hard drive makes weird noises

CujoRbd · March 6th, 2002, 07:06 PM

Hi,

My computer has been running ever-more slowly in the last few months. I've finally narrowed down the reason.

Well, OK. When I open just about any program (IE, for instance) the hard drive will start to spin up, but will almost immediately seem to stop as though it's done. But it's not done. Then, after about 5 or 10 seconds of silence it starts spinning and then the program finally opens. This doesn't happen all the time, but about 40% of the time.

Also, at random times (whether or not the computer is being used) the hard drive starts to make these horrendous noises like something is scraping down on the drive as it spins. At first, I thought it was the PS, but I locallized the sound to the front of the case.

I've run scandisk a few times (including surface scan), but it finds nothing. After running defrag, it seemed to have fixed the problem. But then it started up again a couple days ago. I'm guessing that there's something wrong physically with the HD somewhere near the end, which would explain the noise coming only when I use those sectors.

But yeah, I think that someone may have kicked or ran into the computer at some point and maybe dented something. Does that sound feasable? Or what?

I'm just wondering what it is and what I can do to fix it. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. If you need certain specs, let me know and I'll try to get them for you (it's proprietary and I haven't opened the case in a couple months, so I don't remember the model of HD, but probably something IBM).

Thanks!

*Edit--Need to slow down so I make sense--edit*

willy_ph · March 6th, 2002, 07:09 PM

Sounds like the HD may be starting to fail.

Back up all your info ASAP!!! If it's an IBM drive they probably have a program to help diagnose the problem.

But backing up your info is the first thing you want to do!!

Polygon · March 6th, 2002, 07:46 PM

I would agree. Back up before doing anything else. Scandisk does not tell you anything half the time. There may be some issues with the power for the HDD, also you may have some surface scratches or something on the surface of the drive, or maybe your heads are scraping against the platters.

So just back up and test it out with some third party software.

LiLRiceBoi · March 6th, 2002, 09:32 PM

Back up before that thing fails. When you say it stop "spinning" do you mean it stops spinning or it stops reading?

SEALTEAMTHREE · March 7th, 2002, 12:00 AM

When was the last time you defragged the thing? It might have to look in a bunch of different places to find all data for the program. You might also want to try backing everything up and fomatting it, running on a freshly formatted HDD usually speeds up performance.

CujoRbd · March 7th, 2002, 03:45 AM

Thanks for the timely replies...

I was thinking that might be what was going on. I have no way to back up (other than floppies), so that's kinda out of the question atleast for now.

LiLRiceBoi-
It no longer makes any noise, so it may still be spinning, but it certainly isn't reading anything.

Any suggestions on some software and where I can get it? Hopefully something I can download, but if I have to buy it let me know.

Thanks again for your help.

EDIT- I have been planning on reformatting and all that here pretty soon, but I'm just waiting until I have a few days open in to back up, reformat, reinstall everything, and then put back personal files. But if my HD is gone or is going, then I'll probably get a new one before I go through all that. Anyways, thanks lots!

FreakyOCR · March 7th, 2002, 05:15 AM

Go otu and buy another hard drive.. then image your current drive over to it before it's too late!!

Once a hard drive starts showing signs of failure.. it's only a matter of time..

ClubMed · March 7th, 2002, 06:30 AM

I assume it's a head crash. Happened to me too on my WD. It would make metalic clikcing noise, and freeze for a seconed or two, then continue.

Orly · March 8th, 2002, 02:07 AM

I had a maxtor hard drive that recently die on my wife's computer. The first sign was the metal clicking sound. I installed a new Western Digital HD in while I waited for the replacement from Maxtor. A week later the new WD drive started to have the metal clicking sounds--NOT AGAIN! I checked and the IDE cable was not securely plugged in. I reseated the cable and it has been working fine for the past month and half.

Tomteriffic · March 8th, 2002, 12:06 PM

The retail boxed WD drives have a quick and painless installer that will copy your existing hard drive over with just a few clicks. If you currently have a WD (which the program will tell you), it'll run some pretty heavy-duty diagnostics on it as well. But copy the drive first

You can also get the utility from the WD website.

The sound you're describing actually sounds like bearings to me, but, what do I know???

I've gotten a near-dead drive like that to spin up and operate long enough to get the data off of it by wrapping it "tightly" in Saran Wrap and putting it in the deep-freeze for a few hours, then plugging it up and going from there. The Saran Wrap keeps frost/condensation from forming on any electrical bits.