Hard drive beating itself up.. crashing?

3

3DPiper

New Member
My system has run great since installing Vista..

In the past couple of days, though, my hard drive has started peaking and freezing the system until it is finished doing whatever it is doing.. I can even hear it 'scratching', something I've never heard from it before..

I thought maybe it was web related, but it does it even if I'm not running IE.. It usually takes about 2.5 mins to complete, and happens about twice an hour.. Very annoying as I'm trying to finish a large project and I'm worried my hard drive is crashing.

I've scanned for viruses and malware and found nothing.

Should I back up the important stuff and run chkdsk?

I check the task manager processes and don't see anything standing out as abnormal.. I have no idea why it is doing this..

-Matthew
 

My Computer

System One

Turn off HD indexing, its probably just indexing files for faster searches. Did you just install vista?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 530
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 quad Q6600 2.40GHz
    Motherboard
    OFM586
    Memory
    3.5GB DDR2 at 667MHz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    19inch dell HD flatscreen
    Screen Resolution
    1280x768 60hz
    Internet Speed
    7mb
If you hear "scratching", you're disk is dying...
I suggest you to backup your important data.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-E SLI
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    2 x NVidia 8600 GTS
    Sound Card
    Integrated CM-6501
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq 19" + LG 17"
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024@32bit@75MHz
    Hard Drives
    1 x Seagate 120GB SATA (OS installation)
    1 x Seagate 200GB SATA
    2 x Seagate 320GB SATA (Hardware RAID 0)
    1 x Seagate 250GB IDE (in external USB box)
    1 x TrekStor 750GB USB
    PSU
    650W
    Keyboard
    Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 100
    Mouse
    Logitech Cordless Optical
    Internet Speed
    8192 kbps / 640 kbps
Turn off HD indexing, its probably just indexing files for faster searches. Did you just install vista?

I've had Vista on here for several months.. Recently I have noticed slow refreshes on changing folders in Explorer.. I click on a folder and it slowly updates icons/dates/file sizes..

If you hear "scratching", you're disk is dying...
I suggest you to backup your important data.

Arg.. Not what I need to hear.. But- you are probably right..

-Matthew
 

My Computer

System One

3DPiper said:
Turn off HD indexing, its probably just indexing files for faster searches. Did you just install vista?

I've had Vista on here for several months.. Recently I have noticed slow refreshes on changing folders in Explorer.. I click on a folder and it slowly updates icons/dates/file sizes..

If you hear "scratching", you're disk is dying...
I suggest you to backup your important data.

Arg.. Not what I need to hear.. But- you are probably right..

-Matthew
Click to expand...
Sorry... good luck!
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-E SLI
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    2 x NVidia 8600 GTS
    Sound Card
    Integrated CM-6501
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq 19" + LG 17"
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024@32bit@75MHz
    Hard Drives
    1 x Seagate 120GB SATA (OS installation)
    1 x Seagate 200GB SATA
    2 x Seagate 320GB SATA (Hardware RAID 0)
    1 x Seagate 250GB IDE (in external USB box)
    1 x TrekStor 750GB USB
    PSU
    650W
    Keyboard
    Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 100
    Mouse
    Logitech Cordless Optical
    Internet Speed
    8192 kbps / 640 kbps
thats not good, start getting your Data off.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 530
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 quad Q6600 2.40GHz
    Motherboard
    OFM586
    Memory
    3.5GB DDR2 at 667MHz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    19inch dell HD flatscreen
    Screen Resolution
    1280x768 60hz
    Internet Speed
    7mb
I backed everything up without problems.

Then I ran the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics on my drive. It found no errors.

Then I ran chkdsk on my drive. It also found no errors.

While I'm (moderately) reassured that my hard drive isn't failing, is there anything else I can run to see why my hard drive is peaking?

Thanks

-Matthew
 

My Computer

System One

Try the resource monitor.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 530
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 quad Q6600 2.40GHz
    Motherboard
    OFM586
    Memory
    3.5GB DDR2 at 667MHz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    19inch dell HD flatscreen
    Screen Resolution
    1280x768 60hz
    Internet Speed
    7mb
Well, the test you made are "software test", a hardware problem is detectable only by S.M.A.R.T. technology. Try enable it in the BIOS and see if it reports errors.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-E SLI
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    2 x NVidia 8600 GTS
    Sound Card
    Integrated CM-6501
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq 19" + LG 17"
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024@32bit@75MHz
    Hard Drives
    1 x Seagate 120GB SATA (OS installation)
    1 x Seagate 200GB SATA
    2 x Seagate 320GB SATA (Hardware RAID 0)
    1 x Seagate 250GB IDE (in external USB box)
    1 x TrekStor 750GB USB
    PSU
    650W
    Keyboard
    Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 100
    Mouse
    Logitech Cordless Optical
    Internet Speed
    8192 kbps / 640 kbps
The first test the Western Digital software performs is SMART.. The two tests I ran with the WD software:


QUICK TEST - performs SMART drive quick self-test to gather and verify the Data Lifeguard information contained on the drive.
EXTENDED TEST - performs a Full Media Scan to detect bad sectors. Test may take several hours to complete depending on the size of the drive.

I've turned off HD indexing and turned on the resource monitor.. Hopefully I can track this down..

-Matthew
 

My Computer

System One

3DPiper said:
The first test the Western Digital software performs is SMART.. The two tests I ran with the WD software:


QUICK TEST - performs SMART drive quick self-test to gather and verify the Data Lifeguard information contained on the drive.
EXTENDED TEST - performs a Full Media Scan to detect bad sectors. Test may take several hours to complete depending on the size of the drive.

I've turned off HD indexing and turned on the resource monitor.. Hopefully I can track this down..

-Matthew
Click to expand...
S.M.A.R.T. isn't a test, it has nothing to do with the quick test you made.
S.M.A.R.T. is a technology that constantly monitors your hard disk, gathering information on "mechanical data". You can turn on this function in your BIOS.
At every boot, your BIOS will tell you if there are problems, i.e., speed of rotation changing, headers fails, rotation stopped and spinned up, etc. etc.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-E SLI
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    2 x NVidia 8600 GTS
    Sound Card
    Integrated CM-6501
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq 19" + LG 17"
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024@32bit@75MHz
    Hard Drives
    1 x Seagate 120GB SATA (OS installation)
    1 x Seagate 200GB SATA
    2 x Seagate 320GB SATA (Hardware RAID 0)
    1 x Seagate 250GB IDE (in external USB box)
    1 x TrekStor 750GB USB
    PSU
    650W
    Keyboard
    Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 100
    Mouse
    Logitech Cordless Optical
    Internet Speed
    8192 kbps / 640 kbps
Open up Task Manager (right click on the Taskbar) and click on the Processes tab.
Select the "View" menu item, then select "Select columns"
In the next window, select "I/O Reads" and "I/O Other" and click OK
Then resize the Task Manager window so you can see all the columns.

Once that's done, leave it open and wait for the "freezing". Get the image names for the stuff that's doing the most I/O Reads (and I/O Other if that's elevated also).
 

My Computer

System One

My Computer

System One

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