Maxtor 40G grinds all the time

Hi Everyone!
I'm knew to the forum and glad to be here.
I was wondering if anyone knows why my hardrive makes that grinding noise?
Everything on my system is pretty well tuned.

I really hate that noise!

Eddie

 

If it is a grinding as you say. And it really is coming from the HD then you better get a full verified backup now.

This drive should be mostly silent but give a soft purring when accessing. A few subdued clicks during intense access.

Get the back up and contact Mfg!

Mike

 

Yes thanks for the immediate reply!
It is a relatively new hardrive with only about 8gigs of info on it.
Yes most of time it is just a few clicks type of "purring "
It is most prvelant when loading onto the net.

The more I fine-tune the OS, the nicer it gets.

Any suggestions?

Eddie

 

OK!

Wait now, you said like it was all the time.

Forget what I said.

Being new and almost empty dosen't count. I have took bad new ones out of the box.

Well it is good to have a backup.

Better give more details about this happening "only or mostly" when you get on the net!

Have you done a thourough clean of temps?

Same for Spy/Aware?

Mike

 

Yes I maintenace wizard all the time.
In fact it runs a little faster and quieter, if its a little "dirty "
History is removed after one day.
Virtual memory is set at 190 and 190, this seems pretty optimal for 383mgs of 133 infineon. I played with it at 180 and 180 all the way up to 207 and 207, but it acted like it wanted to jump out me and punch me in the nose!
All of startup in msconfig is minimal.
User resources are at 92% just sitting there. Goe's as low as 52% on AOL DSL. Right now at System:57% User:60%
Sometimes the Cursor arrow blinks. Will consider moving Virtual Memory down to 187.

Once again many thanks!
Eddie

 

If this is 98se you would be better to let 98 handle it. Put it on another partition if possible.

Do the following deep clean then run the SpyBot and Adaware programs then see if it helps!

Configure CleanMgr to max settings
Go to Start-Run and type

cleanmgr /sageset:1
The above need only be ran once (these settings will be remembered as the default until another sageset is ran).

It will present a menu select all except compress, then

Go to Start-Run and type

cleanmgr /sagerun:1
As long as /sageset above has been ran on this computer from now on the /sagerun is the only thing that needs to run.
____________________________________________

Cleanups
These are for 95 98 ME only!

Boot to DOS (not shutdown to DOS). While booting hit F8 to startup menu. Chose "command prompt only ".

After downloading this to your HD execute it with a floppy in drive a: and it will produce the disk. Make the disk and boot from it!

Type these commands exactly hit enter at the end (do not type the notes that are in parenthesis like this).

del c:\*.swp (may get file not found, is ok)
del c:\windows\*.swp

Note if you have moved the swap file to another drive then do the above for that drive (del d:\*.swp).

deltree c:\windows\shelli*.*
deltree c:\windows\temp\*.*
(answer yes to all) "ALL "
deltree c:\windows\tempor~1\*.*
deltree c:\windows\history\*.*
deltree c:\windows\spool\printers\*.*

Hit CTRL ALT DEL to reboot the computer.


After booting back to Windows at first opportunity a scan & defrag.

Spyware and adware removal

SpyBot http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download
Run this twice delete all it finds, "ALWAYS" run this before AdAware.
Leave all it wants to leave after the second run.

AdAware 6.0 http://www.lavasoft.de/
Run only after SpyBot!
Make sure to configure to Max settings, all files and compressed files.Delete all it finds

BHO Demon http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm
A BHO is like a autostart/startup that only runs when you run the Browser.

This program runs stand alone no install is required post me the items it finds other than the below. Normal entries here would be Acrobat Reader or Norton Anti virus.

Mike

 

Yes nice, real nice!

Did everything except DOS operation because I can't get there.

This is a Gateway E-3400 (Soon going to P4 2.0GHZ 512 DDR) and for some reason I and MS Tech are unable to bypass Gateway Boot Screen no matter what we do.
I am unable to get to DOS.SYS also. I've clicked off all the Hidden, Attribute and Archives in properties and still no Notepad.
(I had been trying to speed up boot a bit as thier is a loading hesitation). Shutdown is fine.

We are at purring I guess, though I can't see why it can be totally quiet.

Please post any furtherences that you can think of.

Many Thanks!
Eddie

 

Are you saying that the grinding is gone? Now only the purring and soft clicks?

If so this is normal.

There are 2 reasons you may hear this so well.

1. You have a very quite power supply fan (a normal noisy fan will cover up some HD noise).

2. Some computer cases allow more noise to escape.

I personally want to hear it a little. I have found problems on computers that I heard accessing when they were not supposed to be.

To get to DOS, normally!

1. hit the F8 key repeatedly quickly as soon as computer is powered on.

2. or hold ctrl key down during same process.

If neither of these work then

format a floppy with system.

boot to a:

type these commands (slightly diffferent) for the deltree

del c:\*.swp (may get file not found, is ok)
del c:\windows\*.swp


c:\windows\command\deltree c:\windows\shelli*.*
c:\windows\command\deltree c:\windows\temp\*.* (answer yes to all) "ALL "

c:\windows\command\deltree c:\windows\tempor~1\*.*
c:\windows\command\deltree c:\windows\history\*.*
c:\windows\command\deltree c:\windows\spool\printers\*.*

Note these commands are the only way to clear the swap file and the index.dat files.

Mike

 

Right now its running at a blistering pace!
Almost frightening!

Its as if its a 3.5 ghz p4!

Yes I like a little noise to let me know its still alive.
However there is barely a crackle out of it!

Nice! Real Nice!

Let me try the boot disk and get back to you!
Tweak 3D says messing with swap files is a type of clocking.

Eddie

 

Forget the tweak 3d

I been as you say "messing with swap files" for many years a lot longer than tweak 3d has been around!!

Mike

Do this last step and leave it alone!