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Electronics Repair (sci.electronics.repair) Discussion of repairing electronic equipment. Topics include requests for assistance, where to obtain servicing information and parts, techniques for diagnosis and repair, and annecdotes about success, failures and problems. |
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#1
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Unusual hard drive noise.
I have a 5 year old gateway athlon 1100. PC now has 2 hdd's, the
original western digital 40 gig drive & a 2nd western digital 120 gig drive which I added about 18 months ago. PC is dual boot, running win2k on the newer, larger drive & xp home on the older, smaller drive. Until recently, I had run off the newer drive under win2k almost exclusively. I recently switched to running xp on the older drive all the time. There have always been 2 characteristic clicks the pc has made when powering up, one click for each hdd as it starts. This very identifiable clicking has until the last few weeks (coincides witht he switch to xp) only been heard at startup. Recently, the clicking has occurred randomly, usually several times in a row, while running the pc. Just now, I was using Zone alarm to virus scan a particular large folder, & the clicking occurred perhaps 6 times in rapid succession. The file being scanned is on the newer drive, but again I am running off of the older. At this point, pc has been on about 3 days straight. In order to isolate the noise, I pulled the cover & both drives, & re-ran the scan, the noise reappeared & sounds as though it is coming from the older drive. It may be heat related, because after running outside the case, repeating this test (the virus scan) failed to produce the noise. PC has 3 fans, one on the cpu, one in the PS, & one I added at the front after adding the 2nd hdd, which blows across the 2 drives. My concern is that this noise is signaling the imminent failure of the older drive. Is this cause for concern? TIA Dan |
#2
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I would make a "Ghost" (by Symantec) of the drive making the noise
using another drive and when it fails you should be able to transfer all the information into a new drive. Vlad On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 15:02:12 -0500, Dan wrote: I have a 5 year old gateway athlon 1100. PC now has 2 hdd's, the original western digital 40 gig drive & a 2nd western digital 120 gig drive which I added about 18 months ago. PC is dual boot, running win2k on the newer, larger drive & xp home on the older, smaller drive. Until recently, I had run off the newer drive under win2k almost exclusively. I recently switched to running xp on the older drive all the time. There have always been 2 characteristic clicks the pc has made when powering up, one click for each hdd as it starts. This very identifiable clicking has until the last few weeks (coincides witht he switch to xp) only been heard at startup. Recently, the clicking has occurred randomly, usually several times in a row, while running the pc. Just now, I was using Zone alarm to virus scan a particular large folder, & the clicking occurred perhaps 6 times in rapid succession. The file being scanned is on the newer drive, but again I am running off of the older. At this point, pc has been on about 3 days straight. In order to isolate the noise, I pulled the cover & both drives, & re-ran the scan, the noise reappeared & sounds as though it is coming from the older drive. It may be heat related, because after running outside the case, repeating this test (the virus scan) failed to produce the noise. PC has 3 fans, one on the cpu, one in the PS, & one I added at the front after adding the 2nd hdd, which blows across the 2 drives. My concern is that this noise is signaling the imminent failure of the older drive. Is this cause for concern? TIA Dan |
#3
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Hi!
You've got a hard drive that may be thinking about dying in the near future. A clicking noise from the drive usually means that it is spinning down and starting again and during normal operations this should not usually happen. As long as it is readable and seems to "work fine", I would take the opportunity to back it up and retire it from service. Once it starts to go downhill, it will do so *very* quickly. William |
#4
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"Dan" wrote in message ... I have a 5 year old gateway athlon 1100. PC now has 2 hdd's, the folder, & the clicking occurred perhaps 6 times in rapid succession. Go to http://grc.com and look for Spinrite. N |
#5
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"Dan" wrote in message ... I have a 5 year old gateway athlon 1100. PC now has 2 hdd's, the original western digital 40 gig drive & a 2nd western digital 120 gig drive which I added about 18 months ago. PC is dual boot, running win2k on the newer, larger drive & xp home on the older, smaller drive. Until recently, I had run off the newer drive under win2k almost exclusively. I recently switched to running xp on the older drive all the time. There have always been 2 characteristic clicks the pc has made when powering up, one click for each hdd as it starts. This very identifiable clicking has until the last few weeks (coincides witht he switch to xp) only been heard at startup. Recently, the clicking has occurred randomly, usually several times in a row, while running the pc. Just now, I was using Zone alarm to virus scan a particular large folder, & the clicking occurred perhaps 6 times in rapid succession. The file being scanned is on the newer drive, but again I am running off of the older. At this point, pc has been on about 3 days straight. In order to isolate the noise, I pulled the cover & both drives, & re-ran the scan, the noise reappeared & sounds as though it is coming from the older drive. It may be heat related, because after running outside the case, repeating this test (the virus scan) failed to produce the noise. PC has 3 fans, one on the cpu, one in the PS, & one I added at the front after adding the 2nd hdd, which blows across the 2 drives. My concern is that this noise is signaling the imminent failure of the older drive. Is this cause for concern? Very likely the drive making the noise is failing and will die soon, make sure you back it up! |
#6
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"NSM" wrote in message news:YLMZd.54565$gJ3.20997@clgrps13... "Dan" wrote in message ... I have a 5 year old gateway athlon 1100. PC now has 2 hdd's, the folder, & the clicking occurred perhaps 6 times in rapid succession. Go to http://grc.com and look for Spinrite. N Doesn't sound like he needs that just yet, but if he doesn't back it up soon he might. |
#7
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On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 15:02:12 -0500 Dan
wrote in Message id: : [...] Just now, I was using Zone alarm to virus scan a particular large folder, & the clicking occurred perhaps 6 times in rapid succession. As other have said, it looks as though your drive may be dying. I would check your system event logs to see if the errors are severe enough to be logged by the OS. |
#8
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This listing of the worst HDs rates Western Digital at the top:
http://www.driveservice.com/bestwrst.htm I personally have 3 WDs in my junk box that have come out of my own and clients computers. (one makes a noise like a chain saw and is very undependable) Quantum Fireballs are not far behind. Richard |
#9
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Hi!
This listing of the worst HDs rates Western Digital at the top: http://www.driveservice.com/bestwrst.htm Can't say I agree. Every Western Digital drive I have ever owned has given excellent service. I had two that had been running in a server almost 24/7 since 1997. If it hadn't been for a basement flood, I'm sure they would still be running along just fine. I have most of the other drives on that list and they too are in good working order under daily use. The few of them I have seen fail have always given *plenty* of warning before going out for good. I'd say that a more accurate statement is that every drive maker has a bad line of drives somewhere. William |
#10
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"spudnuty" wrote in message oups.com... This listing of the worst HDs rates Western Digital at the top: http://www.driveservice.com/bestwrst.htm I personally have 3 WDs in my junk box that have come out of my own and clients computers. (one makes a noise like a chain saw and is very undependable) Quantum Fireballs are not far behind. Richard I've used WD drives off and on for about 15 years, they've produced a couple turds but they've been the most reliable overall that I've ever dealt with. Seagate has made some very good drives as well, though I had a rash of 2GB SCSI failures several years back though they have excellent warranty service. By far the worst I've experienced is Maxtor, I've sworn them off a couple times, then more recently was convinced to try one of the newer ones and it failed just after the (only year long) warranty expired, never again, every single Maxtor I've ever owned has failed. The WD in my box now is humming right along, replaced the last WD which never failed either, just got too cramped. |
#11
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"spudnuty" wrote in message oups.com... This listing of the worst HDs rates Western Digital at the top: http://www.driveservice.com/bestwrst.htm I personally have 3 WDs in my junk box that have come out of my own and clients computers. (one makes a noise like a chain saw and is very undependable) Quantum Fireballs are not far behind. Richard Also note that that page was last updated more than 3 years ago, that's an eternity for computer technology, the drives it's referring to are mostly 2-20GB. |
#12
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On 16 Mar 2005 10:07:50 -0800 "spudnuty" wrote in
Message id: .com: Quantum Fireballs are not far behind. I've heard this argument before with regards to the failing spindle motor chip, yet we've sold thousands of these and have never seen this failure. In fact, the 20GB fireballs were extremely reliable as far as my experiences were with them. On the other hand, the Maxtor DiamondMax plus 8 40GB drive has been a nightmare for us. We've had hundreds of failures. |
#13
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Thanks for the replies, I bought a 160 gig on sale for $59 (after 2
freekin' rebates) & have replaced the 5 year old 40. I dunno, seems to me hdd's used to last longer than 5 years, oh well... Dan JW wrote: On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 15:02:12 -0500 Dan wrote in Message id: : [...] Just now, I was using Zone alarm to virus scan a particular large folder, & the clicking occurred perhaps 6 times in rapid succession. As other have said, it looks as though your drive may be dying. I would check your system event logs to see if the errors are severe enough to be logged by the OS. |
#14
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"Dan" wrote in message ... Thanks for the replies, I bought a 160 gig on sale for $59 (after 2 freekin' rebates) & have replaced the 5 year old 40. I dunno, seems to me hdd's used to last longer than 5 years, oh well... Some do, some don't, almost everything is made cheaper these days. 5 years is quite a long time for a regularly used piece of computer equipment, though Seagate SCSI drives do or used to have 5 year warranties. |
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