Noisy Harddrive

[shrimply]

Hi, again. I don't know if you remember but shorty after I joined I had a big problem with my Dads computer hard drive, as in it was broken.

 

It was taken away by a friend who fitted us a new harddrive, A pretty expensive new harddrive at £40 i thought, but since that was the only thing he charged us for and he installed XP pro free of charge we were very grateful.

 

Now I'm hardy on the computer but I've just been trying to fix the router ( beeping orange) and noticed the hard drive is really noisy, well not really noisy but you can hear it clearly working away the whole time your on the computer, and baring in mind its only a couple of months old and the whole computer was cleaned at that time, In my opinion it shouldn't be that noisy. Is there likely to be a problem, or should I just leave it well alone. The only reason I haven't been inside the PC is because I couldn't be bothered to get a screwdriver but its probably best that way.

[maynardvdm]

Hi Shrimply

 

Have you done error checking on the hard drive?

 

Go to Start -> Run and in the box type chkdsk /f (space between k and /)

 

Press Y at the prompt.

[shrimply]

Thanks, I have now, and there doesn't seem to be any problems.

[maynardvdm]

Is the hard drive still noisy?

[shrimply]

Yeah, just the same, I doubt there's anything wrong. Its just in my limited experience you shouldn't really hear a harddrive unless your writing to it.

[maynardvdm]

I would make regular backups just to be safe.

 

I dont know what the other members think of this, but as far as i know hard drives are fairly quiet.

[RandyL]

Indeed the new hard drives are very quiet compared to the old ones that existed. Since you said your computer was cleaned of dirt that really only leaves four possibilities.

 

Your hard drive is bad. Even new ones can be bad.

An old or cheap drive was installed.

You have a fan that is bad and making noise.

You have something taxing the drive that shouldn't be.

 

As maynard said make regular backups. If the drive fails you're out of luck.

 

How did your friend install XP Pro free of charge on the new drive. What did you have before? Do you have the CD's?

[shrimply]

Hi, Yeah, we'll make sure we back up the data. I'll have a look later and get the make of the drive etc, I am kind of bad for breaking things though.

 

Not entirely sure about the XP installation, we had XP home before and he wanted to reinstall that but couldn't get hold of the disks.

 

This next part could be nonsense but its my understanding, he installs XP pro for his business customers on computers, so he's set us up as a client, I think. Its all legit, or at least we were told it was. So we don't have the disks, but could probably get hold of them if they are needed.

Edited May 20, 2008 by shrimply

[RandyL]

I'm sorry shrimply but it is not legit.

 

The business may have a license for multiple installations but only for that company and only for the amount licensed. Microsoft has different plans for their products.

 

What your friend has done is illegally installed XP Pro on that computer via a corporate license. It is a common form of circumventing Microsofts policies and is highly illegal. Many such holders of this violate the intent and use it to install it on other systems whether it is for profit or for free.

 

If it were legally obtained and installed it would have cost some serious money.

 

I know you and know you did not participate knowingly but our policy is we can not help you as this software/OS is is not legally obtained and/or installed. Sorry.

 

RandyL

[shrimply]

Thats Ok, we'll try and get XP home installed on the Computer again as soon as possible, as I said I'm not sure exactly what he does, but he sets up businesses computers for them and he explained exactly how it worked to my dad, he isn't the sort of person who would lie, but i completely understand you polices.

 

Thanks for the help.

Edited May 20, 2008 by shrimply

[RandyL]

Thanks for understanding shrimply. But trust me. XP pro costs hundreds of dollars. U.S. You can't install it for free legally. One copy and one price for home users.

 

I'll close this thread now as is our policy.