Laptop HDD making siren sounds on startup -- stuck spindle?

[Jack Nitro]

I have a studio 1735 laptop, and whenever I go to boot it up, the hard drive plays a siren noise for a few seconds and the computer fails to recognize the disk.

Now, from my (somewhat limited) knowledge of hard drives, a siren usually indicates a stuck spindle, no? While this would be an easy fix on a desktop pc, I'm not sure about a laptop. Am I right about the spindle, and if so, should I try to fix it myself?

 

[Jack Nitro]

I have a studio 1735 laptop, and whenever I go to boot it up, the hard drive plays a siren noise for a few seconds and the computer fails to recognize the disk.

Now, from my (somewhat limited) knowledge of hard drives, a siren usually indicates a stuck spindle, no? While this would be an easy fix on a desktop pc, I'm not sure about a laptop. Am I right about the spindle, and if so, should I try to fix it myself?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Are you sure that is not coming from the system speaker? Unless it is a screech, it's not a HDD sound.

 

[Slaymate]

I've never had a drive make a siren sound so I can't say it's spindle for sure, but I have heard that before. I am curious as to how you would try to fix it, unless you have a "clean room" it's not advised to remove the cover.

Edit: One thread per topic!

 

[Jack Nitro]

It sounds something like this:

I don't believe that mines a Seagate, but a lot of HDDs come with a built-in warning noise when the spindle is stuck/jammed/not recieving. Mine makes a two-tone alert sound.

EDIT: A friend of mine said that a jammed spindle is the first sign of a dying hard drive, and that if I can fix it, I should back it up asap. Is my hard drive actually dying/dead?