Is my hard drive failing?

[quadomatic]

I'm not sure, but my hard drive, a Western Digital Caviar 160GB, might be having some trouble, but I don't really experience any problems. It's just making a lot of noise. It started getting loud within the last week or so. I think the noise that I'm hearing is the spinning of the hard drive. I don't hear any clicking like you would hear in a head crash. It also doesn't sound like a grinding noise either. Also, I don't appear to be having any stability or file trouble, though once the PC restarted when booting Windows. That may just be related to my Windows partition though.

I tried running Western Digital Diagnostics tools. The SMART test checked out. The Extended Test checked out too.

I've backed up all of my files because I'm about to do a major upgrade and I'll need to reformat, so I won't have any problems there.

Is it possible that this noise is related to a software problem? I figure I could run "Write Zeros" in the diagnostics program, though not sure that would do anything.

Any ideas on what's going on?

Thanks

 

[jackschmittusa]

I suppose it could be a bearing noise, which would not be good.

Never used the "write zeros" function, but wouldn't that write zeros over the whole drive?

 

[quadomatic]

I suppose its not really that loud. When I got the drive, I thought it was pretty darn quiet. Now it sounds like an older hard drive.

 

[boomerang]

I suppose you could make sure it's hasn't come loose in it's mount or a cable or something isn't up against it telegraphing the noise.

It's your drive, you listen to it everyday. If it sounds louder it probably is. I think it's human nature to try to convince ourselves that everything is OK, even though sometimes it's not. Go with your gut would be my advice.

BTW writing zeros to a HD takes a long, long time. As you said, I'm not sure what that would accomplish in this case other than kill a lot of time.

 

[robisbell]

or it could be from lack of airflow to cool it down.

 

[quadomatic]

I forgot to mention, this isn't a consistent noise. It is only apparent sometimes, usually when the PC is doing something that would put it under high load, but sometimes it comes up when my PC is idle.

 

[jackschmittusa]

I doubt it is an airflow problem since that would have existed from the beginning.

When you say "at idle" do you mean that you are sure it is not doing anything, or just that you are not doing anything. The rig may initiate all kinds of activities on its own, scheduled tasks, software looking for updates, etc.. Does the hd indicator light come on when it does this?

 

[robisbell]

well, I'd like the OP to say before you start playing psychic jack, you seem to know the peoples computers like you're really there to make these assumptions.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: robisbell
well, I'd like the OP to say before you start playing psychic jack, you seem to know the peoples computers like you're really there to make these assumptions.

Very doubtful it's the hard drive overheating, not from the description he's provided.



quadomatic: hard drives just don't change noises like that and still function flawlessly. Are you absolutely sure it is the hard drive making the noise? 9 times out of 10 when I hear this symptom from someone, it's actually a cooling fan that's making the noise, not the hard drive. And if it *is* from the hard drive, 9 times out of 10 it's the cage the drive is screwed into to vibrating (from the drive's vibrations) and making the noise. The fix for this is usually tightening the screws, though once in a while loosening them lessens the noise.

 

[jackschmittusa]

robisbell

Gee! I must now be on your hit list for personal attacks for pointing out some of your really ignorant responses in this forum.

Please feel free to run your post count up with the attacks as I'll continue to post the correct information when you invent things like "to make use of a 64bit cpu, you need a 64bit OS", or your reply to "32-bit XP runs just great on 64-bit CPUs" was "it'll run but you'll not make use of both cores", or that you need drivers in XP for a card reader.

But if you really want to act like a jerk, I can go back and compile a list of your ignorant responses and copy and paste them every time you attack, and thereby expose you in every thread.

Have a nice day.

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
robisbell

Gee! I must now be on your hit list for personal attacks for pointing out some of your really ignorant responses in this forum.

Please feel free to run your post count up with the attacks as I'll continue to post the correct information when you invent things like "to make use of a 64bit cpu, you need a 64bit OS", or your reply to "32-bit XP runs just great on 64-bit CPUs" was "it'll run but you'll not make use of both cores", or that you need drivers in XP for a card reader.

But if you really want to act like a jerk, I can go back and compile a list of your ignorant responses and copy and paste them every time you attack, and thereby expose you in every thread.

Have a nice day.

If you need any help, PM me.

 

[robisbell]

so, OP. what does "PC Wizard" show for the HDD temp?

 

[quadomatic]

Speedfan says the HDD temp is...not sure what the HDD temp is. HD0 is 37C though.

After upgrading my PC, I don't think I'm hearing noises from the hard drive anymore. I think it may have been my shitty case that was causing it.

 

[robisbell]

nearly 100F for that drive, i assume this was just after it had been booted up?

I'd get "PC Wizard" and see what it says.