Hard Disk Trouble.... Plz Help Me Now

from WinCustomize Forums
Hey guys,

Ok here is the problem I am experianceing this instant.. I have a IBM-DTLA-307030 30 GB Hard Disk. Someone not too soon ago it started making noises in the following order (buzz buzz buzz buzz) and there is a pause (buzz buzz buzz buzz) its always 4 buzzes. The hard disk does this from sometimes just around 30 seconds to sevral minutes. Everything else pauses on the pc when it is making these noises. It happend before and we reainstalled everything and reformated the disk etc and it was ok. But now its back after about 1 1/2 years. This happens when for example I go to star and click on programs. It takes time as if it is searching for something. Some of our programs are also gone.. Could this be a virus because I remember stumbling across a hacking website and downloading one of thier programs too see what it was from the description but I highly doubt that because I had downloaded many before and examine them. Kind of a hobby . Well I was hopeing you guys could tell me if this is a virus or something wrong with the hard disk. I really need your help. Thanks
6,105 views 33 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sounds like your hard drive is toasted.
There is a utility that IBM makes that MIGHT fix it.
I will see if I can find it as I also have had similar problems with that drive.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
With all that buzzing are you sure you have not got a Beehive in your case

Seriously though - is the buzzing noise coming form the hard disk?
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Have you defragged it? If you have a lot of data on the disk and it hasn't been defragged, it'll jump all over the place looking for stuff and slow down your PC
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
yes a defrag is very vital to a hdd's ability to read and write to it. i run a defrag daily .. but im also constantly working on some thing..
a rule of thumb is defrag weekly. the more often u defrag the less timr it takes to defrag .. also it will keep your HDD nice and neat ...
ok heres an example ... say your hdd is like your room/ house...after a while of not straightening it up , things get hard to find and get lost .. a hdd is the same way ..the defragmentor is like the maid /or your mom. it comes in and puts everything where it should be ......
run a scandisk and a defrag at least once a week or more depending on your computer usage ..

if it is still making noise it's probably abt to die....yes there are utilities that can quiet the hdd .. but actually what they do is slow the speed of the hdd ....slowing the HDD will make less noise and can extend the life of a dieng HDD but its not a fix .....if it was running b4 quietly then there is a reason its making noise ...morinlikely it warning you it's on its last leg ....
[Message Edited]
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well I defragmented it and some files could not be moved.. Some files like MS Outlook cannot be found lol the shorcut is cut.. heh.. We had the hard disk making noises before and it survied but I also found some trojans on the pc that wouldnt get removed I tried using regedit but it dident detect anything on the run folder and I looked at the processes and hell I even downloaded a program that shows all the hidden processes and nothing at all came up Im totally confused and lost in this situation lol
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
also i will try to keep my rant to a minimum ..

but .. heat is the biggest culprit of pc hardware failure ...a pc bought out of the box has only enough fans to allow the pc to barely last through the warranty period b 4 it starts having hardware failure ...i advise that any pc have, in every open fan slot a running fan,as these pc's get faster and hotter they burn up faster if heat is not regulated ....look at an older pc's and most new pcs out of the box, the amount of fans has remained the same ,, 1 cpu fan and 1 case fan,, tho the cpu fans and heat sinks are made for the faster cpus , theres little to no case circulation..which means more heat buildup ..hdd's now also are running faster which means even more heat ...as a pc gets faster its air flow should be increased ..

also buy a can of air. and blow the thing out ... i have had many customers bring me pc's that were toasted .. merely cause they never blew out the dust that builds up on the fans and openings ...
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
ok ur virus scanner found some trojans ? couldnt it remove the infected files ?
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
post the names of the files so we can look them up and find fixes
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Nope the virus scanner couldnt remove them. I even used www.antivirus.com live scan on my pc which is always updated and Norton Antivirus my own program.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well Guys Im going to bed I thank to all of you for the help I will be back in about 10 hours so please help me with some ideas on how to fix this problem. You guys are great thanks all
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
if u post the names of the viruses found, fixes could be looked up for you ...
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Get Spybot Search and Destroy. It can normally dlete trojans better than Norton, and its free. Also, get a firewall. Norton will allow you to quarantine the files, at the very least. Then, if you restart, you can search for the file, which is still there, just blocked from interfering with your system processes. You should be able to delete it now. Just search for the file, given by Norton, and delete it yourself. Then, rerun Norton AV and the file should be gone. That is how I got rid of a trojan that Norton couldn't remove.
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Remember to empty your recycle bin after you delete the file.
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
remember to take the trash out on trash day
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
remember to take the trash out on trash day

Might even need to take the drive out on trash day!
Spybot Search and Destroy is very good, beats AdAware any day, it is 'Free' but I think a donation is the least one can do
to say 'Thank You' for the time and effort involved.



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Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Good Points on Fans and Maintenance HG....specially the maintenance....[more fans]=[more airflow]=[more crap collecting inside the case]

Also on da fans...
If your case can handle a fan for the hard drive get one
If your motherboard has speed-throttling (slows down fan on cpu 'YIKES!!!) to reduce noise level....don't use it. An increase in heat (even minute) will decrease life of CPU.
Cables....does the inside of your case look all wobbed-up. Excess cables and stuff just literally stuffed all over the place inside your case reduces airflow. Zip-Ties, shorter cables, them new streamline cables, etc. every little bit helps.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Next computer buy alienware! Gel cooled! Wonderful machine! Every night I hold mine and pet it and love it and call it George!
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Might even need to take the drive out on trash day!
Spybot Search and Destroy is very good, beats AdAware any day, it is 'Free' but I think a donation is the least one can do
to say 'Thank You' for the time and effort involved.

PS Ain't free no mo'
fred
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
PS Ain't free no mo'


http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download Looks free to me. He does work hard on the proggie and it is well worth making a donation.

If you have earthlink, their Total Access software has Spyware Blocker software with it. It has actually found stuff, not much, that Spybot didn't catch.
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
i use both adaware and spybot.. one always finds stuff the other dont.. as a gamer my online performange is a necessity... so any thing that eats up my bandwidth must go.....
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
For trojans get a dedicated anti trojan app like TDS3. Go to this site and download and install a free trial of TDS, then go back to the TDS home site, update the AT defiinitions/signatures with the latest updates and then run a scan. http://tds.diamondcs.com.au/index.php?page=download



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Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm a bit late to this thread...but first priority is to offload any critical data....your drive is about to die.  IBM has had a recent poor rep with drives...so much so I wouldn't buy one if my life depended on it...
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well you see we had this same problem 1-2 years ago and we reinstalled windows and after that it was fixed but after 1-2 years its doing the same again. It happens on cetain parts of the hard disk I go into for example start--- programs-- it does it
every time and not on any random things. I think there is something more to this
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
just get a new hard drive. they aren't too expensive and having more space on your hard drive because you got one with more space is a good thing. I would buy a new one for myself if I had the money.
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
i read the first couple posts and skipped the rest. sounds like a bad sector to me.

norton disk doctor (from ages past.. i'm talking w3.1 or dos version) had a great utility for running around and cleaning up bad sectors. fix your drive right up. im sure the new ones have it but.. you know, i never stopped to figure it out. hope i never need to :/