"Brad" wrote in message
...
Hi,

My "main" computer is a Gateway "Color Book II" laptop. It is
on every day from 7:30AM until almost 6:00PM. I have been
using it like this for about 7 years. It has a 1.6 GB hdd. Recently,
for the first time, the hdd started to "wine" (high pitched) for about
3 minutes. Then it became quiet and remained quiet. Afterwards,
I still have no trouble reading/writing files to the hdd.

Is this "wine" sound a sign that my hdd may be failing soon?


Are you sure it's the HDD and not the fan? Laptop fans often become noisy
when cold as they age. If it is definitely the HDD, I'd back up your files
and look for a replacement as the bearings don't have to have much play at
all before you lose data and get head crashes. You should be able to pick up
a bigger drive, say a 6GB, for very little money on eBay.

Dave