Hi all,

I have serious hard drive issues with my pc. i get a screeching sound which is followed by a 'click' and then the screech stops. This happened months ago which I put down to a faulty drive. The thing packed up and i replaced it with a new drive. 6 months later the new drive is doing the same thing which obviously makes me think something else is causing this failure. Does anyone have any ideas?

I wonder whether a faulty psu supplying too much voltage/current is cuasing it to fail, but i'm no techie and this is a wild stab in the dark. Your expert thoughts would be very much appreciated. One other thing i forgot to mention - i get UNSTABLE performance - sometimes the pc refuses to boot up - freezing midway through its start up cycle.


many thanks in advance,
chrisYou don't have any magnets near your PC case, do you? did you have a check inside the case? Check the graphic card, and other card, make sure they properly fitted, and if your hard drive is failing, you should back it up and then get a new one.Clicking noises from a hard drive is also known as the Click of Death. It is an almost sure sing of a dying hard drive.
Now there is a chance you've simply been unlucky and gotten two bad hard drives, but when you also mention unstable performance I would, as you, suspect the PSU.
If a PSU isn't supplying enough power to the system, it will lead to instability and can even shorten the life of your hard drives and other components.
Who is the manufacturer of the PSU and what is the wattage?
And could you post your system specs?

If the hdd is clicking it is probably too late to save it, so I would take my precautions right away. Copy whatever you don't want to loose of the drive and test it with the diagnostics tool from the manufacturer of the hdd. (Preferably in a computer with a good PSU).
Thanks for all your speedy replies.

The pc was bought from ebay - a cheap hand built job with various manufacturers components. To answer the question from poster no. 2 - no I don't have any magnets near my pc (not any that i'm aware of anyway!)

What do you folks think my next step should be (apart from quickly backing up my contents? Do you think I should replace my psu? If so, can you kindly recommend a reliable psu (I know next to nothing about pc hardware).

One again, many thanks for your knowledgeable assistance!
chrisI suspect that the PSU could be the culprit and may need to be replaced.

Take a peek at a site like Newegg.com. There are lots of customer reviews so you get a good idea for which PRODUCTS don't suck. They also offer an on-line tool so you can determine the ideal wattage PSU for your hardware.

You may also be able to pick up an inexpensive power supply tester at a local electronics store (Radio Shack, Best Buy) that can tell you if something is wrong with the PSU for less than the cost of a new one. Thanks guys. Seems like my uneducated guess may turn out to be the culprit. Interesting that you think my psu may by undersupplying rather than vice-versa.
Do you think that my current predicament with my clicking, noisy drive means it's only a matter of time before it dies and i should THEREFORE replace for a second time, or do you think a new psu will mean that my current drive will be ok?Any drive that makes a repeated clik sound should be backed up immediately and not relied upon for data storage...it could LAST another year or die tomorrow...
As to the power issue a failing/chep PSU will cause these symptoms with HDD's.
Best way to check:
1) DLoad and run the diagnostics from the drive manuf. site to determine the health of the drive.
2) Borrow a known good PSU of the same wattage or greater and swap it into the machine...if the symptoms go away you need a new PSU.
What brand and wattage is this PSU ? ?I can't answer your questions patio without going into the unit (obviously!). Will do it tomorrow and buy a replacement psu/hdd asap. Thanks to all of you.Don't buy a PSU....borrow one and swap it in there to see if it's the culprit.
We don't know yet if it is...Why spend the money if it isn't the cause of the problem ? ?You said that you got it on ebay. Well there are going to be problems, your HD shouldn't just die unless something else is causeing it. I would get one that you could borrow untill you know that the PSU is the main problem. I think that there mite be others too.I bought the pc on ebay originally, not the hard drive (if that's what you thought I meant). What else, other than a faulty psu could cause 2 hdd's to fail in exactly the same manner?I ment the whole pc. Bad cable connecting them? I will have to get back too you but it shouldn't cause them to just fail. Drives should last a couple of years. Post every detail about this pc.Hi. Sorry, been awat for a few days. System info:

Mainboard : ASROCK 939Dual-SATA2
Chipset : ULI M1695
Processor : AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ @ 2000 MHz
Physical Memory : 1024 MB DDR
Video Card : Nvidia Corp GeForce 7300 GT
Hard Disk : MAXTOR (320 GB)
DVD-Rom Drive : DVDRW DRW-6S160P
DVD-Rom Drive : DB4004S OPH842Q SCSI CdRom Device
DVD-Rom Drive : NERO IMAGEDRIVE2 SCSI CdRom Device
Network Card : Acer Labs Incorporated (ALi/ULi) ULi M5263 Fast Ethernet Controller
Network Card : Marvell Semiconductor (Was: Galileo Technology Ltd) 802.11b/g Wireless Controller
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition 5.01.2600 Service Pack 2
DirectX : Version 9.0c

Let me know if you need anything else. Thanks.PSU info ? ?
Also are the SCSI drives running off an addon card or do they connect directly ? ?