HD failing?

[Horizon]

I have a Western Digital 80gig 7200 HD, and I think it is starting to crap out on me. The thing has been running for a month now, no problems and now its really messing up.

Symptoms I have noticed are:

- Fails to be recognised on boot-up/in BIOS. (If I restart a few times it will recognise)
- Make odd noise like *WHRRRRRRR -- CLICK -- WHRRRRRR* alot of times. I will be running a movie from this HD on another comp and the movie will pause and lag during these times.
- Alot of slow down in loading of programs, lagging while opening applications, random freezes.


This is my system spec:

- Win XP
- Asus A7V333 mobo.
- Athalon XP 1800
- 1024 MB Cruical DDR
- GForce4 TI4400
- Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer
- Western Digital 80gig HD.

I am running right now with the side of the case open. (Antec server style case), and I can touch the HD. Thing has been on all night and is only slightly warm to the touch.

What should I do?


~Taylor

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Horizon on 05/07/02 07:38 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[sturm]

backup everything u can before it completly dies. try running the western digital utility disk. it has a program to test ur harddrive. u can also run scandisk to check for surface errors. but i would definitly back up important info before its too late.

 

[zigzag]

That "whirrrrl...click...whirrrrl...click" noise you describe sounds like the "Click of Death" I've run into with WD harddrives. I found that the drive will remain accessible for a while before the noise happens, so I'm usually able to save all the critical information. As far as a fix goes, I do not know of any.

-zigzag

 

[labdog]

if the hard disk is almost out of order, you have to backup it before it completely die but if it is almost completely full, this can be a problem; how to backup 80GB of data without another same capacity hard disk?
did you test it with an hard disk utility?
is the test passed?
how much space is in use on your HD?
if there is a lot (around 30-40GB or more) try to defrag it.


<i>if <b>you know</b> <font color=white>you don't know<font color=black>, the way could be more easy ...

 

[dhlucke]

Get all your data off of there. That's the end of the drive. The noise is a dead give away.

RMA it and get a new one. You could try out the one with 8MB of cache now.

<font color=red>THGC: Everything from anal applications of peanut butter to marriage counseling</font color=red>

 

[Horizon]

I am trying to run thier Diag tool but I have to do this from DOS. I have no clue how to get to DOS in WinXP.

Any help?


~Taylor

 

[HonestJhon]

make a boot disk in XP, it will make you a WINME boot disk, which you can leave in the floppy drive, then tell the bios to boot from the floppy drive. then put the WD diagnostics floppy in the drive, and run it.

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[Horizon]

Ok updating my situation.


I downloaded and ran the DLGDIAG tool from WesternDigital to see if the HD was faulty, supposidly if it is the program would create an RMA number for me.

I did the Quick Test and Extended Test - both came back with no errors on the drive!

IN order to back all my info up, I grabbed my old 20gig WD HD and up it in the comp, the first time I started up with te 20gig in I got a message at the post screen saying 'Smart Alert Primary Master Drive Failure Immenient' or somthing to that degree.

It only gave me that message twice, why!

The *CLICK ------ WHURRRRRR ------ CLICK* sounds have stopped completely. Yet the other probelsm remain. It takes my system a good 80 seconds to boot from the WinXP loading screen, previously it took less than 10.

Programs load slow as a toad, and there is lagg while using all applications.

What should I do now?


~Taylor

 

[labdog]

maybe a <i>usefull</i> <A HREF="http://users.capu.net/~kwelch/pp/pics/emperors-family2.jpg" target="_new">link</A>.


<i>if <b>you know</b> <font color=white>you don't know<font color=black>, the way could be more easy ...

 

[psyclone]

Ignore this ma be ausefule link hes doing it on every post, and i had the same porblem wiht my HDD, i took it to the computer store i bought it from and they replaced it.

<b>What was that!</b>

 

[HonestJhon]

hmmm...maybe that isnt a useful link....?

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[Harisahmed]

[whispering] I think he might be starting to foam at the mouth. Just smile and pretend that what LabDog said was useful.

 

[Harisahmed]

I think that link was very useful. You are such a good boy, maybe I'll give ya a treat. Now go and play in the Other forum.

 

[labdog]

very simple, this "newbie" is an old THGC member playing trolling.
do you understand something, now? roflMAO.


<i>if <b>you know</b> <font color=white>you don't know<font color=black>, the way could be more easy ...

 

[labdog]

yeah, continue... & long life on fishing, trolling & all their friends!


<i>if <b>you know</b> <font color=white>you don't know<font color=black>, the way could be more easy ...

 

[labdog]

follow the <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=45419#45419" target="_new">link</A>

<i>if <b>you know</b> <font color=white>you don't know<font color=black>, the way could be more easy ...