Unusual hard drive noise.

[Dan]

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

 

[Vlad]

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

 

[William R. Walsh]

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

 

[NSM]

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

 

[James Sweet]

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!

 

[James Sweet]

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.

 

[JW]

<[email protected]>:

[...]

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.

 

[spudnuty]

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

 

[William R. Walsh]

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

 

[James Sweet]

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.

 

[James Sweet]

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.

 

[JW]

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.

 

[Dan]

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

<[email protected]>:

[...]

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.

 

[James Sweet]

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.