hard drive clicking....

my hubby's hard drive was clicking yesterday, then noticed it was continually restarting, never getting to windows....can't boot it up at all.....any ideas ???

it says device driver can't be found

he is running a ati radeon msi motherboard and AMD Athlon 64 processor....rs480m2 chip set

he was using windows vista (doubt that's pertinent with this problem but thought i'd tell ya anyway.....)

really appreciate any direction you can give us....thank you!

 

I reckon he has already tried that!

 

hahaha Japseye thinks he's funny !

Thanks Plodr ! will give it a try ! My guess is its dead too.... sigh more expense !

 

Is There anyway to retrieve data from HD or is there any way to clean the hd without opening it,My computer defraged before starting to make clicking noises,...I wasnt at home when this started clicking , shouldnt there have been a warning or something? by the way does this happen IF there is no more space on the drive as my drive was WD 80g's had maybe 10.2 something on C drive and 5.7 on the D drive space left

 

He got Banned LOLLOLLOL.

But i'm not sure on the Data Recovery, you'll have to wait for Plodr on that one.

 

This may sound stupid ,but where is the HD located,....I took out what I thought was my HD and its the DVR player???? can this be all in one??? it does'nt say Western Digital on it anywhere???? Confused?????:cry Its A pioneer DVR?!

 

Although your case will most probably be much smaller than this one, it shows the general direction.

 

Ok after pulling more stuff (hope i can put back together again) found HD,... this is not making clicking noise its my DVR thats clicking,..but could i still have problum with HD????:confused

 

Or, an even better visual aid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lVnFlFrqhE

 

If your hdd is clicking (i used to have a hdd that clicked alot until it died:cry.) just replace it it before it dies.

 

So my HD may not be dead yet??? and i may be able to save all info and files???

 

you should be able to as long its before you get a i/o error or not booting up past it's self diagnostic screen (where it checks bios, memory etc.)
and i just checked one of majorgeeks past thread that might help (who knows.rolleyes)http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=98854

 

DVR or CD/DVD drive?
I'm presumming you mean the optical drive where you put CD's or DVD's in?

If your HDD is not making the noise and it's comming from your CD/DVD drive then it's your CD/DVD drive and your HDD is probably fine.

Make sure you know where the sound is comming from, you can also feel the click of a HDD usually.
Carefully Touching the case chasis the HDD is screwed to (or one of the screw heads) should be enough to feel it. (Do not touch anything but the screws or case chasis, touching anything else could possibly result in electric shock or static discharge to your system)
Try to determine exactly what is making the noise and when, meaning what is happening at the time of noise (disc in DVD drive or certain software running etc)

 

Please be sure to turn the pc off, pull the plug out, and wait a minimum of 20 seconds before touching it, as if it is not the hard drive, touching it before it has time to 'rest' can kill it. Antistaic wrist strap is the ideal way to work inside the pc- WITH NO POWER, UNLESS YOU ARE AN EXPERIENCED PC/ ELECTRICIAN.
You go inside with power connected and pc running at your own risk, and none of us should encourage you to open it while it is running,

If you think its the dvd drive thats clicking, just disconnect the cables to it and boot up- if you cannot hear any click now, it looks like it is your dvd.cd dive, and you only need to replace it, if it is not just something stuck inside it.

Getting Data of your old hard drive can a lot easier than it seems- while it is still working.
Using USB sticks, DVD discs, or, even cloning the system to a new hard drive- if you need help with it- just ask-

 

While you are somewhat correct, the case chasis is the recommended way to discharge static, if the chasis is live then so is the rest of the case. This is highly unlikely.
Also once powering of, unplug and pressing the power switch will discharge any charge left/stored in the PC.
But point well made and accepted. My apologies for suggesting something a novice should not attempt.
Baklogic says, you do this at your own risk, I should have mentioned that.

Also as Baklogic suggests the safer way is to unplug the optical drive and boot up.

 

Thanks so much people,... Not really experienced with working parts of computer,...but after much thought I will see if I can get old data off this drive somehow,...any ideas??? When computer says no system volume does this mean the HDD drive is fryed???I can't get anywhere with this computer:confused

 

If the hard drive does not show up in the bios, its a good indication that it has died.
If you try pressing, f2, or, del button when starting ( some use f2, some use del) it will uaually take youinto the bios screen, and you can see if it is recognised there

 

After you have tried all the advice below "As a last resort" try tapping the drive on the top side sometimes that will free the heads retrieve your data, I have done this with the drive in hand and running. If the clicking stops grab the data, once done take a hammer to the drive it will revert sooner or later!!!!

 

To save your data, do as Plodr suggests- , if possible.
Oldphil's suggestion- be careful, if tapping a hard drive.
If you have a usb external enclosure, it is possible to read off the old hard drive, if it stil spins up, and there are few ways to try to get it to work, if it is clicking, but once you start - by tapping, and dropping flat onto a flat clean surface from about 150/200mm high, putting in a freezer, wrapped in antystatic, and a soft cover for overnight- but these are only the last resort methods, and I would try attatching, as a slave drive to another pc, usb caddy, before using thise methods, because they are the "nothing to lose method if all else fails"