What does a whining hard drive mean????

M

mitcity22

2[H]4U
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Dec 5, 2006
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When I turn on my pc the HD whines (goes high and low, speeds up slows down and in between makes a click noise) Did my HD crap out?
 
Clicking is never a good sign. The whining might simply be the drive spinning up/down..maybe.

I would back up all the important data on the drive and run the drive manufacturers diagnostic utility and see if it comes back with any errors.
 
the problem is I am trying to install an OS and am thinnking the flukey HD is why the the OS won't even start to install.....the HD just spins and spins until it gets hot to the touch.
 
Seems like I/we have to keep making this same recommendation over and over again:

Go get the manufacturer's diagnostic support utility for that drive and run a full/advanced diagnostic on the drive. If you get a clean bill of health on the full/advanced test (the quick tests usually miss problems that actually exist, so you have to do the full or advanced one - takes longer but still less time than an RMA process) then the drive is generally considered "OK" regardless of whatever noise it's making.

So go find the diagnostic utility and give that a full or advanced pass before proceeding.
 
No it isn't a new HD, it is out of warranty also so I'm pretty sure I'm screwed.

Can I run the diagnostic util w/ out an os installed, the only other pc I have access to is a laptop.

I have my bios set to boot from CD-ROM but when I put in the xp cd nothing happens but the HD keeps spinning, making noise :mad:, clicking and getting hot.......could this mean the HD is bad?
 
You can generally run the diagnostic utility with no os on the drive, as the tool has it's own "os" so to speak, and work much like a live CD..

As bbz said above, if it passes the advanced test, the drive is likely fine.
 
alright thanks, I found the util on the the WD site, will test it out when I get home......too bad i already ordered a new drive but even if this drive is "ok" i still won't want it b/c of the noise, easy decision $0 and keep my loud ass HD or $79.99 for the Seagate 320gb 7200.10 that is quiet (i hope)
 
If you haven't already, put a fan in front of that drive. When drives get really hot, they often perform a LOT worse. Drives don't need much airflow to keep cool.

and I don't think a hard drive would affect the Windows setup. You can try disconnecting that drive if you want. It should still boot up into setup with no drive connected.
 
ok so my blank media doesn't seem to be any good, when I try to boot from it w/ the WD utility it says "error: insert cd and press enter"

I can start to install windows up to the point where it give me the option of clean install, recover past install and a 3rd option I can't remember.

I choose clean install and I get an error.....something about partmgr.sys error, I am assuming this is a problem with the drive because when this happens the HD is spinning and clicking like it is trying to access something and can't find it. So pretty much right now I am stuck until my new drives is delivered and I can test it out.

In the mean time I will try to get different media to burn the WD util onto.
 
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