Hard drive failing?

[jamezzz122]

What are some signs of my hard drive failing? I am getting concerned because when I open "My Computer" it lags for like 10 seconds. I see that flashlight or whatever it is. Could this be something else other than my harddrive failing? I have everything on one 80GB so I don't want to lose my media and stuff.

 

[Sirje31337]

Before my harddrive died it would read files slowly, if it read them at all. And it would just hang a lot.

 

[Ice Czar]

it could be a great many things
from fragmentation to system\application errors
check the event log

start > run > (type) eventvwr.msc


as far as the HDD goes, there is limited predictability employing SMART

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/qual/featuresSMART-c.html
http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en&pageid=1
http://www.lossepladsen.dk/all4you/TheLostWorld/SmartMonitor.php

you can also run the HDD manufacturer diagnostic
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

and ATACT
http://www.ata-atapi.com/atact.htm

the classic sign of HDD death is increased bad sectors
or "clicking", some is normal, but if it starts to dramatically increase, well backup
(you should already be doing that)
a "click" is the arm\head recalibrating after a miss
and endless cycle of clicks, is bigtime problems

other failures are simply silent, like when a circuit board goes bad, the drive simply isnt recognized or reachable

 

[rhansen5_99]

run a drive fitness test on your harddrive can be downloaded as the ultimate boot cd, download this burn the iso to a cd and boot up from the cd... do an advanced scan on your hd and then you know for sure its the harddrive failing... btw usually the hd or the ram fails first on a pc