Speaking of funny sounds...

[MrsBlue]

<font color="blue">... my hard drive makes this sawing sound every so often. Sometimes when it's booting, sometimes later on. Usually it does it two or three times, last about one or two seconds each. I swear that's what comes to mind when it happens, something sawing back and forth.

Any idea what it might be and whether it's a problem? </font>

[j-kid]

Re: Speaking of funny sounds...

Do you have a floppy drive in your PC?

[MrsBlue]

Re: Speaking of funny sounds...

<font color="blue">Yes, but I never use it. It doesn't sound like the sound when it's trying to access the A drive. It's a much harsher grating sound. </font>

[Rebycman]

Re: Speaking of funny sounds...

How old is the hard drive? You sure its the hard drive that's making this sound? If it is the hard drive I'd get any data that I plan on keeping backed up off that drive. When drives start making lots of wonky sounds it usually means the drive is about to fail. Once it goes getting data off the drive can be a pain so this is something you'll want to deal with sooner rather than later.

If it is the hard drive you can just replace the drive but you will have to have the OS reinstalled. If you have an original windows CD this isnt a big deal but if you bought it OEM (pre-installed) you will probably have to buy Windows XP home (~$100.00). After the reinstall its just a matter of replacing your backup data and off ya go.

[img]/forums/images/graemlins/70394-bawlout.gif[/img]

-Reby

[j-kid]

Re: Speaking of funny sounds...

If it is OEM, she can also make an image of the C-drive and just use that instead. Re-format the existing drive first and then re-install the image to see if the problem goes away. If not, as Reby says, may be time to start looking for a replacement HD.

[MrsBlue]

Re: Speaking of funny sounds...

<font color="blue">No Reby, I'm not entirely sure it's the hard drive, I just assume that it is. It seems to make that sound kind or randomly. Sometimes when booting, sometimes when using a lot of things at the same time, I don't know. I guess I need to track that better. Something that occurred is that it may be one of the optical drives, like something might be stuck in there, but that doesn't make sense to me because the dvd-r plays with no problem. Haven't used the burn drive lately, I don't think.

I did buy the PC with the OS pre-installed, but I have the installation disks. I believe. Other than an external hard drive, which I haven't gotten around to purchasing yet, how would you recommend backing up the data? Aren't there web sites that offer data backup? Oh yeah, and the hard drive is about 2 1/2 years old. </font>

[MrsBlue]

Re: Speaking of funny sounds...

[ QUOTE ]
If it is OEM, she can also make an image of the C-drive and just use that instead. Re-format the existing drive first and then re-install the image to see if the problem goes away. If not, as Reby says, may be time to start looking for a replacement HD.

[/ QUOTE ] <font color="blue"> What do you mean, an image? How's that work?</font>

[j-kid]

Re: Speaking of funny sounds...

It work by taking a snap shot of every thing on your hard drive partition (kina kika a back up snap-shot), that you can use to replace and recover from any data or system mishaps. its the best thing since s.........well,.....at least since slice-bread anyhow. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]