Computer Gurus ... Clicking Hard drive

NYFAN · 10-01-2006, 10:33 PM

Ok, so the other night my hard drive started clicking. I pulled it out, and my disk drive and blew on them to get any dust out. It's still clicking. One time it crashed my computer and did a memory dump or something. Any ideas as to what is causing the problem, and/or what I can do to fix it?

Groundhog · 10-01-2006, 10:41 PM

Your HD is about to die. Quickly backup everything you need before it's too late.

NYFAN · 10-01-2006, 10:52 PM

damn, that is not the answer i was hoping for... there is no way around this?

Groundhog · 10-01-2006, 11:05 PM

Nope. It's only a matter of time. A HD on an old PC of mine started doing this and it lasted about another 2 months before it started getting any serious errors and locking up the PC, but I'd still suggest you get cracking on backing up files ASAP.

sterlingice · 10-01-2006, 11:22 PM

I'll second Groundhog on this. Get backing up if you haven't been regularly. And, if you haven't regularly, here's a big angry finger wagging in your general direction, too.

SI

Marc Vaughan · 10-02-2006, 02:19 AM

Normally the sign of a HD which is about to go down.

If you listen carefully the cause of the noise is sometimes the 'head' bouncing on the disk and its this scratching the surface which causes the FAT to corrupt ultimately.

(sorry to be the bearer of bad news)

Poli · 10-02-2006, 05:10 AM

I'm guessing the loud thump my ol' Gateway gives off every so often isn't a good thing, either.

Good thing that ol' machine is frozen in time in the garage.

gottimd · 10-02-2006, 07:36 AM

This happened to me a month or so ago on my laptop. Backup everything up immediately! I didn't do so in time, because I forgot to, and I lost important wedding/honeymoon photos (which my wife was thrilled to learn) and financial data. I had to pay $1600 to get it recovered.

Now, I have an 80 Gig backup HD that the recovery company gave me and a 300 Gig Maxtor one touch III backup drive.

NYFAN · 10-02-2006, 09:00 AM

thanks... i would not have expected this on a 6 year dell HD... oh well, can i just get a new HD and plug it in (obviously losing what I had on it originally)?

MizzouRah · 10-02-2006, 09:14 AM

Consider yourself lucky. 6 years is a godsend on a HD not going bad. Backup your data and replace the drive.

Coffee Warlord · 10-02-2006, 09:46 AM

No shit. 6 years for a HD is pretty damned good.

NYFAN · 10-02-2006, 10:21 AM

Ok... do I need to make sure I get any certain type of drive, or can i just go out and by a hard drive?

dacman · 10-02-2006, 10:43 AM

For a 6-yo system you almost certainly need an IDE Hard Drive.

MizzouRah · 10-02-2006, 10:45 AM

Since your pc is 6 years old, you will want to get an IDE HD - NOT a SATA HD. Other than that, size and brand is up to you. I like Western Digital, but like anything pc releated, everyone has a favorite.

In fact, most HD's (and I know WD does) come with a program to copy everything from your old HD to the new HD - as long as your old one still boots up into Windows. Read the directions included on how to do it.. it's quite easy.

Poli · 10-02-2006, 11:17 AM

Thinks back, my HD is umm, 5 years old. That's pretty tight.

NYFAN · 10-02-2006, 01:36 PM

is an EIDE drive what you guys are talking about?

weegeebored · 10-02-2006, 02:41 PM

NYFAN,

Yes, essentially ATA = IDE = EIDE = PATA. The recommendations here are just alerting you not to buy a SATA or SCSI drive as you need one for IDE/ATA controllers (which is now referred to as PATA).

One other word of caution: as your box is six years old it's quite possible that you may have a partition size limit due to the BIOS on your motherboard. It (the BIOS) may or may not be upgradeable to support large size drives, so I wouldn't just assume that you could stick a 250GB drive in there and have it work. Then again it may.

NYFAN · 10-02-2006, 05:29 PM

Actually what I think I'm going to do is go with a small HD, and then buy a portable drive. I also have a laptop, I do a lot of travelling, and over the next few years I anticipate possibly having to move on multiple occassions, so I feel like having a portable drive to both back things up, and make things easily transferable (from work PC to laptop to home PC) may make a lot of sense. Of course having a HD with some room for my home PC is pretty important too, so I'm guessing something like 80 GB.

Easy Mac · 10-02-2006, 05:33 PM

what type of portable drive? Do you have usb 2.0 or usb 1.1? external drives work on both, but on a 1.1 connection it would be near unbearable.

NYFAN · 10-02-2006, 05:36 PM

I believe I have a USB 2.0 is there any easy way to check for sure?

SimpleTech External Hard Drive (STI-USB235/250)
SML CCUSB235250
• 250GB 7200RPM drive
• One-click backup • 8MB buffer
• USB 2.0 connection

Easy Mac · 10-02-2006, 05:40 PM

given the age of the computer (6 years old) its likely to be usb 1.1. You can always get a $5 pci card for usb 2.0. The hard drive would still work, it would just be slow and it would likely get throttled.

weegeebored · 10-02-2006, 05:44 PM

Look in Device Manager and find the section that says Universal Serial Bus Controllers. If there is an entry that reads "Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller" or something with the word "enhanced" it means that you've got 2.0. Otherwise, it's 1.1. And with the computer being six years old it's likely to not have 2.0.

NYFAN · 10-02-2006, 06:33 PM

After taking a close look it's only 5 years old, but I will check. Thanks.

sterlingice · 10-02-2006, 06:55 PM

Whoa! A 6 year old hard drive?!? That's amazing mileage out of that thing.

SI

NYFAN · 10-02-2006, 07:00 PM

thanks for all of the advice guys... hopefully i'm able to transfer everything on my hard drive... i know i did some backups a while ago, hopefully it has everything i need if i can't back it up again!

Groundhog · 10-02-2006, 07:19 PM

I have a HD sitting in my PC at home that is close to 6 years old now, and no issues (knock on wood).

Silver Owl · 10-04-2006, 04:46 PM

Are you guys serious about 6 years being a long life for a hard drive? We have a 40 gig at work that is almost 13 years old and my 40 gig at home is 7 years old.

JeeberD · 10-04-2006, 04:52 PM

My computer is at least five years old and still going strong. I have added RAM and a second HD to it, though...

sterlingice · 10-04-2006, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silver Owl

Are you guys serious about 6 years being a long life for a hard drive? We have a 40 gig at work that is almost 13 years old and my 40 gig at home is 7 years old.

Um... yeah, I'm going to have to call shenanigans on that

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_hard_disks

Unless you're talking some server storage system, there's no way there's a 13 year old 40 gig hard drive. The 10 gig barrier was broken less than 10 years ago.

SI

Silver Owl · 10-08-2006, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Um... yeah, I'm going to have to call shenanigans on that

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_hard_disks

Unless you're talking some server storage system, there's no way there's a 13 year old 40 gig hard drive. The 10 gig barrier was broken less than 10 years ago.

SI

I have something wrong, I know the computer is 13 years old but the hard drive is 40 MEG. not 40 GIG. :o
Sorry about that.

10-01-2006, 10:41 PM	#2
Groundhog Coordinator Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Sydney, Australia	Your HD is about to die. Quickly backup everything you need before it's too late. __________________ Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce

10-01-2006, 10:52 PM	#3
NYFAN High School JV Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Marietta, OH	damn, that is not the answer i was hoping for... there is no way around this? __________________ "Adversity never improves your character, it only reveals it." - Jeff Van Gundy "It was me against the world, but it made me strong" -Sprewell

10-01-2006, 11:05 PM	#4
Groundhog Coordinator Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Sydney, Australia	Nope. It's only a matter of time. A HD on an old PC of mine started doing this and it lasted about another 2 months before it started getting any serious errors and locking up the PC, but I'd still suggest you get cracking on backing up files ASAP. __________________ Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce

10-01-2006, 11:22 PM	#5
sterlingice Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Back in Houston!	I'll second Groundhog on this. Get backing up if you haven't been regularly. And, if you haven't regularly, here's a big angry finger wagging in your general direction, too. SI __________________ Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 10-01-2006 at 11:24 PM.

10-02-2006, 05:10 AM	#7
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	I'm guessing the loud thump my ol' Gateway gives off every so often isn't a good thing, either. Good thing that ol' machine is frozen in time in the garage. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

10-02-2006, 02:19 AM	#6
Marc Vaughan SI Games Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Melbourne, FL	Normally the sign of a HD which is about to go down. If you listen carefully the cause of the noise is sometimes the 'head' bouncing on the disk and its this scratching the surface which causes the FAT to corrupt ultimately. (sorry to be the bearer of bad news)

10-02-2006, 07:36 AM	#8
gottimd Dearly Missed (9/25/77-12/23/08) Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: DC Suburbs	This happened to me a month or so ago on my laptop. Backup everything up immediately! I didn't do so in time, because I forgot to, and I lost important wedding/honeymoon photos (which my wife was thrilled to learn) and financial data. I had to pay $1600 to get it recovered. Now, I have an 80 Gig backup HD that the recovery company gave me and a 300 Gig Maxtor one touch III backup drive. __________________ NAFL New Orleans Saints GM/Co-Commish MP Career Record: 114-85 NAFL Super Bowl XI Champs In memory of Gavin Anthony: 7/22/08-7/26/08

10-02-2006, 09:00 AM	#9
NYFAN High School JV Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Marietta, OH	thanks... i would not have expected this on a 6 year dell HD... oh well, can i just get a new HD and plug it in (obviously losing what I had on it originally)? __________________ "Adversity never improves your character, it only reveals it." - Jeff Van Gundy "It was me against the world, but it made me strong" -Sprewell

10-02-2006, 09:14 AM	#10
MizzouRah Hall Of Famer Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Troy, Mo	Consider yourself lucky. 6 years is a godsend on a HD not going bad. Backup your data and replace the drive.

10-02-2006, 09:46 AM	#11
Coffee Warlord Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Colorado Springs	No shit. 6 years for a HD is pretty damned good.

10-02-2006, 10:21 AM	#12
NYFAN High School JV Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Marietta, OH	Ok... do I need to make sure I get any certain type of drive, or can i just go out and by a hard drive? __________________ "Adversity never improves your character, it only reveals it." - Jeff Van Gundy "It was me against the world, but it made me strong" -Sprewell

10-02-2006, 10:43 AM	#13
dacman College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: speak to the trout	For a 6-yo system you almost certainly need an IDE Hard Drive. __________________ No signatures allowed.

10-02-2006, 10:45 AM	#14
MizzouRah Hall Of Famer Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Troy, Mo	Since your pc is 6 years old, you will want to get an IDE HD - NOT a SATA HD. Other than that, size and brand is up to you. I like Western Digital, but like anything pc releated, everyone has a favorite. In fact, most HD's (and I know WD does) come with a program to copy everything from your old HD to the new HD - as long as your old one still boots up into Windows. Read the directions included on how to do it.. it's quite easy.

10-02-2006, 11:17 AM	#15
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	Thinks back, my HD is umm, 5 years old. That's pretty tight. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

10-02-2006, 01:36 PM	#16
NYFAN High School JV Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Marietta, OH	is an EIDE drive what you guys are talking about? __________________ "Adversity never improves your character, it only reveals it." - Jeff Van Gundy "It was me against the world, but it made me strong" -Sprewell

10-02-2006, 02:41 PM	#17
weegeebored High School Varsity Join Date: Sep 2006	NYFAN, Yes, essentially ATA = IDE = EIDE = PATA. The recommendations here are just alerting you not to buy a SATA or SCSI drive as you need one for IDE/ATA controllers (which is now referred to as PATA). One other word of caution: as your box is six years old it's quite possible that you may have a partition size limit due to the BIOS on your motherboard. It (the BIOS) may or may not be upgradeable to support large size drives, so I wouldn't just assume that you could stick a 250GB drive in there and have it work. Then again it may.

10-02-2006, 05:29 PM	#18
NYFAN High School JV Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Marietta, OH	Actually what I think I'm going to do is go with a small HD, and then buy a portable drive. I also have a laptop, I do a lot of travelling, and over the next few years I anticipate possibly having to move on multiple occassions, so I feel like having a portable drive to both back things up, and make things easily transferable (from work PC to laptop to home PC) may make a lot of sense. Of course having a HD with some room for my home PC is pretty important too, so I'm guessing something like 80 GB. __________________ "Adversity never improves your character, it only reveals it." - Jeff Van Gundy "It was me against the world, but it made me strong" -Sprewell

10-02-2006, 05:33 PM	#19
Easy Mac Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Here	what type of portable drive? Do you have usb 2.0 or usb 1.1? external drives work on both, but on a 1.1 connection it would be near unbearable.

10-02-2006, 05:36 PM	#20
NYFAN High School JV Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Marietta, OH	I believe I have a USB 2.0 is there any easy way to check for sure? SimpleTech External Hard Drive (STI-USB235/250) SML CCUSB235250 • 250GB 7200RPM drive • One-click backup • 8MB buffer • USB 2.0 connection __________________ "Adversity never improves your character, it only reveals it." - Jeff Van Gundy "It was me against the world, but it made me strong" -Sprewell

10-02-2006, 05:40 PM	#21
Easy Mac Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Here	given the age of the computer (6 years old) its likely to be usb 1.1. You can always get a $5 pci card for usb 2.0. The hard drive would still work, it would just be slow and it would likely get throttled.

10-02-2006, 05:44 PM	#22
weegeebored High School Varsity Join Date: Sep 2006	Look in Device Manager and find the section that says Universal Serial Bus Controllers. If there is an entry that reads "Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller" or something with the word "enhanced" it means that you've got 2.0. Otherwise, it's 1.1. And with the computer being six years old it's likely to not have 2.0.

10-02-2006, 06:33 PM	#23
NYFAN High School JV Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Marietta, OH	After taking a close look it's only 5 years old, but I will check. Thanks. __________________ "Adversity never improves your character, it only reveals it." - Jeff Van Gundy "It was me against the world, but it made me strong" -Sprewell

10-02-2006, 06:55 PM	#24
sterlingice Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Back in Houston!	Whoa! A 6 year old hard drive?!? That's amazing mileage out of that thing. SI __________________ Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!"

10-02-2006, 07:00 PM	#25
NYFAN High School JV Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Marietta, OH	thanks for all of the advice guys... hopefully i'm able to transfer everything on my hard drive... i know i did some backups a while ago, hopefully it has everything i need if i can't back it up again! __________________ "Adversity never improves your character, it only reveals it." - Jeff Van Gundy "It was me against the world, but it made me strong" -Sprewell

10-02-2006, 07:19 PM	#26
Groundhog Coordinator Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Sydney, Australia	I have a HD sitting in my PC at home that is close to 6 years old now, and no issues (knock on wood). __________________ Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce

10-04-2006, 04:46 PM	#27
Silver Owl High School JV Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Akron, OH	Are you guys serious about 6 years being a long life for a hard drive? We have a 40 gig at work that is almost 13 years old and my 40 gig at home is 7 years old.

10-04-2006, 04:52 PM	#28
JeeberD General Manager Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: The Town of Flower Mound	My computer is at least five years old and still going strong. I have added RAM and a second HD to it, though... __________________ UTEP Miners!!! I solemnly swear to never cheer for TO

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