The awful grinding....

[agathodaimon]

Is it normal for a hard drive to make an awfully loud grinding noise as I am playing a game, or loading documents, etc..?

It's a Maxtor 40-Gig ATA 133 7200 RPM.
Don't know the exact model number at the moment.

But sometimes it's worse than others. Some days, i'll be playing Everquest and it'll run smooth as silk, and you can hardly hear the thing run. Some days, all it does is make that terrible grinding/whirring noise and it's slow as heck.

Right now, i'm virus scanning, and all i hear is crekkcckeekcckekcke. if that description is adequate.. hehe

Is there something wrong with it? Or is it normal?

[jman01pa]

That is not normal. It is possible it could work fine that away for a long time, but i doubt it. If it was me, I would copy my important stuff off and send it in to Maxtor under warranty. They generally have a really quick turn around time. I am talking like just a few days from when they recieve it. The last one I sent in i got back in less than a week.

Also realize that you wont get the same one back, so make sure there is nothing you cant lose. They will send you the same model or possibly even a higher model back. I sent in a 20 GB a few months ago and got back a 30 GB. I was happy.

[jman01pa]

FYI

Maxtor Warranty Support

1-800-2-MAXTOR
(1-800-262-9867)


More Info

http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/ser...rranty_ata.htm

[eclipsera]

for that speed, and make of hdd no way is that normal. contact them ASAP dude.

[davidamarkley]

Yeah, I had one that made that kind of noise and went out within a month...

It just depends, but I would return it to Maxtor. They normally have pretty great drives but every now and then you get a bad egg. Backup everything that is needed and send it to them ASAP. And, you normally don't get the same actual drive back, but it will at least be what you had if not better!

David

[chris64]

I had a harddrive which had the same prob and it was doing it for a couple years and you know what I never took the time to back it up, and I knew about the problem but I guess I was just lucky it didn't break down and probably a little stupid. Don't worry I just got a new harddrive a few months ago and will start backing up(when I find the time).

[agathodaimon]

cool, thanks guys!
I guess I'll be backing up my data and getting a hold of Maxtor.

It's just kinda irritating to have a HD that's only several months old do this to me.

[agathodaimon]

ok, i took my Hard drive out to write down the numbers & such.
It is the model : D740X-6L

But anyways, as i took it out and set it aside, i heard something rattling around inside of it.
I REALLY don't know if that's normal or not. Certainly doesn't seem like it should be.

Do you think i should bother with the powermax disk check utility Maxtor has on their website first?

[HotRod9mm]

Quote:

i heard something rattling around inside of it

Not good.....

I have the same model and it lasted about 2 months before heading south. So I need to request an RMA. A friend has 2 of them and has RMA'ed them 3 times(1-twice/1-once)........

[Redwolf]

If the hard drive is making that noise, send it back (RMA it).

Sometimes (usually), it's a fan making grinding noises, but when it's a fan it happpens as soon as you start up the computer.