HDD Clicking

[Tdata]

Okay, I have a bit of a problem.  While playing Minesweeper my computer completely froze.  Couldn't do anything.  So I hard restarted it.  Well, now while loading Windows I hear a clicking noise and about halfway though, I get a brief BSOD then restart.  I know it isn't the HDD's fault as Ubuntu sees and accesses it just fine.  I'm unsure what to do about this.  I don't have a recovery disc nor the money to buy a new copy of Windows... 

 

[Roph]

http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php

 

[Venetia]

It is very likely that your HD is on its way out. I recommend IMMEDIATELY backing up all your data onto another media (CD, DVD, Flash, SD, backup HD, whatever). You should be happy it's warning you! They usually just die and you lose all your data (unless you get it repaired, with is VERY VERY expensive (like $500-1400)).

It could also have a weird buildup on a component, but you wouldn't find it without cracking the thing open, which may end up corrupting the thing anyway.

 

[Shizu]

Correct, Vene. My laptop's HDD started doing so right after a restart when I backed everything up from it :> close one.

 

[Tohsaka]

It definitely sounds like a dying one. Ubuntu can access a whole bunch of things- It probably ignored the files that Windows requires to boot- Those are probably already damaged.

Get a new hard drive, FIRST: Back up anything important.

 

[___]

Yeah sounds like your Windows stuff was the first thing to go, but Linux won't be far behind - maybe a couple weeks, maybe a few months, even a year if you don't use it much, but is doomed to eventually die. A clicking drive is usually due to the arm the reads the disc seeking too far and clacking against the frame, which means your drive is seriously hosed. If you need to string it along for a while you can start running frequent surface scans using the drive checker tool in Windows, which will mark bad sectors so the drive doesn't try to read them anymore. You will find you need to do this more and more often, and more and more of your drive will become inaccessible until eventually your boot sector goes and the whole thing fails. I've had an 8gb drive with nearly 1.5gb of bad sectors before it keeled on me, but it'll happen eventually.

Oh, you can't fix a hard drive by popping it open unless you're in a clean room with very delicate equipment, so don't bother trying that one. The heads that read the discs sit on a microscopically thin cushion of air with a very delicate suspension, you couldn't possibly hope to lift and clean them without breaking them if they somehow got dirty and furthermore specs of dust invisible to the naked eye are still big enough to permanently ruin the drives so you can't run any risk of exposing them in a non-clean environment (they're hermetically sealed to prevent them from getting dirty afterward). Oh but go ahead and pop that bastard open after you replace if you want to see what it looks like. The magnets are incidentally a lot of fun to play with, they're very powerful (but very brittle, so be careful and DON'T get them near your TV or monitor :D).

Spoiler: A Hard Drive on the Inside

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b9/Hdhead.jpg[/img]

If you're curious.

 

[Tohsaka]

If you can't do it yourself- There are places that will recover your data for you.

 

[___]

Very expensive, though, should be a last-resort unless the value of the information (or your liability if you loose it) exceeds the incredible cost.