hard drive noise
 

hey guys

got a bit of a question about my laptops hard drive, it seems to be making noise, I know HDD's make chirping and clicking sounds as the data buffer runs across the disc face but those are relatively quiet and hardly noticeable. The sound thats worrying me is a squeaking type sound, it sounds like the noise one of my other hard drives made when it was starting to fail, but how could this be? I've only had the laptop since last monday, I ran HDtune 2.5 and it said there were no bad sectors on the drive, should I just ignore it or consider sending it back to dell?

Anyone know of any other hard drive diagnostic programs that might be better then HDtune?

-Ray

Do you know the brand of the HDD? If not, go into Windows hardware device, click on the device manager; under "disk drives" to find out the HDD code. Google the code to find out the model and make.

Likely the manufacturer such as WD, Seagate, Hitachi website will provide diagnostic ultility program. But, I will send it back to Dell if the laptop is new.

Ah thanks I've found out the drive is a Seagate and now that i remember it the last drive i had that made this similar sound was a seagate and it didn't fail, i just stopped using it because the noise was so annoying. I think it's that fluid dynamic bearing thing that makes it quiet MOST of the time but every 15 to 20 minutes it makes that strange noise.

Anyhow i downloaded the seatools for windows utility and i'm gonna run it over night and see if it passes in the morning, it's totally stupid I mean i spent 900 bucks on this laptop and it's already had problems. I have had problems like this on my desktop but I built that myself, I would expect that a brand new dell wouldn't start having trouble for at least a year. I'd hate to send it back to dell and wait another 2 weeks to get it back if theres nothing wrong, especially with college starting again sept 4th...

thanks again, any other input on people that have used seagate drives would be appreciated

-Ray

Dell has local service in all major cities; call them up. They would repair it at site. One of the guys dropped a Dell and broke the screen, it was less than one year old. Repair guy showed up at work and replace the screen on site. We did not have any other special warranty contract.

I have two 160gb Seagate drives. I've had em for about 3 years now. They used to make this REALLY loud and obvious clicking and scratching noise. But my drives still work like brand new and I haven't had any problems with em since. In fact the noise stopped a while back... I can't even remember when... Maybe it was when I switched out my case...