Ok, here's the problem: my hard drive has recently been making a rather odd squeaking-type sound. when it does this, the computer seems to seize up momentarily and, sometimes, it stops working all together. if i restart it, everything takes forever to load and i often am unable to get back to my desktop at all. yesterday, i opened up the set up screen and the computer wasn't even recognizing the hard drive at all. when this happens i can't open the computer up in safe mode either. it seems to momentarily correct itself if i shut down for a while and give it a chance to cool down. however if i am able to start it back up again, it will only stay on for up to 1/2 hour at which point the hard drive seizes again and i'm back to where i started. luckily i was able to keep it on long enough to back up all of my files on disks. i haven't had this problem until recently and i'm wondering if it could be caused by 'backing up' too many dvd's. could that be too taxing on my hard drive and/or could it have worn it out? can a hard drive get worn out if you place large amounts of info into it (e.g. 4.5gb)and then delete it out? any input would be greatly appreciated. i just hope that i can start this damn thing up in order to read the responses. thanks. here are my computer's spes: PIII 1.0ghz @100mhz (i think i said that correctly?) 384mb ram 40gb HD lite-on dvd burner samsung dvd/cdrw combo windows ME
Hey No its not the DVD thing, i have backed up over 500 DVD's on my 120G hdd and have had no problems with it at all. How old is your 40G hdd ? Has their been any power outs, brownouts or lighting recently, or even dropping the tower/bashing the towner(unlikely, but possible, i know a few ppl who do that...).. that could cause the hdd to crap itself. My advice.. Backup ur data, get a new hdd. That hdd will die pretty soon and wont start again. Regards CoZZa
I don't know if its fried, but does sound like your on the verge of losing sectors and geting data. I would backup as soon as possible. Hard drives will "were out" but usually other things like viruses or worms mess them up before that happens. I have a 3.6Gb HD, that I have formated, maxed and deleted stuff off all the time (had it since 1996) and only have lost about 100mb due to a craping free OS I was testing. But you might be able to get it back in time. What is the make, is it Maxtor, Western digital or a no name drive?
Before you purchase a new hard drive try doing a low format.This will wipe everything off your hard drive.Then install everything back on to your hard drive and see what happens.You may have a bad cluster of sectors on your drive which is hidden.If still the same then purchase a new one.Some times when your disc is nearly up to maximum it will make a noise because it's working twice as hard and things will take longer.But it should not lock up.I have 2 120gb drives of which one has a 8mb catch and the new one is a 2mb catch which i bought for just storing films.I have noticed that the more i store on this drive the more noise it makes.Some drives are like this.
Make sure the fans on the pc are working also. Sounds like it could be overheating (you mentioned it works if you let the pc cool down for a few hours). Did you recently move your pc, put it in a hutch or something that might restrict air flow from getting into the case, etc? Just some other things to consider as well in case its not just the hard drive going bad.
Yea the HDD heats up, which heats the plates up and makes them bend a little, there for the read/write head has a hard job reading them. Regards CoZZa
Anytime you hear a new noise coming from your hard disk is solid eveidence to suggest that it may be on its last legs. When you rip, burn, and delete DVD's do you defrag often. Three or four movies on and off a disk can fragment it. You can also check your hard disk cable to see if it is in good shape. If these don't help then take the advice that was given by john179, reformat and reinstall. The good news is that hard disks are so inexpesnive now that you can pick up one with 120 gigs or more in the $100 range.
