Hard drive making funny noise

[TheMajor]

I would use the type of harddrive you are using now and replace it. Unless you got enough money, your mobo supports it and you want to upgrade to SATA.

You could also copy the entire HD. Use Norton Ghost, DriveImage or V2i to make an image from your old harddrive, save it on the USB drive and restore it to the new drive. Thisway you will keep your Windows.

 

[fifreak3]

How do I determine if my mobo supports SATA? Also, are there any free utilities for cloning drives?

 

[fifreak3]

Bump!

 

[TheMajor]

Check the manual. Or check the manufacturer's website for your mobo's specs.

You can also try a program like Everest or Sisoft Sandra to determine to features.

 

[Apokalipse]

see if your motherboard has 2 red plugs next to each other, sometimes they're black though
if you have a motherboard made before this year you probbaqbly don't have SATA

 

[TheMajor]

 

[fifreak3]

Well thanks for all your help everyone. I checked out my mobo and it did not the plugs that apokalipse described. However, that might not be the problem anymore. I opened up the tower and disconneted each drive (both hard drives, floppy, CD, and DVD drive) and turned on the computer between each device I unplugged and after I unplugged everything it still made the noise. I was cleaning out everything with compressed air and I noticed a fan on my video card (Radeon 9000 All In Wonder Pro) that was caked with dirt. I cleaned it out and it the noise seemed to go away, but it might still be buzzing. I think it might be my power supply. Is it safe to unplug the video card and turn the computer on to rule out the noise coming from the video card?

 

[TheMajor]

Yes, you can do that. It will beep all the time but it should work.

 

[fifreak3]

Ok, so I opened the tower and turned it on with the video card seated and without. It only made the noise when the video card was seated, so I guess it must be the video card. I cleaned the fan on the video card, but it still makes some extra noise. What should I do next. The video card is a Radeon 9000 All-In-Wonder Pro. Thanks. I will take a picture of the blue screen next time I see it and post it too.

 

[sPlAtOiD]

You might want to backup your email addresses and bookmarks.