive will burn out. I almost had this happen to me a few years back. My solution .... I placed a small desk fan directly behind my box and positioned it by the airvent. I ran my machine for quite a while like this. Eventually I bought a new machine never did have a hard drive failure.

[Goldom]

6. I don't think that's it...

This drive and the enclosure its in are nearly brand new. There's two fans, pretty small, at front of it.. I've heard fans wear out before - lost a video card to it, but this doesn't seem like that. If I pick the tray up, they're silent. Only makes noise when it is sitting on something, more the vibrating of the metal against the table than the fans, it seems.

[notadmblnd]

7. well if you're sure it's not an operational problem

.. set it on a towel. Just keep an eye out for it to get hot.

[Goldom]

8. I think so..

I've had it on a paper towel, but that seems ineffective as it is rather thin. I don't use the drive a whole lot though, so I'm not too worried about it overheating. It's more of a 'i attach it to copy some files to it, then turn it off' sort of deal, it's not running the whole time my compute ris.

[Festivito]

3. Vibrating fans WILL ruin a hard drive.

My fan is now resting in a pile of plastic, and my drives are now on their last legs. It takes about 10 minutes for the Start button to react first time after boot.

Fix the fan.