Is my hd about to die?

[jbog91]

Well, I've had my dell 8200 for about 4 or so years. But recently, my hard drive has started dong something weird. I'm not sure it's the hard drive but you know when you power down your computer, the hard drive kinda sounds like it's slowing down? I hear that sound sometimes out of the clear blue then it sounds like it comes back up, like the hard drive slows down temporarily. The os stays loaded and it doesn't affect anything software wise as far as I know. I was just wondering if my hard drive was about to die or if it was something else.

[drizzt81]

you may want to have a look at some smart monitoring software (google) and see what that trows up. Also, you could try and run the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic to see if they find a problem.

[jbog91]

As for smart monitoring, will this work?

http://sourceforge.net/projects/smartmontools/

And can I find diagnostic tools on western digital's website? That's my hard drive manufacturer.

[drizzt81]

if your HDD is made by WD, you can certainly use their diagnostics. Luckily, the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool comes with a smart reader, so you won't need a separate program for that.
WD Data Lifeguard for Windows:
http://support.wdc.com/download/windlg/WinDLG.zip

if you don't trust my link:

http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?cxml=n&pid=15&swid=3

[jbog91]

Alright, good because I couldn't get that one from sourceforge to work. I'll post back here with some results sometime, if it happens again and I catch it on the SMART monitor.

[jbog91]

Alright, I run it and everything has a green check. I thought that it was suppose to run and continuously moinitor the drive so that when it happened, it could give me information but it says it's o.k. so I guess it is.

Thanks.