HD on Verge of Failure?

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2005-09-03 02:29am

Lately, I've been having a bit of trouble with my computer - to be specific, it would freeze/hang-up, and automatically restart or require me to hit the switch. Anyways, I wrote it off as software problems at first - reinstalled drivers, etc. Then once while starting up, my BIOS failed to detect all IDE drives - I opened up my computer, made sure the cables were connected, and tried again, and it worked. But the system hangs still occured, and on more than one occasion BIOS failed to detect my IDE drives. In addition, I swear I've been hearing odd noises from my computer, making me think it might be a mechanical failure of the HD. The freeze-ups always occur during boot-up or while I'm using Windows. The device manager says my HDs are working fine, and I can still use this computer. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2005-09-03 02:37am

Is the sound coming from the hard drive. It's not too hard to check, just leave the cover open on your tower. My computer made noise and it turned out it was the power supply's fan. In fact, it's happened 3 times over the past several years, and we've had to replace the power supply.

Other than that, I think the best way to test it is to take the hard drive out and go to a friend's house to plug it in, then try it out and see if it fucks up on you.

Brian

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2005-09-03 02:47am

brianeyci wrote:Is the sound coming from the hard drive. It's not too hard to check, just leave the cover open on your tower. My computer made noise and it turned out it was the power supply's fan. In fact, it's happened 3 times over the past several years, and we've had to replace the power supply.

Other than that, I think the best way to test it is to take the hard drive out and go to a friend's house to plug it in, then try it out and see if it fucks up on you.

Brian

It sounds like the HD, or at the very least, not the fan. It's a clinking sound that seems to occur when the HD spins up. I'm fairly sure it's not the power supply, since the system usually fails when I'm attempting to start-up Windows (Even Safe Mode fails - whether I succeed or not seems to be dependent on luck).

I think I'll try transplanting my HD on other comps in the house... I'd use one of those disk diagnosis utilities, but for some reason, my floppy drive doesn't work >_>

Post by **Beowulf** » 2005-09-03 03:55pm

Clicking noise? That's bad... Get a new hard drive and transfer everything off the old one now. There's no garuntee as to how long the old one will last.