Need help with something thats none car.. more to do with Computers

[-BraXta-]

ok its not about cars..

more geekier now.. my pc..

Now.. The HDD makes this funny Ting noise..
Like ummm a metal toothpick sized pole bouncing on tin..

And when it happens anything thats being used in conjunction with that Drive... just locks up for 20 secs then works again...

Anyone got any ideas..

I just reakon my HDD is gonna go Pop...

but still i would like some input =D

Thanks =D

[chicaboo]

Errr, do a backup! Maybe you've got issues with the heads not parking on the HDD? Anyhow, if you checked your drive I bet you have squillions of bad sectors on it. But it's not something anyone can diagnose online without mindlessly speculating...
With the price of HDDs now, you can get yourself back on your feet with a nice 80 or 120GB HDD quite cheaply. Seagate are always popular, but I've had failures with Quantum before, so stay away from those. IBM are pretty good too, but they still get the odd failures so I think the Seagate is better value for money and they've been around for ages.
DVD burners are very cheap now also, but I think a dual layer burner is double the price, and the media is very expensive. But you might want to look into that for backing up your goodies just incase. I prefer Pioneer burners, good quality and easily software hackable if you're into that sort of thing. Oh, I think Aopen use pioneer based drives too (well they used to...).
Next tip, if you get a new HDD, that means FDISKing, FORMATing and installing windows again. I suggest installing XP with SP1 and then turning off updates, forget SP2, it has too many conflicts with popular software like Nero Burning Rom, etc... If you are unlucky and have a newish XP disc with SP2 loaded, you might aswell bite the bullet and get the bloody useless crash your system updates...

Gav.

[mrpayner]

Another brand of HDD is Western Digital.. They're nice and quiet [over Seagate - I have a Seagate as my main drive and a WD as my backup] and priced similarly to the Seagate drives.

I agree with Gav in that if your drive is locking up for 10-20 seconds and making that horrible noise then your HDD is on the way out and those bad sectors will only be getting worse.. Please try to backup your most important content straight away..

If you do start with a fresh install of WinXP, try to get your hands on a copy with Service Pack 1A slipped into it [SP1A has a few extra things that SP1 doesn't]. And please ensure that you format your new drive using the NTFS file system rather than FAT32. Too many times lately have i seen WinXP running on FAT32 and i just shake my head because when i ask who installed it.. "oh i took it to a computer shop..". Basically your WinXP install wil run better using NTFS.

If you have a computer market that runs every month near your joint, these places are good for picking up bargains. I got my 120GB Western Digital [8MB buffer] at a PC market for about $140.. lpus if you get yourself a DVD burner as well, there are usually vendors there that sell DVD media in spindles that are so much cheaper than buying from a retailer. I buy spindles of 50 Princo 4x DVD-Rs for $17.. Super cheap for reliable media.

Good luck and hope everything goes well for you..

Cheers
Adam

[MeFo]

I'll agree with Adam and Gav on this one... Back up your stuff asap. I'd strongly recommend Western Digital as a reputable brand. As for pricing on Dual Layer DVD Burners, you can pick them up for $99. I think my top of the line pioneer only cost me $120. Oh, and definately choose NTFS! Things will be more stable!

[andrewgrazier]

haha yeah sounds rooted, or if not its gonna be real soon! once they start makin that noise they dont get better, only worse

[woofy]

where do you live in melb there are markets every weekend....and the comp shop up the road has Dual layer drives for about $100..i bought the NEC dual layer +-DL not that long ago....WD are definately recommended..i had a quantum (now Maxtor) drive fail...although it was still under warrenty (most are 5 yrs) but by then they just pay you what they think its worth. I got dual WD 160G (8MB) drives running on serial ATA.....XP SP2 is ok nowadays never had any conflicts with it.

[andrewgrazier]

yea even new maxtor drives are crap same witth samsung drives too. its either seagate or WD. yeah possible to get dvd burners for round $90 now. but remmeber
dual layer dosent really mean ****, unless you wanna pay $20 a disc or somthing, ja end up only usin like 4x princo dvds anywas!

[chicaboo]

Hehe, I forgot all about Western Digital, I spose they are Seagates longest running competitor for the last 20 years! I have so many fans in my system I can't hear the HDDs in the first place... All good suggestions there Andrew, good luck with all that!

Adam, I'm not sure if my update pack is SP1 or SP1A, does it show up under system properties or do I have to look further? What's the difference too?

[MrShadow]

We use Seagte or WD if we can't get Seagate at work. They even power our own systems. Nothing but praise for either of these two brands. If you can, try and get 7200 RPM with 8mb cache.

As for formatting WinXP with HTFS... we don't. If **** goes pear shaped, it's easier to recover FAT32 using good-ol DOS utilities. Besides, it's easy to convert to NTFS if it's required.

[woofy]

dual layer disks are $9 at the shop up the road for....mitsubishi and some other reliable brand i can't think of...our backups at work were done using princo...and most are dead now....never again..it took me 2 yrs to tell my boss to stop using them...too late unfortunately.

[woofy]

having said that I've only used single layer at the moment...

[mrpayner]

Originally Posted by chicaboo

Adam, I'm not sure if my update pack is SP1 or SP1A, does it show up under system properties or do I have to look further? What's the difference too?

Good question Gav.. I really don't know the difference however i've heard that it has revised security holes that have been plugged. I have an initial release of WinXP Pro so i downloaded the SP1a pack from the mircosoft website and ripped my XP cd to the HDD.. There are instructions on the web somewhere which inform you on how to "slipstream" [as it's called] the SP1a into the cd. All you have to do then is make and ISO and burn it back to CD.. I'm just glad it worked for me the first time and i didn't have any hassles with it. Under my system properties it only says Service Pack 1.

Originally Posted by Woofy

dual layer disks are $9 at the shop up the road for....mitsubishi and some other reliable brand i can't think of

Don't forget that the cost of Dual Layer media will come down with market saturation.. anyone remember how much CD-R's were when they first came out? I do!

AP

[woofy]

yeah remember paying someone 15 for a copy of their cd....but it was still better than $30 for the real one. Can't believe DVD-Rs are below $1 each now..about $30 for 50

[chicaboo]

Ahem, when you say "copy" I'm sure you mean "legitimately backup"!

[woofy]

um yes i was just storing that backup at my place in case his burnt down...still got it down here just in case

[woofy]

having said that i remember when you were allowed to install a copy of office on two computers (home/office or laptop) and the same with windows.....that was before "this copy will self destruct" versions of XP OS and Office

[chicaboo]

Yeah, I think they should allow multiple installs for SOHO without an extended site licence!

[MrShadow]

Well, some MS products do allow you to do just that, I can't remember which ones though!

[mrpayner]

Originally Posted by woofy

that was before "this copy will self destruct" versions of XP OS and Office

What's this about? I've never heard about this situation..

Cheers
Adam

[-BraXta-]

thanks for the reply.. but you guys went way off topic =P

lol

Yeh ill get gettin a SATA drive soon... and yeh western digital... im thinking more 200 gig.. but not sure =P
lol

Also gonna get 1 gig stick of PC400 ram DDR ..

and a nice ATI Radeon Vid card =P