clicking hard drive

[Guest]

I'll be using any program and randomly at any time my hard drive will make a
tick tok noise, like a clicking. I get about 4 clicks per second for 5
seconds, clicking stops, then more strange noises 15 seconds later. The whole
time these noises are occuring the programs run fine (except the sound will
skip a little). Then there's a period when everything seems fine then lockup
and blue screen of death. stop error has been 0x00000007e or 7f (don't know
if this is the right # of zeros).

I bought the latest version of Norton antivirus, downloaded the latest
definitions, did a scan and nothing bad. I defragged the hard drive and
problem still occurs. There's some days when this doesn't happen at all.
Someone who deals with computers for thier job says it might be a memory
leak, so I switched the ram sticks around. That didn't work. Do I have a bad
hard drive? My desktop is only a year old. I don't want to go out and buy a
new hard drive only to find out it was something else.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Dan" <[email protected]>

| I'll be using any program and randomly at any time my hard drive will make a
| tick tok noise, like a clicking. I get about 4 clicks per second for 5
| seconds, clicking stops, then more strange noises 15 seconds later. The whole
| time these noises are occuring the programs run fine (except the sound will
| skip a little). Then there's a period when everything seems fine then lockup
| and blue screen of death. stop error has been 0x00000007e or 7f (don't know
| if this is the right # of zeros).
|
| I bought the latest version of Norton antivirus, downloaded the latest
| definitions, did a scan and nothing bad. I defragged the hard drive and
| problem still occurs. There's some days when this doesn't happen at all.
| Someone who deals with computers for thier job says it might be a memory
| leak, so I switched the ram sticks around. That didn't work. Do I have a bad
| hard drive? My desktop is only a year old. I don't want to go out and buy a
| new hard drive only to find out it was something else.
|

Your hard disk is most likley failing.

Go to the hard disk manufacturer's web site and download their diagnostic software
respective to your hard disk. After the test, you will know if the hard disk is bad or
not..

Quantum/Maxtor - PowerMax
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Western Digital - Data LifeGuard Tools (DLGDiag)
http://support.wdc.com/download/

Hitachi/IBM - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate - SeaTools
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

Fujitsu - Diagnostic Tool
http://www.fcpa.com/download/hard-drives/

Samsung - Disk manager
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/shdiag.htm

 

[kenny]

This is a very probable sign of HDD death.... if you are still in
warrantee change it. Some hard drives have up to 5 years warrantee so look
into it.

 

[Mike Lewis]

And back up everything NOW to a different location (hard drive or FLASH).

 

[zombie]

Dan (e-mail address removed), wrote in message
(e-mail address removed):

I'll be using any program and randomly at any time my hard drive will
make a tick tok noise, like a clicking. I get about 4 clicks per
second for 5 seconds, clicking stops, then more strange noises 15
seconds later. The whole time these noises are occuring the programs
run fine (except the sound will skip a little). Then there's a period
when everything seems fine then lockup and blue screen of death. stop
error has been 0x00000007e or 7f (don't know if this is the right #
of zeros).

I bought the latest version of Norton antivirus, downloaded the latest
definitions, did a scan and nothing bad. I defragged the hard drive
and problem still occurs. There's some days when this doesn't happen
at all. Someone who deals with computers for thier job says it might
be a memory leak, so I switched the ram sticks around. That didn't
work. Do I have a bad hard drive? My desktop is only a year old. I
don't want to go out and buy a new hard drive only to find out it was
something else.

http://grc.com/spinrite.htm

--
zombie computers.Inc
zombie computers.Pty.Ltd
zombie computers.Ltd
zombie computers.LLP
zombie computers.AG
zombie computers.Plc
zombie computers & Co

 

[bxf]

Check the Event Viewer. Hardware errors should have corresponding
entries with messages that may be useful.

 

[Guest]

went out and bought an SATA hard drive with the same configuration today.
Copied the all the files from the old boot drive to the new one. I really
think this was my problem. my old drive was warning me of impending danger by
making the clicking noise. Lemme tell ya, when all was said and done
everything loaded up SOOOO MUCH FASTER!! so efffecient! I'd like to thank the
experts for giving me a 2nd opinion that really helped and that was what I
was looking for! I've spend many years in school and work working with
computers and i was suspicious of the hard drive, but needed that extra oomph
in knowledge.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I'll be using any program and randomly at any time my hard drive will make a
tick tok noise, like a clicking. I get about 4 clicks per second for 5
seconds, clicking stops, then more strange noises 15 seconds later. The whole
time these noises are occuring the programs run fine (except the sound will
skip a little). Then there's a period when everything seems fine then lockup
and blue screen of death. stop error has been 0x00000007e or 7f (don't know
if this is the right # of zeros).

I bought the latest version of Norton antivirus, downloaded the latest
definitions, did a scan and nothing bad. I defragged the hard drive and
problem still occurs. There's some days when this doesn't happen at all.
Someone who deals with computers for thier job says it might be a memory
leak, ....

Actually, such an idea could only come from someone who *doesn't* have
much experience with PCs.

so I switched the ram sticks around. That didn't work.

No, of course it wouldn't. (Nor would it have addressed a memory leak,
which is caused by an application's failing to release memory that it's
no longer using. Nothing to do with the hard drive, at all.)

Do I have a bad
hard drive?

Very, very likely. It sounds very much as if the armature is hitting
the edge of the platters as it moves the read/write heads in and out.
Back up your data immediately, and then contact the computer
manufacturer for warranty support.

My desktop is only a year old.

Unfortunately, and despite the manufacturers' best intentions and
efforts, hardware can fail at any time.

I don't want to go out and buy a
new hard drive only to find out it was something else.

The computer should still be under warranty, but , if it isn't, most
hard drive manufacturers provide their own 3 to 5 year warranties.
Contact the manufacturer of your hard drive directly. In fact, you
should also be able to download a diagnostic tool with which to test the
hard drive.

Just remember to back up your important data immediately.


--

Bruce Chambers

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