Signs Hard Drive is crashing

[tokugawa]

Question to all computer experts. I have a desktop that's almost 6 years old. It's not my primary machine but I normally use it to surf the web and maybe download torrents. Recently I have noticed that it takes forever (up to a 45 seconds) for IE or even Firefox to startup and display the default webpage - google. In some cases IE fails entirely i.e., it can't connect to any page. I would then have to start up IE again and hopefully to get google the second time around.

That being said, do you think this is a sign that my Hard Drive is nearing it's end? What are some sure signs that indicate that the Hard Drive will eventually fail? Any ideas guys?

Also if I have to get a second machine, any recommendations on a cheap desktop? I wouldn't mind doing a dual boot on it with Windows Vista or XP on one partition and Linux on the other. I would like to install Subversion and Application Server on the Linux partition. I don't want to spend too much as my primary machine already has all the bells and whistles.

Thanks.

Tokugawa

 

[Rammstein69]

I'm FAR from a computer expert, but I did have one hd that bit the dust. My symptoms were similar; it seemed to take a lot longer to access info on hd. Mine also started making noises, like a soft scraping sound. This all preluded the eventual total failure. Maybe every case is different, not sure.

 

[Evolve]

When was the last time you wiped the HD and reinstalled Windows? It's worth a try if nothing else has worked (defrag, "disk cleanup" util, etc...)
It's possible the HD is about to fail and the reinstall of Windows is very disk intensive so you will like force a failure if it is going to happen.
Good luck!

 

[FuZzYknUckLeS]

Sounds like an O/S problem to me. You say that the machine is used for mostly internet stuff. After some time goes by, all the crap your PC picks up from all the web stuff you do eventually can slow your machine to a crawl. Spyware is a major speed killer. Like the dude above asks, when is the last time you did a clean install? Dying HD's will also tend to make noise. The last one that died on me gave me plenty of 'click' click' warning before the big death.

 

[tokugawa]

Thanks for all the feedback so far.

I did a fresh install of XP last December. At first everything seemed fine but lately it's been slow. Also I do notice a click click sound sometimes at the beginning when I start up the machine. Anyway, maybe it's time to get a new machine. It's been 6 years so I think I got my money's worth out of this machine.

 

[Bartdude]

Go here and install this - then run it periodically.

http://www.ccleaner.com/download

Run the disk defragmenter for good measure.

 

[mercyshooter]

They all pretty much said what you need to do. Make sure you have anitvirus and anti spyware softwares installed and running under background.
One thing, may I know how big is your RAM?

 

[LightBearer]

This is kind of like that CCleaner. Removes about 2 gigs at a time for me. One time it removed 9 gigs of shit. It's called Clean Up.

http://www.stevengould.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=70

 

[tokugawa]

Go here and install this - then run it periodically.

http://www.ccleaner.com/download

Run the disk defragmenter for good measure.

Thanks for the link. Downloaded it and ran it. Performance seems to have improved slightly but I still find it a bit slow when either IE or Firefox starts up. But then again maybe I am asking too much here. Like I said before the machine is 6 years old. It's a P4 2.66 ghz with 1 GB RAM running with XP service pack 3. Thanks again guys for all of your suggestions.

 

[Stella_Hardon]

Run Belarc Advisor

www.belarc.com

The program does an audit of your system

Relating to hardware it checks to make sure all the windows fixes are installed and it also seems to access the SMART system on the drives

 

[Evolve]

Thanks for the link. Downloaded it and ran it. Performance seems to have improved slightly but I still find it a bit slow when either IE or Firefox starts up. But then again maybe I am asking too much here. Like I said before the machine is 6 years old. It's a P4 2.66 ghz with 1 GB RAM running with XP service pack 3. Thanks again guys for all of your suggestions.

My recommendation: if you are going to buy a pre-built, try to hold out until Windows 7 comes out and then buy a new machine, then you can skip Vista entirely.
At 6 years old, even if the hard drive isn't dying, something is probably going to give soon.

 

[agentman]

On my last PC, just before my HD died there was a grinding noise to it. To extend the life of a HD its good to keep it on standby/sleep mode rather than shutting it off all the time; turning it off damages it.

 

[Banger77]

When the hard drive starts getting bad sectors or unusual sounds (like scratching or drive motor struggling) from normal; is pretty good sign hard drive is going to die. Since this is just a surfing and torrent pc; you don't need anything fast. Why not keep the pc and just pickup a new IDE hard drive instead; $60-$100 from a place like anitec; saves you money for extra poon-tang fun.

 

[jackcb]

Question to all computer experts. I have a desktop that's almost 6 years old. It's not my primary machine but I normally use it to surf the web and maybe download torrents. Recently I have noticed that it takes forever (up to a 45 seconds) for IE or even Firefox to startup and display the default webpage - google. In some cases IE fails entirely i.e., it can't connect to any page. I would then have to start up IE again and hopefully to get google the second time around.

That being said, do you think this is a sign that my Hard Drive is nearing it's end? What are some sure signs that indicate that the Hard Drive will eventually fail? Any ideas guys?

Also if I have to get a second machine, any recommendations on a cheap desktop? I wouldn't mind doing a dual boot on it with Windows Vista or XP on one partition and Linux on the other. I would like to install Subversion and Application Server on the Linux partition. I don't want to spend too much as my primary machine already has all the bells and whistles.

Thanks.

Tokugawa

Most likely its a software problem. Infact, nothing you wrote indicates at all a hardward issue with your hdd. Failing hdd would be causing windows to restart, blue screen errors, unexplained shutdowns. You will notice when an HDD starts to fail...

I would back up any data you can't bare to live without. Being that its just an internet/surfing computer, there might not be much, but some people like pictures or bookmarks saved. Once that is done...just nuke the drive and reinstall windows. You may wanna download drives first though. After 6 years, I tend to lose my driver disks. So make sure you check out which drivers you need, download them to a cd or flash drive and keep them for later.

 

[jackcb]

On my last PC, just before my HD died there was a grinding noise to it. To extend the life of a HD its good to keep it on standby/sleep mode rather than shutting it off all the time; turning it off damages it.

Actually, no it doesn't. If your shutting it down for long periods of time, its actually better to actually shut it down over putting it in sleep mode. But if you are constantly turning it back on or coming back to it after short breaks, sleep mode has the advantages. Sleep mode has more to do with data and power conservation then HDD sustainablilty.

 

[toolong]

use three finger salute

ie task manager and look under process and you see nothing correspond to each you might see something acting up. If something act up google it. if it useful or not and look at see if disk defragmenter is working at that time. You can look at the firewall and set some limit

 

[mercyshooter]

Thanks for the link. Downloaded it and ran it. Performance seems to have improved slightly but I still find it a bit slow when either IE or Firefox starts up. But then again maybe I am asking too much here. Like I said before the machine is 6 years old. It's a P4 2.66 ghz with 1 GB RAM running with XP service pack 3. Thanks again guys for all of your suggestions.

Try 2 GB ram!! And clean up your hard drive!!

 

[lil_dave]

wow, I ended up writing more than I expected.

Tokugawa:
In your case it sounds like you have software problems. Remove any unecessary programs, scan for ad-ware and/or viruses, run a defrag, and best yet doing a clean install of windows should clear things up. A sure sign of a dying HD is when you defrag or run a scandisk there will be damaged sectors shown and each time your scan and/or defrag the number of damaged sectors increase. But that doesn't happen until the very last week of it's life. Your HD will run like normal until that happens and from then on it's a quick downward slope. If you need a quick replacement HD and you're not yet buying a new machine I recommend buying a used, refurbished HD from Cal's on Grandview. They start at around $15 for 80gb. No point buying a new HD for an old machine.

To jc1:
A hard drive should never click. It should have a soft hum.
By the time you hear scratching, clicking noises or other odd noises coming from your HD it's already too late to save all your data since that means the magnetic head has already hard crashed into the medium (that's what the clicking sound comes from). If the boot sector hadn't been wiped from the crash then you could salvage pieces of data onto other mediums (sd card, new HD, etc). But since yours no longer boots you'll have to buy a new hard drive. Plug it in and set your old crashed HD as a slave and try to salvage your data that way.

You can also take the HD to get fixed by a hardware repair professional, but that's costly and only worth it if you have unreplacable data that you are in dire need of. and even after repair it will always a short time before it dies again. Better to scrap it and buy a new one.

anyways,
Jackcb is right. Unless you're turning your computer off and on every half hour, the damage done by turning your computer off and on is trivial.

To extend the life span of your HD, first of all keep it cool. Heat damages all forms of electronics. But then electricity generates heat which is why it's better to keep your computer off if you're leaving it for long periods of time. Get those case fans, and make sure the cables are tidy and proper airflow is allowed.
Second is to keep your HD tidy, which means clean out data, programs, images, music, movies, etc that you don't need and then run that defrag at least every month depending on how heavily your HD is being used. When your data is fragmented all over the disc medium it will need to spin more, and the head needs to move a lot more too. This wears it down quicker.

 

[westcoast555]

It's not necessarily your hard drive.

Question to all computer experts. I have a desktop that's almost 6 years old. It's not my primary machine but I normally use it to surf the web and maybe download torrents. Recently I have noticed that it takes forever (up to a 45 seconds) for IE or even Firefox to startup and display the default webpage - google. In some cases IE fails entirely i.e., it can't connect to any page. I would then have to start up IE again and hopefully to get google the second time around.

That being said, do you think this is a sign that my Hard Drive is nearing it's end? What are some sure signs that indicate that the Hard Drive will eventually fail? Any ideas guys?

Also if I have to get a second machine, any recommendations on a cheap desktop? I wouldn't mind doing a dual boot on it with Windows Vista or XP on one partition and Linux on the other. I would like to install Subversion and Application Server on the Linux partition. I don't want to spend too much as my primary machine already has all the bells and whistles.

Thanks.

Tokugawa

As I think another poster said, you should probably do a reinstall.

Your system is munged up with malware, rootkits, bloated TSRs etc and probably fragmented.

When your hard drive goes you don't get a lot of warnings.. usually some 'bad sector' warnings on boot up, maybe a blue screen of death - and if you hear 'clicking' or scraping - the end is near.

Back your data up and see about doing a reinstall. Or get some utilities like Norton or a reg cleaner and clean up all the crap that's slowing your system down.