Hard drive problems, what can I do?

Question

My computer is a few years old, has windows xp installed with one 512mb ram and one 128mb ram, and I use Norton antivirus corporate edition. My problem is that the computer is running extremely slow and I am getting BSODs. There is a constant clicking sound which I guess are the hard drive heads. I have reinstalled xp and that worked for two months or so. Can anyone help me without saying that my hard drives shot and I have to shell out a couple hundred bucks for a new computer, 'cause I don't have the money?? thanks, also I guess you can't ask me any questions unless you can also tell me how to answer you.

Answer 1

Not very advisable mixing RAM like that. You are prob slowing it down with the extra 128 and it's not going to make any difference with or without it.



OK on to your prob. If you purchase a Seagate hard drive:



Here's an 80GB from my distrib:



http://www.directron.com/st380215a.html



They(Seagate) have a free utility that will move all your data from your hard current hard drive and auto part your new one for you. It's brainless!



http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=DiscWizard&vgnextoid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD



The only thing you need tp make sure is that you get the right interface, SATA or ATA for your new drive. That link is for a ATA one.



Total cost to do this is about $50 US and about 20 minutes of your time.

Answer 2

If your hearing clicks when your hard drive is working more than likely the read/write heads are damaged inside your pc and certian parts of your disk will no longer be accessed to.



This being said sometimes you can save the drive your working on by doing a disk check.



Do the following to test:

go to start

click my computer

right click on your hard drive (c:\)

click on properties

click on the tools tab

and do a disk check - click "check now"

tick the two check boxes

click ok

This will give you a message saying to do it when the computer restarts - click yes

reboot your computer



this will then start the disk check when your computer reboots and try and repair any damages that may have come onto your hard drive. Hopefully any lost information will be rescued and moved to a safer part of your hard drive.



If this doesn't work try having a look at the Ultimate boot CD.

This cd is free to download and lets you do test features on broken hardware equipment. Such as RAM, Hard drives, CD-ROM, etcs... basically burn it to a CD and then stick it in the computer when it boots up.



Have a look here: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Answer 3

for one if windows loads up you hard drives are not shot. I really don't think you need to go to the lengths of a new pc. definitely not!



FYI norton is pretty heavy on resources and memory. its basically a system hog. I would try AVG anti virus protector.



Also you can get some good hard drives for $80 anyway on www.newegg.com



also check out if you can upgrade your ram more. your motherboard may only let 1gb of ram installed that will help with the speed of the pc. for this go to www.crucial.com



But i seriously doubt your hard drives are shot since u installed windows and can access your pc



oh yes and that reminds me about your memory if you have 1 512mb and 1 125mb



the 512mb runs at 125mb,



so what you need to do is get 1 1gb ram or 2 512mb ones i suggest get the 1gb ram one.

Answer 4

Ok one thing i would suggest is moving the hard drive. if it lies flat try standing it sideways (sometimes the platters warp). in honesty the clicking is usually a sign that the SMART is failing. go into BIOS and ensure that enable SMART is enabled, this will indicate if a failure is imminent.



Hard drives are cheap these days, go get a new one back up the old one just incase, in my experience you can never have too much hard drive space

Answer 5

Backup important docs, pics, music, etc. Also you may need a new computer, or take your current one to a place to get fixed. Both will cost a lot so I would go with getting a new computer.

Answer 6

if the hard drive is the problem, the hard drive is actually cheaper than years ago, for example, on the good days, you can get a 500GB hard drive for around 70$

Answer 7

Buy and install a new hard drive or hard drives.



http://www.newegg.com/store/category.aspx?Category=1-15&Tpk=Hard+drives



How to install a hard drive.



http://youtube.com/watch?v=vnEga6ga5hM