HDD noises

[MikeTasker]

During the course of last year I had to replace my HDD due to it making funny “whirring” noises, it was a 30Gb Western Digital drive and I replaced it with a 60Gb IBM Deskstar drive.

Over the last week my IBM drive has started making the same noise, at first it was very brief but it has become fairly regular now. I am going to back up my data on the replacement WD drive I was sent but what could cause these HDD problems.

If they were the same make/model I would say it were the batch but two separate drives having the exact same problem, what could be causing it. Would my PSU have anything to do with it? I can’t see it being the motherboard but could it be my power saving settings (I may have disabled them).

Any ideas would be great as I can’t be doing with replacing my HDD every 6 months.

Thanks,
Mike Tasker

 

[gonaads]

Check your Power Supply Unit that might be the problem. But I had a 42GB IBM DeskStar that went bad on me in December, was making whirring noises and clicking noises. Then it wouldn't boot anymore. That was just a bad HD. Do a complete surface scan of the HD in question.

 

[Lonman]

Just the way it goes. Bad luck no doubt. If it were a power issue it would show up in other ways. Get yourself a nice maxtor.

 

[stuy_b]

IBM drives are renouned for going bang!, as Lonman said get ya'self a nice Maxtor or Seagate.

 

[Geffy]

Backup your IBM data, then get the IBM drive Fitness Test, run the test on your PC, do a surface scan, then it will prob find some problems, it will tell you you need to do a complete wipe, do this and chances are your HDD will be back from the Dead. This has happened to my IBM 4 times and it is working fine now after one big scare. I think that some components can undergo the Phoenix Effect, they will appear to Fry, leave them for a day, then stick them back in and go for. This has happened with HDD and CPUs with me. Now both components are increadibly stable.

I do have a Maxtor as a backup as they go bang less often

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Also check your power leads going into the hard drive. Something similar happened to me. I was getting wierd noises from the HD which finally died. All it was was a loose cable connection.
A program called spinrite corrected the bad areas that the fluxuating power caused.

 

[Geffy]

Hipster is SpinRite compatible with XP, I have been thinking about getting it.

 

[Custer]

I've got an old Maxtor 320mb (cutting edge when new) that I've had 8 or 9 years. It's always been noisey as hell but has never failed and is still bumpin' and grinding along today!

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Originally posted by gtgarside
Hipster is SpinRite compatible with XP, I have been thinking about getting it.

Only works with fat/32 not NTFS. If I'm remembering right that is. There are manuals for it that can be downloaded from the site. With the price of hard drives these days spinrite is very pricey. Probably easier & cheaper just to buy a new drive.