Hard drive started making noise [Archive]

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Xee

11-11-2006, 05:27 PM

Need some advice on handle a HD which I assume is on it's last legs.

My brother has a 6 year-old Dell which has pretty much run without any problems since he got it. Today though, after getting back from work and turning on the comp he yelled for me to come to his room. When I got there I could hear right away that something was wrong. The computer was making a rather loud "clacking" noise; it was so loud I thought at first it was the floppy drive on the fritz. Despite the noise, the computer booted up normally. When he logged into his account, I right-clicked the floppy drive to disable it, then realized that the "reading" noise it made without a disk in it overlapped the "clacking" noise. Obviously this meant it wasn't the floppy drive that was screwy. I've never had a HD go bad on me so I don't know what it sounds like, but common sense told me, if your comp is making a noise you've never heard before, turn the damn thing off. So I did, or rather I tried to.

An un-related problem with the comp is that occasionally it'll go through fits where it won't shutdown, only reboot. I know it's probably a driver issue but I keep procrastinating to diagnose it, knowing that it'll eventually go away (always does). Well, it so happened that the computer was going through one of these "fits" at this time so when I tried to shut it down, it just rebooted. When it did, the clacking noise quieted down a few notches; I could hear it only if I put ear close the computer. I tried to shutdown again, this time from the user account screen (instead of inside an account); thankfully, it didn't put up a fight.

So, right now I'm trying to figure out how to proceed from here. His computer has two HD's, both filled to near-capacity. The HD with the OS on it (C:) was bought a year or two ago and other drive, which originally came with the comp (G:), contains only mp3's.

Obviously, the first thing I need to do is find out which drive is going bad. Should I disconnect the power and IDE cable from the G: drive, then start the comp up and see if the noise starts up again? Or is it playing with fire to even the start the comp again?

Much thanks in advance.

digital_exhaust

11-11-2006, 05:37 PM

Should I disconnect the power and IDE cable from the G: drive, then start the comp up and see if the noise starts up again?

I would probably try that, but that's just me. Regardless, your going to have to start it up at some point.
I would, of course, make a complete backup immiedately, if you haven't already.

Xee

11-11-2006, 06:05 PM

I would probably try that, but that's just me. Regardless, your going to have to start it up at some point.
I would, of course, make a complete backup immiedately, if you haven't already.

Alright, n00b question time. I've never backed up any data on any computer whatsoever. His computer has a DVD writer, so should I use that to just copy the entire contents of the faulty drive? If so, is there a decent freeware program that would facilitate that? Or should I only copy certain folders/files, being that I'm not sure how much time I have before it goes down permanently?

unhappy_mage

11-11-2006, 07:11 PM

An actual backup drive would be better - you're going to want one anyways to prevent this in the future, and it'll probably come with software to do the backing up. Install it to another machine, and pull the disks over to that machine one at a time temporarily to do the backup.

You can do DVD if you're really short on funds; try a demo of Nero (http://www.soft32.com/download_263.html), or try the software that came with the burner. But disk-to-disk backup will be faster - even 16x DVDs are only 24 MB/s.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/150072.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tm=33&id=150072)

Xee

11-11-2006, 09:26 PM

Well, I disconnected the G: drive and booted the computer up. The noise was there. :/

Go figure, the 6 year-old, no-name-brand Dell HD out-lasted the Western Digital drive he bought a couple years back. Now I got to find a decent new HD to replace the bad one. I was looking at the 320gb Seagate for $94.99 at Newegg but his comp has no fans to speak of (besides a rear one that goes directly into a shroud) and his room is small and gets pretty hot. Add in the fact that his tower is inside his desk and I'm sure that HD would burn a hole through the bay. :/

unhappy_mage

11-12-2006, 11:36 AM

Xee

11-12-2006, 11:59 AM

Fans are cheap. Especially if you get the Masscool 80mm ones (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16835150007) - they're expensive one-at-a-time, but get ten for $12 with free shipping! I ordered 25, myself, back when they were a dollar each.

Ordering hard drives from ZZF is a better idea - the 320 is $5 more (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101457), but shipping is free and they pack the drives according to manufacturer specs, unlike almost every other retailer.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/150072.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tm=33&id=150072)

Thanks for the tip on the HD; just curious though, is ZZF as good as Newegg is when dealing returning items?

As for fans, the only one it is the intake fan on the back. I'm not sure if I *can* add one to his system. Here's a pic of it. It's completely enclosed:

http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/article/20000731/npdell0.jpg

When I had it open yesterday, I *think* there was a slot behind the front panel for a fan but I'm not sure. Will have to check again.

*EDIT*

Well, turns out the slot in the front panel . . .

http://img76.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontpicok6.jpg

. . . is actually for the primary drive, so I doubt I can put a fan there. Guess I'll just order the 320 gig Seagate and hope it doesn't fry inside the comp. ;)

Xee

11-23-2006, 02:25 AM

Gah. Feel like a n00b making this post.

Since the hard drive started making noise, I turrned off the computer and didn't go on for two weeks or so while I waited for my new hard drive. It finally came today so I cloned the bad drive on it and took the bad one out of the comp and booted it.

The noise was still there.

I still had my desk pulled away from the wall from when I had hooked it up so I went behind it and listened more closely.

It was the fan. :(

The frickin' fan decided to get noisy and I replaced a hard drive because of it. Yeah, it's going to be long time living this one down . . .

coolie_d

11-23-2006, 10:09 PM

Xee, next time you'll try powering it up with both hard drives disconnected, and see if the noise disappears..... so consider it a lesson learned........ i'd just clone the old Dell drive to the new one you bought and use it instead, increase the storage space anyways.....

Edit: it would more than likely be faster than the old Dell drive, too.....