Main pc hard disk drive starting to tick and resulting in read errors

New HDD at hand, screw drivers at the ready, big pot of coffee on the stove

Wish me luck, I'm going in (I may be some time)

 

Good luck!

 

Win 8.1 64bit


just need to start installing software now

 

Something about windows 8 that I just can't get past. I got two tablets on windows 8, but the three desktops run windows 7. I just can't see that operating system as a desktop system...

Anyway, good luck with installing everything!!

 

Win8.1 appears to be opening straight onto the desktop after logging in and not that stupid metro page, which is fine for a tablet but not on your main pc (without a touchscreen).

I've played around with Win8, so its not a big a shock as it is to some. Now have S1 installed and running, midi controller / soundcard are up and running, all appear good at the mo.

very tempted to install OSX as well (dual boot)

 

Mate, if the dual boot works, please let me know. Not that I'd do it on my own system but I am sure there might be a few interested to know.

Yeah, Windows 8.1 boots straight to the desktop (you can change and adjust that setting by right-clicking on the task bar, if you want; but who would?)

- Demon

 

Have you tried any hd tools if not HiRens boot disc might help

 

Good luck mate. Windows 8 is great.

 

just copied my firefox profile over, would have been in lots of trouble without my bookmarks, and all my passwords

v8.1 very stable on my system, unlike v8 which would cause the old school blue screen of death. All drivers and related software installed automatically without me having to look for them manually, which was a very nice surprise. The only thing I had to tweak was my screen resolution (win7 also had to do the same, however xp would recognise it) by going into the registry and adding the screen resolution to the list in the video settings. I now have 4 gb of ram, instead of 3 with 32bit - fecking awesome

 

I not only haven't had a blue screen, I haven't had a program crash...for almost half a year of 24/7 usage.

Windows 9 will be amazing, mark my words. *yes*

 

Yes but I haven't bought a new puter, still using the old dual-core intel cpu, motherboard, etc, etc. Anyway we have v8.2 to get before v9 starts showing its hand

 

*UPDATE*

installed new harddrive, and its ticking, WTF!!!


investigation time

 

Yeah run some disk diagnostics on it. That's really strange.

 

PSU, definitely. Not enough mojo for the HDD. *yes*
How old is it?
Such problems are easily removed by replacing caps in PSU. Look inside to see if they are over-pressurized (leaking on the top). If so, you have to either replace them all, or replace whole PSU.

 

UPDATE 2

hard drive had been making the odd ticking/clicking noises since I installed it 2 weeks ago, yesterday it was giving me severe grief (every few minutes), sent a snotty email to shop asking for a replacement.

Decided to have another go this morning, reformatted/installed windows and also changed a few settings in BIOS (looking at the SMART settings) and lol and behold, no more ticking/pauses.

And then the shop's customer services rang me, offering a test and possible replacement, with me saying its now working and showing no signs of any ticking errors (typical)

I have a feeling it was the HDD's built in "advanced power management" system not playing on the same team with the motherboard setup. looking good at the moment, but damn frustrating (especially after installing NI Komplete twice now, including updates)


(HDD = Seagate barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001 for members reference in case of similar future problems)

 

I hate those advanced power management features on hard drives. It's almost as stupid as hardware encryption of externals.

 

the failing drive was a barracuda (overheating) and silly me thought a simple swap would be all that is required. PC has been on all day today and "hd tune pro" shows no signs of any pauses or errors in its logs, with the pc running tasks and also at idle.

I'm not installing NI again until the weekend (just in case)

 

That still sounds like a power issue to me, if it starts again, I'd advice to recheck the PSU.
The thing is, the older the HDD is, the more power it consumes (and more heat dissipates). Peak power for those ancient HDDs might go beyond 30W (12V 2.5A)

 

Possibly, but everything appears to have calmed down now. I have set the bios SMART settings to its power saving setting, not it's default or performance setting (which I think was the one causing the issues). If I get similar problems again then more pennies will need to be considered for a new PSU

Strange that I have had to change bios settings with just a simple HDD swap though (same manufacturer), I'm pretty sure the old drive does not have APM

edit:

Switched on this morning and no clicks/ticks/pauses, I definitely believe the HDD internal APM was the cause of the trouble. PC will be on all day (downloading stuff ) whilst I'm out earning some extra pennies

I have also double checked the voltages from the PSU and they all appear to be fine and stable (I have a proper sillyscope ) and a quick visual inspection I can not see any exploding caps, I have had to replace those before in power supplies (cheap components failing).

Will be stuffing the pc back into its metal box tonight (where's my screwdriver?)

 

Ok Andrew going for a new psu (next week), just in case

just worked out how old my puter is and thinking new psu may well help keep it going for another 6 years