Ok so the last week or so, i have noticed some noises coming from my HD. It clicks once and a while, causing a second of lag. I Know clicking is not a good thing when it come to HDs. But the S.M.A.R.T. utilites say the fitness is 100% as is the performance.

My question is how long do i have? And what should i do to back up? No i have no RAID setup available. WHat about an external drive? or should i just the thing drive? The PC is really only used for gaming, no professional stuff.

if a mod could move this to the storage section for me please....oops

No problem. Done.

Yeah your hard drive is probably dying. if you dont have any critical data on it then just get a new drive and install windows on it. if you have data you need to back up then back it up to CD or DVD ( if you have a burner) or you can get an external drive for backing up data. there is no way to tell when it will fail completely it could be weeks or months from now or it could be the next time you boot.

Get the HD diagnostics utility from the drive manufacturer. Most likely you just have a bad sector.