| Hard Drive Failure?Generally a clicking sound coming | | | | politely decline the offer.) After CHKDSK finishes, |
| from your hard drive is a Bad Omen. It could be a | | | | restart your computer normally and see if the dreaded |
| harbinger of horrific hardware happenings, so my | | | | click of doom returns. If so, the drive is most likely |
| immediate advice is "BACKUP YOUR HARD DRIVE!" | | | | damaged, and should be replaced as soon as possible. |
| as soon as possible. If the drive fails, you're out of luck. | | | | If you decide to purchase a new computer, see |
| In fact, even if you don't suspect a problem with your | | | | Copying Old Hard Drive to New PC for help with |
| hard drive, it's wise to make regular backups so you | | | | transferring your files.Are You On The Level?But |
| can survive a hard drive failure with only minimal | | | | before you trash your troublesome drive, you should |
| inconvenience.See my article Backing Up Your Files to | | | | try one more thing... Some hard drives are very |
| learn about backup strategies, hardware and software. | | | | sensitive to non-level surfaces, and will not function |
| And if you're curious about which hard drives noises | | | | properly if they're sitting on a slant. Shut down your |
| you should be concerned about, listen to these clicking | | | | computer, make sure your system unit is on a flat |
| sounds made by dying hard drives.Scan Your DriveOn | | | | surface (use a level to make sure), and then restart. I |
| Windows XP, you can check your hard drive for | | | | was all set to give up on an older computer that was |
| errors by running the CHKDSK utility. Restart your | | | | doing the click/whir routine, but I noticed it wasn't sitting |
| computer and hold down the Ctrl key while it's booting | | | | on a level surface. As soon as I fixed that, the problem |
| up. When you see the option to start your system in | | | | was gone!That clicking sound MAY signal impending |
| Safe Mode, select it and continue. Click the Start | | | | hard drive failure, but keep in mind you don't always |
| button, then click Run, then type CHKDSK C: /F /R | | | | get such a warning. So play it safe... back up your files |
| then press Enter. The /R option tells CHKDSK to scan | | | | on a regular basis.BOB RANKIN... is a tech writer and |
| for bad disk sectors, and the /F option means to fix | | | | computer programmer who enjoys exploring the |
| any errors found. (On a Windows 98 system, use the | | | | Internet and sharing the fruit of his experience with |
| SCANDISK command instead of CHKDSK.)If | | | | others. His work has appeared in ComputerWorld, |
| CHKDSK offers to "convert lost chains to files", | | | | NetGuide, and NY Newsday. Bob is publisher of the |
| recover lost data, or fix something else, you should | | | | Internet TOURBUS newsletter, author of several |
| accept. (If CHKDSK tries to sell you a cheap Rolex, | | | | computer books, and creator of the website. |