HDD Squeals More Than My Brother

[xRyokenx]

I have this 200GB Maxtor HDD and I was playing Fury, which takes a toll on my PC apparently, and it started squealing constantly until I turned off the computer... it squeaked a little bit about six months ago or so and then stopped. It's also been taking about five to ten minutes to boot up. I'm figuring I need to replace this sumbitch, but want a final word from you guys before I go spending money I don't have.

-Anthony

[XcOM]

does it squeel from startup,

If so, remove parts one at a time till you find the item squeeling,

[xRyokenx]

No, it doesn't squeal from startup... it's just been getting slower and slower to boot this machine up. I pressed my ear against the case and it was coming from where the HDD was, as it was working really hard to work that game... the fact I have 1gb of RAM probably helped, Fury looks like it really needs a lot of memory to run it.

[XcOM]

i would recommend that you strip all data you wish to keep off your hard rive, then peform a full format, if possable a low level format (This may take AGES)

This might fix it as your hard rive may be trying to find data or just needs a reformat, they do somtimes, very rare but it does happen, then see if that fixes it.

[xRyokenx]

I think I'ma save up a little and order a new HDD... a SATA one this time, and just clone it with Acronys.

[Crazy Buddhist]

Tech republic Hard Disk Health Resources

I would pick a utility from that lot (the one on the bottom of the page looks good).

See if it says your disk is failing (it sounds like it - how old is the disk?)

Backup data you want as XcOM rightly points out - maybe even before running the disk checker. If the utility says its failing you might get a little more life from it with a reformat but it sounds to me like the bearings are going and you face imminent disk failure.

[Airbozo]

Squealing disk = loss of data and failure in the NEAR future. Replace it as soon as you can.

BTW: The squealing is from either the motor or bearing.

[Spawn-Inc]

is there a fan near by thats old? perhaps the video card fan?

[xRyokenx]

No old fans, they're all new. This drive is like a year and a half old, like a Maxtor (Kevin says that's the problem), so I'll look into getting a new one. I have an external drive I think I can back it up with and I'll do that real quick. If this thing dies, there's gonna be more squealing coming from me than my bro and that drive put together. It only squealed that one time... but I do plan on replacing it.

[Crazy Buddhist]

sorry whoever Kevin is hes talking BS - there is nothing wrong with Maxtor - run a disk check like I said - you may have got a bad one or someone in shipping mishandled it and damaged the bearings - which could happen from ANY manufacturer. Or it might be OK. If it has died after a year and a half send it to Maxtor (AKA Seagate) and they will probably replace it.

RUN A DISK CHECK AND SEE DUDE !!!!!

No old fans, they're all new. This drive is like a year and a half old, like a Maxtor (Kevin says that's the problem), so I'll look into getting a new one. I have an external drive I think I can back it up with and I'll do that real quick. If this thing dies, there's gonna be more squealing coming from me than my bro and that drive put together. It only squealed that one time... but I do plan on replacing it.