Messed up harddrive?

Pretend · 05-03-2006, 08:43 PM

Alright, I get a bad feeling that my hard drive is messed up. Obviously.

It seems to be working fine and all, except it's started to make real odd sounds today. First thing that happened was, while I was laying down trying to feel a bit better, it scared the **** out of my by sounding like someone shot a bottle-rocket off. Not quite as loud, but the same sound. Went over, coming from the computer.

Now it just keeps clicking, kinda like the old ones do when it's working and stuff... except it does it while my computers just sitting there playing music.

I've never had any issues with it before, and it sure as hell doesn't sound good.

I'm sure I didn't explain this too well, but any of you think you could give me a hand?

(Now, KD, don't take that seriously. We don't need to change it to "I can count to 5," do we?

)

joecoolfreak · 05-03-2006, 08:46 PM

Yes, it does sound like the hard drive is going. It is still possible that it is something else, but before you do ANYTHING else, I would recommend backing up any important data if it isn't already backed up as you never know how long you may have before it dies.

Pretend · 05-03-2006, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joecoolfreak

Yes, it does sound like the hard drive is going. It is still possible that it is something else, but before you do ANYTHING else, I would recommend backing up any important data if it isn't already backed up as you never know how long you may have before it dies.

Damn, yet another thing to add to my crappy day.

Looks like I get to burn money sooner than I hoped on a new hard drive.

**Zap** · 05-03-2006, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pretend

Damn, yet another thing to add to my crappy day.

Looks like I get to burn money sooner than I hoped on a new hard drive.

Ditto what JCF said.

Look at the bright side... Most times, there is no "backup your stuff NOW!" warning. The drive just dies.

Pretend · 05-03-2006, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zap

Ditto what JCF said.

Look at the bright side... Most times, there is no "backup your stuff NOW!" warning. The drive just dies.

Uh... that's a bright side? How?

Let's hope it doesn't... that's a lot of stuff I CAN'T back up right now. Even if I were to order a new hard drive today I still wouldn't get it for another few days. Bah.

**Zap** · 05-03-2006, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pretend

Uh... that's a bright side? How?

Imagine that the drive decided NOT to tell you it was going to the big motherboard in the sky.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pretend

Let's hope it doesn't... that's a lot of stuff I CAN'T back up right now. Even if I were to order a new hard drive today I still wouldn't get it for another few days. Bah.

Best advice... shut it down until then, if at all possible.

And... BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP.
Don't you have ANY other way to backup your data? CD/DVD? USB Key? External Hard Drive? Something? Anything?

Maybe a friend had some space on an external drive???

joecoolfreak · 05-03-2006, 09:39 PM

Always a good idea to keep the sub away. I would definately do that if the sub isn't shielded as speakers have magnets which are the fastest way to ruin a hard drive. Power spikes or similiar electrical issues could also cause issues with hard drives, so if you get the chance, you might want to test the powersupply with a multi-meter to ensure that your power supply is still regulating power correctly as if it is the ultimate cause of the problem, it could damage other internal equipment as well.

littleFella · 05-03-2006, 09:55 PM

I always tell people: with hard drives it's ot a question IF but WHEN they will fail. Backup regularly, and then backup some more.

**G10** · 05-04-2006, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by littleFella

I always tell people: with hard drives it's ot a question IF but WHEN they will fail. Backup regularly, and then backup some more.

So true dude.

Pretend, most of us have learnt the hard way at one time or another and by you buying another hdd and backing up is definately not the hard way - trust me on that one dude

Buy it - Back up (regularly) - Jobs a good 'un

Pretend · 05-03-2006, 10:07 PM

Thanks for the help guys.

Never had any issues with hard drive failure before, hell, I've got a 2gig from ages ago that I use to back up things occasionally. Still works like a champ.

**Zap** · 05-04-2006, 06:04 AM

Had any luck with getting your hands on some temporary storage?

Or are you going to go the DVD burner route?

Pretend · 05-04-2006, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zap

Had any luck with getting your hands on some temporary storage?

Or are you going to go the DVD burner route?

What do you mean by temporary? Over 100gig of stuff if I want to back it all up. Not seeing what I could use as temporary unless I were to buy a new hard drive anyway.

I think I'm going to go ahead and stop being lazy and burn all the anime, no idea what I'm going to do with all of my pictures and music.

**Zap** · 05-04-2006, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pretend

What do you mean by temporary? Over 100gig of stuff if I want to back it all up. Not seeing what I could use as temporary unless I were to buy a new hard drive anyway.

I think I'm going to go ahead and stop being lazy and burn all the anime, no idea what I'm going to do with all of my pictures and music.

By temporary, I mean, if you had a friend with an external hard drive and an extra 100 GB of space on it, just long enough to copy stuff over, get the new hard drive installed and setup and then copy everything back. It won't solve your backup problem long term, but will ensure the safety of your data while you wait for the new hard drive replacement to arrive.

Long term, though, you should probably be thinking of getting an external drive for yourself to do backups with.

joecoolfreak · 05-04-2006, 09:52 AM

I agree with Zap here. The price of large external drives these days just makes it too easy. You can easily obtain a 100 Gig external for well less than an 100 bucks these days. I have even seen 250 Gig externals for that price on sale in a few places.

Pretend · 05-04-2006, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joecoolfreak

I agree with Zap here. The price of large external drives these days just makes it too easy. You can easily obtain a 100 Gig external for well less than an 100 bucks these days. I have even seen 250 Gig externals for that price on sale in a few places.

I may have to check into tigerdirect and newegg then. That's cheaper than what I was figuring.

Damn, I've been out of the computer world too dang long.

**Zap** · 05-04-2006, 09:58 AM

JCF's right. External hard drives are dirt cheap now and they have so much space on them, it's great for backing up large amounts of data.

Pretend · 05-04-2006, 09:54 AM

Ah, I think I'll just by myself a new harddrive. No friends with an external drive that I could borrow... most of my friends are non-geeky and I'm the one they call for help.

Anyway, I'm just going to not use it as much... well, try to not use it as much, turn it off whenever I'm not on it, etc. and hopefully it'll last long enough to get another one. It should though, like I said, the sounds stopped for the most part.

joecoolfreak · 05-04-2006, 09:59 AM

It would be hard to beat a deal like this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&Sku=TC3T-1006

Pretend · 05-04-2006, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joecoolfreak

It would be hard to beat a deal like this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&Sku=TC3T-1006

Thanks for the link. Unless I find somethin' better I think I'll be buying that here shortly.

**Zap** · 05-04-2006, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joecoolfreak

It would be hard to beat a deal like this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&Sku=TC3T-1006

Nice, and you can always swap out the drive for a larger one later, if necessary.