I Think My Hard Drive Is Dying! Help Please!

[Jayb118]

Hi, i'm having trouble with my harddrive when i turn the PC on it will act like normal for a while for instance i can play games or do windows tasks but at random times my computer will just die and it will act as if it is switching on and off over and over again rapidly. Also i have noticed that the harddrive is making more noise than it usually does and the computer in general has been running much slower than it should.
Will i have to replace my harddrive ? i do not know what else to do about the problem, i have tried anti spyware and the like but normally the machine won't stay on long enough for them to finish.

My machine is:
Intel P4 3.0GHZ
1024MB Ram
120GB Harddrive

Thanks For Your Help. Jay.

 

[Rik]

A failing hard drive normally wont shut a pc down, i believe your problem lies elsewhere!!!
First, get the side off and remove all dust!!
Second, get speedfan from the downloadssection and use it to monitor temperatures , voltages, and hard drive S.M.A.R.T. characteristics.

Post here anything that looks out of the ordinary!!!!

 

[smore9648]

How old is your power supply?

If your HDD is making noise, loud noises, you better start saving your files.

Save your files now anyways, why take the chance in losing everything.

 

[caravel]

When you say switching on and off, do you mean your hard disk keeps spinning up and down? Do you hear some clicks and your hard disk drive stops spinning then a whirr and it spins up again? Between this time does the system stop responding? Or are you speaking of something else? Does the screen go black? It may be related to your power management settings in the BIOS and/or control panel.

 

[Rik]

If your pc is an Emachine, stop using it untill you can get a new psu!!!!!

 

[Samstoned]

a failing drive can shut dwn the machine by draining the psu
and or if you have the OS set to reboot on errors
on that note first thing like said PSU going bad
PSU border line and hard drive motor over working PSU rail

if there are enough fans running any one large fan can do this too
no beeps e'ha


:chef:

 

[Jayb118]

Thanks for your help guys, i've had the side panel off for ages becuase if i want to play TES: Oblivion i have to have a room fan up against the side of the machine to keep it cool lol, ill try vaccuuming out the dust in a bit. I have speed fan already i think the temperatures are generally above 50 degrees.
I havent heard the harddrive click at all or spin up then down, it was just generally louder if u get what i mean.
I got the system i think last year around June/July time and it's the same PSU that came with it.