Computer making strange sound at startup...

[Vaanish]

Recently (the 3 last times i havce booted up my PC), a strange noise has started to come out of my computer... It occurs after the bios startup screen, and before this screen.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/images/XP Pro Setup Graphic/OO.gif

It is a werid sound. The only way to describe it, is that it sounds like a woodpecker pecking at wood. (lol that sounds stupid but it is the only thing that i can think of) it makes the sound like 6 times, then proceeds booting as normal... Do you have any ideas?

Thanks in advance...

 

[peterhuang913]

Its the hard drive head. It sounds like click click or clack clack. This most likely means the hard drive is failing or maybe it's just doing a boot sequence and looking for files. If this never happened before, backup and wait till it dies.

 

[Vaanish]

Yes, so this would be related to the fact that the computer occasionaly makes a high pitched sound, like a scratching sound?

 

[peterhuang913]

Doe it sound like this or this?

 

[Vaanish]

The problem at startup sounds like the first one, only it is rapid, and with no breaks in between the sounds.

 

[networkgeek]

The problem at startup sounds like the first one, only it is rapid, and with no breaks in between the sounds.

backup your data asap and buy a new harddrive.

esp since the clicking doesnt have breaks. that means that yes the head is going bad. and windows is probably trying to map the bad sectors out every time it boots.

it is impossible to know how much longer till the drive fails completely. could be a day, a few minutes. years <shrug>

 

[Vaanish]

Thanks for your help. I will be sad if it dies though, this 20GB Maxtor has served me well.

 

[networkgeek]

Thanks for your help. I will be sad if it dies though, this 20GB Maxtor has served me well.

hehe I am right with you on that. I have 2 20 gb maxtors that have lasted me about 6-7 years

sometimes drives just fail though. the moving parts just wear out. best to backup before it either stops moving the head completely or the head crashes. ie hits the drive plate

the sound you hear is the head actuallly slapping against the inside of the drive casing. very bad thing