My Hard Drive has begun to whine more often and louder.

[NeoGothicDruidicCowb]

My HD has been starting to whine(or whistle) steadily more often and louder, sometimes at a pitch that's kind of painful onm the ears. At the sametime my screen will freeze up but I'll still be able to move the mouse button but if I try to preform an action it freezes the cursor too momentarily. Is this a sign that my HD is burning out? Or is there another(and maybe easier to handle) reason this is happening?
My HD is a 10GB...coincidently the company that assembled this monstrosity doesn't mention what kind it is.....I just know it's not a SCSI drive. (actually I was hoping to get you specs in case that would help but the assembly sheet is most unhelpful). Anyway, any ideas?

 

[Accessdabbler]

Are you sure it's the HD and not a fan?

 

[meastaugh1]

Bearing in mind that anything with moving parts can make strange and annoying sounds, but it does sound like your HDD is dieing.

It might be worth taking the cover off the case and waiting for it to start making the same noise... sometimes it can be something as simple as the IDE cable touching the fan.

It's probably a good idea to backup (if you have the means), or buy a new hard drive now, rather than waiting for it to die.

 

[ANFPS26]

It could be the CPU fan. If it slows down or stops from bad bearings (noise) it can overheat the CPU causing your PC to "freeze". Jim

Please come back and let us know if your
problem is fixed and what fixed it!!

 

[NeoGothicDruidicCowb]

Well.........starting this morning I can no longer d/l or save anything from online without it freezing up and if I prompt it the whining grows steadily louder until it's unbearable not to mention it makes sounds similar to someone clearing their throat.(maybe it has a cold ).
It also sounds like a portable vacuum cleaner when you start it up. You know, the ones that are supposed to be quiet. Anyway, I'll try opening it up and watching it. Maybe I can watch malfunction and figure out what to do with it. It'd be nice if it was just a wire. As for overheating.....in this room? (Ahahahahahaha) It's the coldest room is the house...I prob don't even need a comp. fan with the temp in this room.(well at least in the winter and the wind....insulated but has no heat register) So, I'll try those ideas and get back to you. Thanks.

 

[jdunderhill]

Is it a larger than a normal drive roughly the size of a CD ROM drive?, I have a spare Quantum Bigfoot drive that makes a noise like a Vacuum Cleaner. It is an unusual looking Hard drive.

Like everyone said, try to get info on the drive, maybe by taking it out of the case, you could try it in another PC to see whether it still makes the high pitch noises and see whether you get freezes on another system.

If it is an unbearable noise, chances are that its gonna be pretty hard to fix so purchase a new one from which you will benefit with a quieter drive and higfher capacity for storage and put an operating system on it and then set up the whining drive to slave and copy important files over to the new one or you could do a clone onto the new, entirely your choice

Let us know ho you get on with that

Jamie

 

[NeoGothicDruidicCowb]

Well, we took a look at it and there was some dust clogging a Few places so we cleared that. It no longer freezes but it is still a little noisy but the unbearable whining is gone(thank god). The only current problem is that it's SLOW. VERY SLOW. It takes ages to load anything large especially if you're going online simultaneously or right after/before. Other than that it's just dandy. Hopefully I'll get a new HD before this one does go, need a bigger one anyway as I'm almost out of space.
Thanks for your help....I'll let you know how everything else works out.

 

[lewat]

I agree with your checking your cooling fans for theCPU and cabinet.
Clean and or replace as you see fit.

Also Klez virus can cause the same symptons. Espcially if it has written itself into .exe file.

Also harddrives do have bearings --so your noise is not inconsistent with failure. Plus 10gigs were not the strongest drives-8.4's and 13's were better.