Hello all,
I'm working on a neighbor's laptop. I believe the problem is a failing HDD, but I just want to see what others think before I recommend they go out and replace it (and immediately backup their data).
The symptoms:
It should be noted that this person has 2 antivirus suites (Mcafee and Norton) installed. I have yet to uninstall one, but I don't suspect that is the issue in this case due to the fact that the memory and CPU usage isn't anywhere near 100%. I tried running /chkdsk /r overnight but don't see a huge difference in performance. However, when I checked the System event logs in the mroning there was a Warning item stating that the drive was in danger of failing. I'm not sure if that was a result of the /chkdsk but that's the only time I've seen it so far.
I just wanted to see if there's anything obvious I'm missing or if there's any tests I could run to be 100% certain before I tell them their 1 year old HDD is dieing and needs to be replaced. I appreciate everyone's feedback! Thanks!
I'm working on a neighbor's laptop. I believe the problem is a failing HDD, but I just want to see what others think before I recommend they go out and replace it (and immediately backup their data).
The symptoms:
- HDD makes clicking noise while in use
- System runs very slow - I tried to open a saved Word doc and after 30 mins it was still loading; I tried a second time later in the day and it didn't seem to open at all
- System was very slow to boot (7+ mins) and is slow to shut down - I disabled all of the startup services and the boot time has gotten much better (1-2 mins)
- CPU and memory don't seem to be running near 100% but HDD usage seem to spike when opening/closing applications
It should be noted that this person has 2 antivirus suites (Mcafee and Norton) installed. I have yet to uninstall one, but I don't suspect that is the issue in this case due to the fact that the memory and CPU usage isn't anywhere near 100%. I tried running /chkdsk /r overnight but don't see a huge difference in performance. However, when I checked the System event logs in the mroning there was a Warning item stating that the drive was in danger of failing. I'm not sure if that was a result of the /chkdsk but that's the only time I've seen it so far.
I just wanted to see if there's anything obvious I'm missing or if there's any tests I could run to be 100% certain before I tell them their 1 year old HDD is dieing and needs to be replaced. I appreciate everyone's feedback! Thanks!