Computer Freezing Intermittently - Is the hard drive failing?

[I3eyond]

Temps are fine.

The screen will freeze up for about 5 seconds intermittently.

I reformatted thinking maybe there were some corrupted files, and it's still freezing up.

I can't install anything without the computer freezing up throughout the install.

Is the hard drive failing?

[mikeblas]

If the hard drive is failing, you should be able to find errors logged about I/O problems. Which version of which OS are you using?

[I3eyond]

If the hard drive is failing, you should be able to find errors logged about I/O problems. Which version of which OS are you using?

XP Home

[Ockie]

During these freezes, does the hard drive make noise or show any activity?

I have a feeling it's not your hard drive.

[I3eyond]

During these freezes, does the hard drive make noise or show any activity?

I have a feeling it's not your hard drive.

I don't know about activity, but I do hear a clicking sound sometimes that sounds like the hard drive.

Does this sound like maybe a power issue?

[I3eyond]

I got a blue screen one time when the freezing happened..

[Ockie]

I don't know about activity, but I do hear a clicking sound sometimes that sounds like the hard drive.

Does this sound like maybe a power issue?

Clicking sounds are hardly good but depending on the listener they can be subjective. Was this something that just happened or did you update your mobo drivers/video drivers recently?

[mikeblas]

If you look at your system event log, you should find I/O errors listed. This lists actual failures; it's possible that your drive is marginal, and several retries result in a successful I/O operation. That won't get logged, but it will hold your computer down while you wait for I/O to finish.

[I3eyond]

Clicking sounds are hardly good but depending on the listener they can be subjective. Was this something that just happened or did you update your mobo drivers/video drivers recently?

It was just something that happened. The only real system change was a Windows Update. I did a system restore prior to that, but it still froze. That's when I decided to reformat.

[Nenu]

As pointed out, hard drive errors of this nature will show up in the event log.
Check it to see and if a drive is having problems, unplug it and reconnect, try a different cable and SATA port on the motherboard.
If the problem still occurs, Scan the drive for errors with the tickbox "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors".

[I3eyond]

Tried reformatting again, and now when installing Windows it's frozen up two different times. Does this definitely point to hard drive?

[Nenu]

Tried reformatting again, and now when installing Windows it's frozen up two different times. Does this definitely point to hard drive?

see the post above yours

[Gruntled Employee]

Have a look on your motherboard and look for any capacitors that have split open on top and have liquid boiled off on the top. It could be the HD but I have seen a blown cap cause this too.

[jbz7890]

Open your case, unplug that SATA connector from your motherboard, and move it to another port. That solved the problem for me and my brother.

[I3eyond]

Replaced the hard drive, and no freezing yet.