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Thu 12 Jul, 2007 09:58 pm
I think my hard drive is going bad. It started about a month ago. One day it just froze up, and I could hear a short whirring noise that would go for about a second or two, then stop, then after another few seconds it would start making that whirring noise again. it took me about an hour to finally get it to work again.
Now tonight I came home and it was frozen up again and there was that same mechanical whirring noise, like the drive is trying to spin but can't or something. This time I just shut it down for a little while and then restarted, and it was fine.
I really don't know what I'm talking about here though, so I put it to those of you who know computers. What should I do? Is my drive going bad? How do you back up a hard drive? And advice?
Thanks
Computers, like all gods creatures, get old and die. When was the last time you bought a new computer? Yours sounds pretty arthritic Kicky.
It's not that old. I've had it for about three years. I think I might have messed it up by leaving it on all the time. How often should laptops be turned off?
Aren't there companies that buy and refurbish computers for resale? Could I sell it on e-bay? Could I just swap out the hard drive? How much do you think that might cost?
Re: My laptop is making a funny noise.
The first thing you have to ascertain is if it's a cooling fan or the HD. There are lots of BU hardware software combos that use an external drive via USB. There are essentially two main ways to backup one would use Ghost or Drive Image and you would in essence have a complete snapshot of the entire HD, and the other way would be any number of backup applications or simply drag and drop to provide specific file(s) backup.
kickycan wrote:How often should laptops be turned off?
If you are going to leave your notebook on for extended intervals I suggest you set it to hibernate after some period.
kickycan wrote:Could I just swap out the hard drive? How much do you think that might cost?
Replacing the HD is cheap and easy, it can be done by anyone with a modicum of computer savvy, I suggest you go for at least a 100 gig HD.
Definitely make a backup.
Try removing any CD or DVD you have in the machine. I've seen machines lock up while trying to read a bad DVD.
Thanks guys. Nope, Drewdad, there is no disk in the drive, but it started happening coincidentally right after I'd burned all my CDs (at least three hundred CDs or so) to my iPod. Maybe doing all that gruntwork for a couple weeks all at once could have been too much for it?
Chumly, yeah, I've heard of Drive Image before, so I guess that's what I'll do.
Back up everything you don't want to lose !
It sounds to me like your drive is dying.
Copy all your stuff on a USB drive or back it up to CDs.
Then you can get the laptop drive replaced.
Chumly may have hit it.
Common aging laptop problem: Your muffin fan may be clogged or going out and the built up heat is shutting everything down. I'd take it to a walk-in service shop for laptops. I got my old SONY VAIO back up and running fine and now I vacuum out and blow out the vents for the muffin fan religiously. About $ 300.00 in service and materials.
If you've got the power settings on default, BTW, the display should shut down and it should go into stand by mode pretty quickly. After about an hour, the hard drive should shut down and you have to boot up again.
Yep I just cleaned all my machines, I have an air compressor with a 100' hose etc. And right you are about stand by / hibernate.
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