"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
Just to go back to the original problem, I assumed it was an HD failing
because one of them made that noise when the heads go from one end to
another while booting. Two identical same age SATA drives. But it's still
working ok.

Sometimes when booting it appears to constantly poll the CD drives and
makes that noise - sometimes not. But always boots normally.

If the noise is from the drive then you do need to replace it ASAP.
It may continue to work for years but it probably wont.

Just make a backup to five or six distributed VTLs made by different
manufacturers and run by different people in different parts of the world
and you will probably be OK. 8-)

Oh BTW, copy it to local storage too as it can be a real pain restoring the
stuff over ADSL or a modem.