why is my hard drive making lots of noise?

Question

My hard drive is making unnecessary noises even when I'm not using it?

Answer 1

Your always using a hard drive. Unless you are running windows vista and have a ready drive....

But I know what you mean. Normal the hard drive should not be stressed unless your running a more power task.

Open the task manager and see if any program is running the in background that you may not know about. Hard drives can do this if they have to much data on them , or spy ware, ad ware, virues , or need to be defraged.

Note: There could be a chance that something bad chould happen like the hard drive might die so perhaps you might want to back some things up. But there is a good chance you need to make more room on your PC and defrag the hard drive.

Answer 2

Your hard drive is made up of several rotating, magnetized disks, that look like cd's, and store data. The noise is usually the spinning of the disks in the drive. Even when you're not opening a file, your computer is still processing programs in the background, causing the disks to keep spinning. When you open a large file, the noise usually gets louder, as the drive reads the information stored on the disk. Remember, basic hard drives spin at about 4800 RPM. That means that the internal disks may spin in a revolution 4800 a minute, so you should expect some kind of noise. Like the others say, if there is unnecessary noise, you might need to backup your files just in case. Using task manager can help you determine if there is a problem. If you see that there arent many large proceeses running, but there is alot of noise, you may have a problem.

Answer 3

Modern operating systems are much larger than can fit in RAM and one way they solve this problem is to break it down into what they call pages and swap them in and out between RAM (where they can operate) and the hard disk. Now when the hard disk has a health junk of free space this is fine and you get the behaviour you are expecting. That is the more you work the more the hard disk works and the more noise you get. However, when you are running extremely low on disk space the operating system starts to swap pages between RAM and the hard disk at an increased rate just to get the slightest bit of work done. Very often this would be the operating system's own tasks and not neceeeasily you doing something. I suspect that the reason for your increased hard disk noise is that your hard disk may be getting full. Delete some stuff to create some free space, defrag your hard disk and you should be OK.

Answer 4

Uh oh!

First, consider the temperatures you have subjected your PC to. Is the room too hot? Make sure the room you keep your PC in is not too hot, this can kill your hard drive. I've done that a couple of times, because I cannot stand to be cold. I've learned my lesson and I've chosen to freeze.

Second, check what is running at the time the noise occurs. Assuming you're using WinXP do a CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the task manager. I've provided a link to a page that has towards its bottom a list of common processes that one may find running in Task Manager.

The purpose of this link is to help you identify what should and what should not be running. However, be careful because you might have programs running that you want to be running. A good rule of thumb for working with Task Manager is don't End Process on any of the programs that show up under Username as "System" or "Local Service" or "Network Service."

Before ending process on anything you find there, do a search for the Image name online. For instance, I looked up "svchost.exe" on Yahoo's search engine and got the link I've provided below. This site will help you decide whether a process is legit or not.

I generally disallow any program I place on my PC to start up when I turn it on. You usually can go into the prefences or options menu on many programs and take them out of start-up. Assuming you use broadband internet (dsl, cable) it would be wise to make sure not many of these programs are still running after you have used them.

There are many other reasons why this noise may happen, if it occurs with slow performance you might have too many programs loaded in Startup. The second link I've provided explains how to use MSCONFIG and edit startup items with it.

I hope this helps, but if it is an absolute hardware issue, I'm afraid I'm not of much use. I just know you have to keep the PC in a cool and well-ventilated area and avoid smoking around at all costs.

Answer 5

9.9 times out of 10, if there is ANY kind of noise from your hard drive, especially sounds like grinding or clicking, then the drive is going bad and it WILL NOT get better.

Back it up as soon as you are done reading this.

Then get another drive. Prices are cheap nowadays, and installation is a snap.

You can find great values by using the link below.

I hope this helps.

Hey, did you back up yet!!!! : )

Answer 6

when you say noises do you mean clicking sounds or high pitched squeaking , if its the former then this could be normal even when you are not using it ( check task manager to see whats running in the background) if its the latter then its a possibility that your h drive is worn .

Answer 7

it may not be your hard drive... could be one of your fans try cleaning them... even the one in the power supply I bet they have not be cleaned out in years..

if it is your hard drive the the plat bearings are going so now would be the time to get all your files off the drive before it does go down..

go to the manufactures web site and ask support what you can do about it

Answer 8

your computer needs cleaning up

defrag the harddrive
go to download.com and get startup inspector
and a registry cleaner

remove the little programs that you do not need
they run all the time and slow down your computer and use the harddrive

Answer 9

it could be the fan trying to cool it down make sure you haven't got anything covering or sitting on the hard drive.....

Answer 10

time to back up the stuff you want and buy a new drive limeboy