Noisy, grindy-sounding startup

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Noisy, grindy-sounding startup

Postby Crescent Pulsar S » Wed Oct 14, 2015 10:44 am

Should I be concerned about some part of my computer? This isn't a normal thing that happens; it's only happened three times in the past few months.
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Re: Noisy, grindy-sounding startup

Postby Té Rowan » Wed Oct 14, 2015 1:14 pm

Maybe the box just needs a good clean. Dust out the fan(s) and make sure no cable is struck by a fan.
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Re: Noisy, grindy-sounding startup

Postby Spica75 » Wed Oct 14, 2015 6:42 pm

Crescent Pulsar S wrote:Should I be concerned about some part of my computer? This isn't a normal thing that happens; it's only happened three times in the past few months.


If it´s the harddrive, then maybe worry(my mom´s computer has a HDD that has sounded as if it was seconds from failing for like 8 years now, so often hard to determine).

If not, what Te Rowan said is probably the right idea.

If you think it could be the HDD, then get Speedfan here:
http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php
and try the S.M.A.R.T. tab and pick your HDD there, you will get a "performance" and "fitness" result at the bottom that has a fair chance of warning you of any potential impending doom.
Far from foolproof or anything, but it´s a good basic check using the HDDs own reliability data.

There´s also hdsentinel, the trial version has lots of limits and reduced functionality but still enough to be useful:
http://www.hdsentinel.com/download.php
Again, nothing infallible with it(it´s guesstimated 16 days left to live for one of my HDDs for over 3 years now hehe), but also again, it has a decent chance of giving some warning if your drive is failing.
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Re: Noisy, grindy-sounding startup

Postby slickrcbd » Sun Nov 15, 2015 10:52 am

If it is the hard drive, get a replacement ASAP. Such sounds indicate that it is wearing out and a failure is imminent. Use something like Clonezilla to make a copy of your hard drive onto the new one, and then you can keep the old one in the box the new one came in as an emergency backup.

This is important because computer manufacturers like to put a "recovery partition" on the hard drive instead of a recovery DVD to restore your computer, and if the hard drive crashes, you're S.O.L for getting the bundled software back. If you don't have the drivers for your network card (even or especially if integrated) stored on removable media, you won't be able to download them without using a second computer if you use a generic Windows [s]CD[/s] DVD to reinstall. (sorry showing my age).

It could also be an optical drive (CD or DVD) when you left a disc in the drive. If you didn't leave the disc, it would not make the sound, but the few times you did it might.
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