HELP is my hard drive dying?

Yep and thanks for taking the time with me on this. I found out I am a little smarter than I thought as my daughter told me I did put all our last trips 800 pics on her computer too. So I knew I needed backup for those. The other important ones all printed so I can relax a bit now.

This seems to be going a lot faster! And it seems to be nice and quiet now, so I think I may just get what I need on that new drive. Easy as copy/paste!! I was looking for a software for the new drive, but it doesn't need it from what I can tell. I got a Western Digital Essential Edition 160 GB for $79 at Best Buy. Wasn't looking for a deal so much as looking to get this done. Hope I did OK.

 

Ok it says it is

Disk Device Physical Info:
Manufacturer IBM
Hard Disk Family Deskstar 120GXP
Family Code Name Vancouver
Form Factor 3.5 "
Formatted Capacity 120 GB
Disks 3
Recording Surfaces 6
Physical Dimensions 146.0 x 101.6 x 25.4 mm
Max. Weight 590 g
Average Rotational Latency 4.17 ms
Rotational Speed 7200 RPM
Max. Internal Data Rate 592 Mbit/s
Average Seek 8.5 ms
Track-To-Track Seek 1.1 ms
Full Seek 15 ms
Interface Ultra-ATA/100
Buffer-to-Host Data Rate 100 MB/s
Buffer Size 2 MB

Device Manufacturer:
Company Name Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
Product Information http://www.hgst.com/products

Two device manufacturers, So should I go to IMB or Hitachi???

And since I have left this computer on since Sunday, it hasn't made the noise once It has been totally quiet. I guess I should shut it off and see if it does it again or not. I do have everything I need on my Ex drive, so it is safe now.

Also, how much to replace this hard drive with the same it had?

 

I have a CD that says Operating System, reinstallation CS windows XP home Edition including Service Pack1a. Also one that system support Bootable CD.

I have worked on my computer before a bit, I would hope I could follow direction to change a drive and not have to pay for that to be done. So looking forward to the help.

I am also going to buy a laptop... but that is another thread.

 

Hi Pete and missy,

The XP re installation disc should work on a new HD. The disc is branded - will only work on a Dell system.

It is the full OS.

 

Thanks to you both!

 

OK I haven't had a moment to look at the computer... but took time now when I turn it on, it goes to a screen that says... "black with the words, strike F1 to retry beet, F2 for setup utility" is this the end???

I do get get dell screen fist, BIOS revision A04 with the load bar first.

Thanks. Just need to know if I can boot it up some other way... or if this is it.

 

I have a Dell as well and always have been satisfied with it.
To make a long story short, it's time for a new computer. They cost MUCH LESS than they did "4ish" years ago. That is MY opinion. It beats the "you know what" you'll get with trying all these "solutions" Your hard drive is worn out and tired.....ALSO, for in the future, you really should schedule a defrag to run AT LEAST once a month.

 

Thanks! I clean a lot, but never defrag'd since I was told years ago it wasn't good. I bet it was situational that it wasn't good back then, but unfortunalty it stuck with me not to do it

I did buy a laptop already Just getting used to it! But I also am just trying to figure out what to do with this desktop. I sooo loved my desktop

 

Thanks! Will try this next!

 

Thanks everyone for the help so far. I have had to have emergency surgery, so I cant move around enough to play with the computer yet. I will be trying to see what I can do when I am mobile again. So... I'll be back

 

Finally am back!! Thanks everyone for your kind words.

OK so I tried to reboot by F8 says:

Dell System Poweredge 400SC
BIOS version A04

keyboard failure

I tried cd Rom boootable disk:

results to the best I could catch them

Auto-booting
boot:
loading SA.1.....
SA.2....... ready
uncompressing Linux OK booting the Kernel

then I got a fast flashing screen, hard to read anything that fast... but saw:

EE no device found
fatal server error
no screens found


then I tried F12 I think: I know I got to the set up ulility screen. I went to drive config:

Diskette drive A 3.5, 1.44MB
SATA primary drive OFF
SATA secondary drive OFF
Primary master drive- unknown device
Primary slave drive- OFF

Secondary master drive- CD-Rom device
Secondary slave drive- OFF

IDE Drive UDMA- ON



I have no idea if any of this helps. Any suggestions from here would be appreciated.

 

Hard drive dying

I used to back up my hard drive with a second hard drive that I locked into a portable slot installed in my computer (though it could be done with regular cables) and removed when I wasn't backing up. I basically transferred my whole hard drive (except the swap file) from my main hard drive to the back up hard drive. Then if I wanted to put the back up hard drive into the computer as the main hard drive I would put the new hard drive in place and boot from a fresh system disk and type in A:\sys c: to restore the system files to the new hard drive. Of course I had to be sure the bios recognized the different hard drives along the way. It worked very well a couple of times when I had different hard drive problems. But it was Win 98. I haven't done it since I switched to XP a few years back, but there's probably a comparable way to do it. The back up hard drive had everything on it, including all my programs and files and even emails and email addresses, and I couldn't tell the difference between the new hard drive and the old, except that it was working properly.

At this point it may be a moot point since it seems as though Missy77 hasn't visited in a week and her hard drive probably already died.....

 

I am still around lol. I haven't done anything with the old tower. I do have an external i was able to get all my pics and files before it died. Now I have a laptop and am set up. I just have to decide what to do with this old tower. Dump it for good? have a new drive put in? Not sure what to do... any ideas??