It sounded like a small metal can with a few nuts and bolts in it being
shaken.
I removed Avast and it has been quiet for hours. Some kind of interaction
with the particular hardware in my system I suspect. I am waiting to see if
it starts up again.
I still have the RMA. I was not going to do a cross ship.
--
Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience
"FromTheRafters" <erratic @nomail.afraid.org> wrote in message
news:%23DqssOG9JHA.4176@xxxxxx
Quote:
> "Richard Urban" <richardurbanREMOVETHIS@xxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:uWHAucE9JHA.288@xxxxxx Quote:
>> FOOD FOR THOUGHT
>>
>> I was talking to Western Digital today and they gave me an RMA to return
>> a "defective" 1 gig hard drive that sounded like a garbage truck for the
>> past 4-5 days. I could hear the drive in the next room while watching
>> television. I'm glad to say I don't have to return the drive.
>>
>> Today I downloaded the beta of Microsoft Security Essentials for testing
>> purposes. I uninstalled Avast and installed MSE. After a reboot (I always
>> do this after an install) the hard drive was quiet! The drive had
>> previously sounded like the heads were slamming into the stops. What a
>> noise. I also checked my processes in Task Manager and found that one
>> Avast process had over 22 **BILLION** read accesses within 1/2 hour after
>> booting up.
>>
>> Anyway, all now seems well. I guess it was an Avast update that started
>> my main hard drive going spastic.
>
> I don't see how that is possible. I would still be very suspicious of the
> harddrive. Thrashing can be software related, but doesn't quite reach
> "garbage truck" level - not like defective bearings would.
>