Computer Slowdown, on brand new comp

[svtour]

ok, here's the story. recently i just built my comp. (the specs are athon xp 1700+, 512 ddr, 2 wd 40gb 7200rpm drives, gigabyte ga7dx-r motherboard, gf3 ti200) when put it altogether, it worked flawlessly. then one day i was playing a game and my hard drive started making a weird ticking sound. i ran chkdsk, and it went away, but then came back a few hours later. i checked for errors then, but found nothing, and the ticking stopped also. that was probably 5 days ago. now, my computer kinda bogs down when i dial my isp, or run programs. i am thinking my drive(s) are bad, and i should exchange them while i can. is it my hard drive? or something else? thanks

 

[Basie]

That happened to me and it was a defective HD cable. Also if it has been awhile try defragging.

 

[mee987]

Do your HDD's have S.M.A.R.T. capability? If so I suggest downloading a S.M.A.R.T. diagnostic tool, it can tell you a lot about the physical integrity of your drives.

 

[DaiShan]

oooh the click of death normally this sound means the hdd is going bad, happened to me and I had to get an RMA (stupid western digital) I would backup all essential data now (right now) and see how it pans out, if it dies RMA it if it works so be it

 

[svtour]

so i guess i should return my drive to bb while i can than, huh? should i return both, or just the one w/ xp on it?