Hard drive going to fail?

[greenslime89]

Okay so I started my computer today and heard this horrible whirring/grinding noise. I switched it off ASAP and opened one of the side panels. Switched it on again and the noise wasn't being made and all the fans seemed to be turning freely. I took it to a local PC repair shop where the guy had a look at it. He couldn't get it to make the noise so suggested it was maybe a wire resting on one of the fans and being hit, thus making the noise. I've just switched it on and the noise was there again, and I had the monitor on. It said something about no internal storage found. So I switched it off and back on again. No noise was made, booted up fine.

 

From my limited understanding (and googling) it might indicate a faulty hard drive. So I have a few questions.

 

1. Is it the hard drive that's causing the problem?

2. How can I back up the hard drive and put it onto a new one? I have a 1TB and a 500GB external HD if that's of any use.

3. How cheap is it to get a new internal HD and what type do I need? I have this computer: http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/pc/PQD5002.htm

4. Do you have any other advice/ideas about this problem?

 

Let me know if you need any more information about my PC or its problems to help me out.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Incidentally, Windows 7 is installed (not Vista as the link suggests) I have the install disk for that.

[Sudn_Death]

1. I don't know it really could be anything but I can give you a link to this program: http://www.hdtune.com/

 

Download it, install it and run the Health & Error Scan tests also benchmark and that should let you know if there is a problem with your hard drive.

 

2. Easy, you could use a hard drive mirroring program.. but I have copied a whole hard drive onto another one just by having them both plugged in on the pc highlighting everything and pasting it on the new hdd, not sure if there are risks to that method though.. I assume there is a reason there is HDD Mirroring software out there.

 

3. You need a SATA II hard drive, they are normally much cheaper than external hard drives (per GB) and I recommend you get yourself a: Western Digital 500GB Caviar Black SATA II hard drive, you should be able to find one easily online.. I don't know any Scottish computer tech stores though so you will have to find that yourself :rolleyes:

 

4. Yes back to number one, download and install HDTune, should check your hard drive for you.

 

 

Good luck!

 

Edit: Had a look and found a site that delivers to Scotland, they look pretty good here are the HDD links:

 

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=330259&CatId=3097 - 500GB HDD is what you have in your computer ATM.

 

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=439720&CatId=3097 - 1TB (1000GB) HDD they are pretty cheap so if you wanted to double your space you could get this.

 

Hopefully you won't even need to buy another HDD though.