Computer Hard Drive Question?

[WoodPeckr]

Thanks so much for all the suggestions and help! I cleaned the fans gently as suggested, and voila, no noise!

That may be all it was. I open up clean out and vacuum my PC once a year. Very easy to do. Carefully clean all the dirt that builds up on the fans. Cleaning the fan on the video card (if you have one) is a PITA. Once done the PC runs quieter and cooler.

Mehanical HDDs have a 5 year life expectancy, + or - a couple years and over time they all will fail. Backup is essential and easy. Just get an external HDD and transfer over to it (simply drag and drop) any files, pix, music, etc you want to save. Drives are cheap.

SSDs have come down in price and are now IMHO cheap. Got a 128 GB SSD a couple years ago for 80 bucks USD. Use it for a boot drive with just the OS and a few fav programs and it runs GREAT with blazing speed....boots up the OS in ~10 seconds! Heard the new SATA-3 SSDs boot in a couple seconds! Won't ever go back to mechanical HDDs, which are only used for storage and additional backup now.

 

[one.of.a.kind]

To ensure you don't lose contents suddenly use Seagate backup program and drive. I have a 3 tetra bite.

Hello!

Thanks so much for all the suggestions and help! I cleaned the fans gently as suggested, and voila, no noise! Thanks again for all the help, this is one of the joys of TERB, a wealth of knowledge and expertise! I will however, be attempting a back-up , as soon as time allows!

Homer

The Seagate is a no brainer to set up and it keeps things up to date automatically. Check it out.

 

[explorerzip]

Mehanical HDDs have a 5 year life expectancy, + or - a couple years and over time they all will fail.

It really depends on how much your hard drive is actually writing and reading files. This is a wild guess, but for the average user a hard drive might last up to 10 years especially if you're only using your PC for a few hours a day. If your PC is always on 24/7 and you're doing heavy duty video editing, downloading, etc. it would have a much shorter life expectancy.

 

[Twister]

It really depends on how much your hard drive is actually writing and reading files. This is a wild guess, but for the average user a hard drive might last up to 10 years especially if you're only using your PC for a few hours a day. If your PC is always on 24/7 and you're doing heavy duty video editing, downloading, etc. it would have a much shorter life expectancy.

I find with 7 , my HD is always doing something ...the light is always flashing and I can hear it go...even after a recent format....thats even when I'm not clicking around.

 

[LOVETHATBBBJ]

I find with 7 , my HD is always doing something ...the light is always flashing and I can hear it go...even after a recent format....thats even when I'm not clicking around.

if its Win7 you can go to Control Panel>power options>Select power Saver>click Change advanced power settings and adjust turn off HD after XX minutes.

 

[Twister]

if its Win7 you can go to Control Panel>power options>Select power Saver>click Change advanced power settings and adjust turn off HD after XX minutes.

Yes thanks...I mean activity when I'm reading an article, not touching it...like its doing something in the background...

 

[explorerzip]

Yes thanks...I mean activity when I'm reading an article, not touching it...like its doing something in the background...

Technically, there always is stuff running in the background of any PC like any number of programs (anti virus, itunes, Internet Explorer, Chrome, etc. Windows checking for updates) anti virus checking files, etc. Dropbox syncing files. If the hard drive light is on you probably have the anti virus or some other program running in the background that you're not aware of. You can usually uninstall these programs if you're not always using them.

I know that Java and Adobe Acrobat are in particular is a pain in the ass because they always bother you to update. You might also want to run disk defragmenter on it or check disk. Disk defragmenter is ONLY for traditional hard drives and not solid state drive BTW.

 

[Ridgeman08]

What's a Tetra Bite?

To the OP, don't take advice from someone who is not technically adept. :frusty:

Your ACTUAL user files are likely a fraction of what the total space is being used on your hard drive. As a general rule of thumb, back up DATA, not programs, or OS systems. That is all easily replaced from hard copies...

More helpful hints:

• If you download movies/ TV shows/ music? Burn them on DVD's/ BR's/ CD's.
• Get a thumb drive for personal documents, pics, e-mail pst/ ost's etc.

Most REAL techies will tell you to "redo" your PC at least every couple years. I myself do so every six months or so. Operating systems get bogged down with any number of things... and in order to keep thing running at peak performance, its necessary to wipe the slate clean every once in awhile. (The interval would be dependent on your usage of course...)