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HELP is my hard drive dying?

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by missy77, 2007/07/14.

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  1. 2007/07/14
    missy77

    missy77 Inactive Thread Starter

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    I have a DELL Poweredge 400SC that is 4ish years old. Says its Pentium 4 CPU 2.80 GHz 2.79 GHz, 512 MB of RAM.

    I am hearing a clicking noise, sounds like a an old fashion cash register, like pages turning... click click, AND it has just started to stay "hung up" when I save a file... like it is working real hard! These are new things happening, I think the noise was always like that, but it was one quick click noise before.

    I have many files and family pics that I can not loose! My pics are the biggest concern and they are in a program called FUJI Finepix. I have gotten some loaded to websites and backup on CD, but there is sooo many I havent done yet. I do not know of a way to save everything in my Finepixs, other than opening the pic and saving it to a file, then burning a CD or loading it to a website like Kodak for printing. HELP! How can I save them fast in case this dies on me??? Should I get an external harddrive and get the Finepix software moved onto that? Can I even more the whole software like that? What would I buy for an external?
     
    missy77,
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  2. 2007/07/14
    visionof

    visionof Inactive

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    You can use Norton Ghost to either clone the hard drive or create a ghost backup to clone the drive so to speak
    You would buy a new drive and basically clone the drive
    Threre is a commercial product called spinrite which may be of help
     
    visionof,
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  4. 2007/07/14
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    missy77

    From your description it does sound like your hard drive is failing and urgent action is needed as you appear to have no backup of your personal data, etc.

    You cannot copy programs, etc to another drive and expect them to work, but you can obviously copy all your data files across to, say, an external drive.

    You would find any of the external USB hard drives available on the market to be suitable for this - Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital, etc - choose one with a well known manufacturer's name.

    I am not familiar at all with the Fuji Finepix software, but working on the basis that the software will work in a similar way to Canon software ....

    When you connect the camera to the computer do you get a dialogue asking where you want to download the pictures to - if you have changed nothing here the default location will be shown. Navigate there and copy them off. They may be in the My Pictures folder.

    The pictures are most likely jpegs - a search of the drive for *.jpg should find them.
     
    PeteC,
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  5. 2007/07/14
    missy77

    missy77 Inactive Thread Starter

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    I think it is failing too. When I started it up, it sat at the windows page for a bit and it never does that. It it acting slow at start up. I had to unplug the electric 2x today because it was frozen.

    I haven't turned it off since and it is doing better?????

    OK, well lets see. I back up other stuff in my emails, online. The pics I get printed, I am old fashion. But I have gotten behind in that and have a lot to worry about there. I do not like CD's as they get old and I hear they wont last long. So I do prints and also keep them on the computer. Now the noise has settled down, until I opened finepix again. I think it is working too hard :(

    I was looking at Carbonite storage online, I think I would be happy to know my pics were there, but I need to know it would work. It looks like I can restore to a new computer there too.

    YES!! When I open Finepix, I see my pics by going to file admin, my docs, my pics :D so this means they will backup just fine online to a site like Carbonite right??

    I am getting more uploaded onto Kodak for printing, once they are there and printed I feel OK. But while I do this and clean up the computer... do you suggest I turn this computer off at the end of the day? or leave it on? I usually shut it off at night. It is quiet when I am not doing anything. It seems only to make that noise when I open a program, not while on a website.

    Oh, I have Itunes on here! I bought a lot of song on that? what happens to them?? Is my Ipod my backup for that? Yikes! I wont think about the itunes for my daughter under her name, she has a lot of songs in there that aren't on her Ipod now.

    I do have another computer, a newer one downstairs. But I have 2 hardwired FIOS connections, so I don't have a network for them. Can I do something to work between them to get this data over to that computer?

    Wow I asked a lot :( Sorry!!!
     
    Last edited: 2007/07/14
    missy77,
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  6. 2007/07/14
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    A further explanation of the most likely source of the clicking noises ....

    The noise you are hearing is the hard drive read/write heads travelling across the platters (flat disc(s)) which hold the data. A little clicking is normal - it is the relay which actuates the head movement working and obviously when you call for some data the computer has to find it on the hard drive by referring to the file table on the drive for the address of that data and then going there. Modern hard drives are relatively silent in this respect. If the data cannot immediately be found the heads will search relentlessly across the disk looking for it - hence the enhanced clicking sound you described. This is commonly a sign that the hard drive is failing, but may also be caused by severe fragmentation of the drive - have you defragmented it recently?

    I have no experience of online storage of data preferring to keep everything in house and private and use external USB drives for that purpose. If you are comfortable with online storage then stick with it. I guess that iTunes can be stored online - they are only data files. I am old fashioned, too, in that I do not possess an iPod and my children are long gone and settled in their own homes with wives/partners. No doubt they have iPods as they seem to have phones which do everything except make a cup of tea :)

    There is no great advantage IMO of leaving the computer on 24/7 - wastes power, but I leave mine on all day regardless. The biggest strain on any electrical item is switching on. However, until you resolve this problem it might be advisable to leave it on.

    When opening a program and files associated with it there will be a lot of disk activity as your commands are carried out - on the web disk access is minimal, although temporary internet files and cookies will be written to the disk.

    Networking is outside my field and I have no experience of it at all. Clearly 2 computers can be networked, but it is more usual to have a single internet connection and share it wired or wirelessly. You should post in the Networking forum for guidance on this.
     
    PeteC,
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  7. 2007/07/14
    Whiskeyman Lifetime Subscription

    Whiskeyman Inactive Alumni

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    Missy, even the cheaper brands of CDs will last twenty years or more if properly stored. There are some brands that supposedly will retain your data for a hundred years. The main thing is to place them in a jewel case and keep them from extreme heat, humidity and light.

    http://www.clir.org/PUBS/reports/pub121/sec4.html
     
    Whiskeyman,
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  8. 2007/07/14
    missy77

    missy77 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks for all this! No I haven't de-fraged, in ions!! Wonder if I should try that.

    I am afraid that if I try to back up to CD's, not only will I be here forever, but I will really put the computer to hard use doing it.

    I do pay for just one internet, I just have them hardwired rather than networked. It is fast thats for sure :)
     
    missy77,
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  9. 2007/07/14
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    My advice is not to do that until you have a copy of your data safe elsewhere. defragging really thrashes the drive.
     
    PeteC,
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  10. 2007/07/14
    missy77

    missy77 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Oh no! I am checking in from my other computer. I didnt see this before and I started it 4 1/2 hrs ago, it is at 52% and I am not hearing the noise at all. Should I let it go or stop it? The anaylize does show data from left to right with a lot of space, looks like defrag is much needed. What should I do now? Stop it??
     
    missy77,
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  11. 2007/07/14
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Let it continue :)
     
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  12. 2007/07/14
    missy77

    missy77 Inactive Thread Starter

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    K thanks! I hope it helps!
     
    missy77,
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  13. 2007/07/14
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    BTW - if you ask a question as you did re. defrag, wise to hold on for an answer before committing :)
     
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  14. 2007/07/14
    missy77

    missy77 Inactive Thread Starter

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    True I should of waited.

    Now here is the report from the de-frag, it took 5 hrs, does it tell us anything?


    Volume (C:)
    Volume size = 115 GB
    Cluster size = 4 KB
    Used space = 35.35 GB
    Free space = 79.68 GB
    Percent free space = 69 %

    Volume fragmentation
    Total fragmentation = 0 %
    File fragmentation = 0 %
    Free space fragmentation = 0 %

    File fragmentation
    Total files = 74,243
    Average file size = 618 KB
    Total fragmented files = 2
    Total excess fragments = 28
    Average fragments per file = 1.00

    Pagefile fragmentation
    Pagefile size = 768 MB
    Total fragments = 1

    Folder fragmentation
    Total folders = 8,240
    Fragmented folders = 1
    Excess folder fragments = 0

    Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
    Total MFT size = 96 MB
    MFT record count = 82,960
    Percent MFT in use = 84 %
    Total MFT fragments = 3

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Fragments File Size Files that cannot be defragmented
    None
     
    missy77,
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  15. 2007/07/14
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Well, it tells us that the drive is no longer fragmented :)

    Do you still hear the same sounds as described in your first post?
     
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  16. 2007/07/14
    missy77

    missy77 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Yep. I it hung up again and was clicking again. Its doing it now and this is the only window I have up :) . I am off to carbonite.com to get this backed up asap.
     
    missy77,
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  17. 2007/07/15
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    I think imminent hard drive failure is the only possibility here - do hope you get your data backed up successfully before the inevitable happens.
     
    PeteC,
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  18. 2007/07/15
    missy77

    missy77 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Like I said the main thing I need is my pics. I have been doing carbonite since last night and it is not making the noise :) but it is ruuning backup and will takes days to complete. It is 9% and been 10 hrs.
     
    missy77,
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  19. 2007/07/15
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    That seems remarkably slow for a DSL connection and 35 GB of data.
     
    PeteC,
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  20. 2007/07/15
    missy77

    missy77 Inactive Thread Starter

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    My FIOS upload is 1486kpbs. But I just got an external and am gonna try that.
     
    missy77,
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  21. 2007/07/15
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Good move :)
     
    PeteC,
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