Potential Harddrive Problem?

vcallie · Dec 20, 2010

I currently have a toshiba satellite a215-s4747 series, running on Windows Vista 32 bit Home Premium. My harddrive was working fine until an hour or so ago. While playing a game on there, (which I've never had problems with before) the game suddenly froze and the area where the disc is inserted began to make clicking sounds every second or so.

After restarting the computer it went to a black screen that said 'Disc Error, press CTRL+ALT+DEL.' Upon doing so, it went back to the same screen after it restarted itself.

After trying this a couple times, the clicking got worse.

Also, the battery I have in the computer now is running on dead, and has been, there have been at least a couple times where the computer gets too hot and shuts off. I don't know if this could have been what caused the harddrive to potentially go dead?

Please help!

hariharan · Dec 20, 2010

If your System starts up then download & run a tool called HD Tune Pro.

In that check your HDD's health. If there are multiple warnings then preferrably change your HDD.

vcallie · Dec 20, 2010

hariharan said:
If your System starts up then download & run a tool called HD Tune Pro.

In that check your HDD's health. If there are multiple warnings then preferrably change your HDD.

My system doesn't start up at all. It turns on, shows the black screen with the CTRL+ALT+DEL, then the clicking gradually becomes worse and worse the longer I leave the computer running.

Lorien · Dec 20, 2010

Hi vcallie,

Welcome to Vista Forums!

Where is the clicking coming from? The hard drive, the power supply where the fan is located, the CD-ROM Drive or elsewhere? Is there a pattern to the clicks (like one short and two long or whatever)? Where does it get hot (near the hard drive, near the power supply, near the battery, near where the power adapter plugs into the system, or where)? How fast does it get hot? Have you checked to make sure the fan is running? Have you checked to make sure the intake and exhaust vents are clear (use canned air to help)? How long does the computer run before shutting down and how do you know it is shutting down due to overheating (does it give you a message - if so, what exactly word-for-word)? Try removing the battery and see if that helps with the problem (just run it off the AC adapter since if the battery is dead and not charging, the heat may be coming from the attempt to charge it). If the CD-Drive, does the clicking stop if you remove any CD from it or does it still continue regardless of whether or not there is a CD in it? If the CD-drive, does the clicking continue if the drive is open?

After that, let's do some standard troubleshooting with a Recovery CD (see below on how to make one if you don't have a genuine Vista Installation Disk which contains the same options).

Do a Startup Repair by booting to the genuine Windows Vista Installation Disk (or one you can borrow from ANYONE) or from a Recovery Disk with recovery options included on it. Here's the procedure: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/91467-startup-repair.html. To boot to the CD you may need to change the BIOS to make the CD-drive first in the boot sequence. To do that, wait for the screen that tells you the F key to push to access the boot menu or boot setup. Push it quickly. Make the changes, save your work, and exit. Put the CD in the drive and reboot. When prompted, push any key to boot from the CD.

If you don't have either disk, you can make a bootable Recovery Disk using http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/ along with burning software like: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/active-isoburner.html and, of course, a blank CD (perhaps made on a different computer or perhaps in safe mode with networking if that is working).

If that doesn't work, try to boot into safe mode (repeatedly click the F8 key while booting and go to safe mode with networking – or do so from the command prompt on the disk). Then let's check some of your system files:

Go to Start / All Programs / Accessories / Command prompt and right click on command prompt and click run as Administrator (you can skip this step if using the disk).

If using the disk, cd to C:\Windows\System32. Type sfc /scannow and enter and let it run. It will scan and try to fix some of your system files. Hopefully it will complete with no corruption it could not repair (if there is such corruption post back here or try to analyze it to find the problem file(s) using http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928228. Try to attach the report (you may need to copy it to a flash drive to transfer to a computer that's working before it will permit you to attach it) here so we can see if they can be repaired with good copies from the installation disk or other files on the system (unless there are too many).

While in Command Prompt, type chkdsk /f /r and enter and let it run. It will want to schedule itself to run at the next restart. Answer yes and then reboot to run the program. It will scan and try to fix any corruption or bad sectors on your hard drive and mostly remove that as a potential cause.

Try to run the Memory Diagnostics Test to see if that may be the cause of the problem. It is one of the options on the Disk. Just click the option and follow the prompts.

To run a diagnotic test on the HDD from a bootable CD (if I can find one), I need the precise manufacturer, make and exact model of the hard drive. The information on the web site about your computer did not specify this information. Please include this in your next post. I realize this may mean removing your hard drive to check. Make sure the system is off before you do this and be careful you don't unplug anything - in fact, check to make sure the connectors are securely attached. If it is Toshiba, we may be out of luck as they don't have diagnostic utilities for their drives and you need to contact their technical support department (which probably just offers to replace them if still under warranty or let you purchase a replacement through them). Another possible way to identify the HDD easier is go to Start...and type in "devmgmt.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Click on the + sign next to Disk Drives and use Google to search the information listed there.

That's about all we can do at this point if we have no other access. Please tell me if you can boot into any Safe mode option. Otherwise, please advise on the results of these tests and answer the questions posed in your next reply.

I hope this helps. If not, we'll try something else based on what results and answers you provide.

Good luck!

Lorien · Dec 20, 2010

Please refresh the screen as I've edited my original post substantially and I want to be sure you see the current version.

Thanks.

vcallie · Dec 20, 2010

@Lorien

Well, the clicking is coming from the harddrive itself. I checked again and I'm sure that this is the source of the sound now.

The clicks are usually short and come every second or so.

It usually gets hot near the fan, and it spreads upwards to where my GB sticks are located, and also the battery area in general.

Usually the hotness is gradual depending on how extensively I am using the computer. I try to keep the windows I open to a minimum of 2 at a time, and usually when I'm playing games is when the PC itself begins to step up into hot mode.

The fan itself is running, I can feel the air from it, and I have checked the blades before to make sure that they are moving. Unfortunately, to keep the computer itself from overheating I have to keep the fan uncovered at all times, usually off the edge of a table so it can get proper circulation.

If I disconnect the computer from the ac adaptor it's usually not more than a second or two before the computer immediately goes into shut down mode.

It never gives me a message before it shuts down, the battery light flashes orange and the screen goes black, and it beeps about once or twice before it shuts down.

Usually, I do keep it attached to the AC adaptor since the battery is dead.

I did put a CD in after the clicking began to see if that might stop it, however, the CD would not read, and the clicking sound continued regardless.

Also, I tried what you said to get the computer into safe mode with networking, and it wouldn't let me. The only options it says that are available to me are F2, and F12 which open the BIOS menu.

The only screen I see upon starting the computer is the Toshiba screen, then the clicking starts, and all I see is a black screen until the CTRL+ALT+DEL shows up. And unfortunately, I don't know where the recovery disk is because I got the computer years ago, and it got misplaced.

But, I tried most of what you said, and now I know for sure that the sound is indeed coming from the hard drive, it seems like the more I turn the computer on and attempt to fix it, that the clicking becomes worse.

Lorien · Dec 20, 2010

Hi vcallie,

Can you make the Recovery Disk I recommended using a different computer if necessary? Also, have you tried removing the battery and running just on the AC adapter (I didn't mean the other way around)?

I would also suggest that we backup your data while we still can because it sounds to me like the hard drive is about to fail. To do that you can use Ubuntu Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer - How-To Geek but again that means making a CD to boot to it (as explained in my prior post). You also need a place to backup the data to.

Good luck!

vcallie · Dec 20, 2010

@Lorien,

Unfortunately, I think the problem has gotten worse. Now, the CTRL+ALT+DEL screen won't even show up, it merely shows the toshiba start up screen, then it proceeds to just a black screen, while my hard drive clicks every second or so. I can make a recovery disk hopefully on the computer I am using now. I also tried running the computer on just the AC adaptor and it didn't do any good. Also, I would take the hard drive out however, I am not sure how to get it back in, so I am hesitant to do so. Thanks for all the help you've been giving me so far, hopefully I can back everything up onto a disc so that I don't lose everything incase the hard drive does fail, which at this point, it looks like that might be inevitable.

Lorien · Dec 20, 2010

While it's good to have the Recovery Disk, if the drive is failing more rapidly, it's more important to make the Ubuntu disk so we can save your data (I hope you have somewhere to put it - if you're using the Ubuntu disk, you can't use that drive to backup to disks because the Ubuntu disk must remain in place at all times - unless you have a second drive on the system). The choices would be an external USB HDD, a large enough flash drive to hold all your data, an external CD/DVD Burner in a USB enclosure, or slaving the drive to another computer (with an appropriate conversion connector) and accessing the drive from that computer and saving the data on that computer's drive. I can't think of any other ways at the moment. That should be the priority at this point.

Good luck!

hariharan · Dec 20, 2010

It seems that your HDD's either dead or going to die soon (if it still boots).

You will have to replace it very soon. If it still boots take a backup of your important data and keep it till you get a new HDD.

Potential Harddrive Problem?

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