Hardware Computer Clicking And Very Slow

[Intimidator88]

Hello all! A Co-worker let me borrow his Desktop PC to see why it would cut off shortly after it was turned on. Well after I replaced the power supply, his problem was fixed but I noticed it was running very slowly so I booted it up in Safe Mode to see if I could help it. Well even in safe mode it is running very slowly and making a double clicking noise every few seconds.
After awhile the noise will stop and the PC will run pretty smooth but once you try to do a few things (like browsing the internet or scanning with something) it will start clicking again ad become very slow again.

It's a older HP Desktop PC running windows Vista, Dual Core with 3 Gigs of Ram. On a side note the old power supply was a 200 watt and the new one is a 550 watt. I also caught a few viruses/spyware/PUPs but nothing real bad and I cleaned it up with CCleaner. Any ideas to what could be causing the clicking? Sounds like it's coming from the HDD but not 100% sure on that.

 

[Viri]

That honestly sounds like a hard drive issue. You could always try swapping out the hard drive, and see if the PC speeds up or run a hard drive test program to see for dead sectors, or w/e.

http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

 

[mashers]

I would advise against running any HDD test software at this point as they cause intensive HDD activity. A clicking HDD indicates a mechanical fault within the drive so you need to minimise the amount of activity the drive is carrying out. My suggestion is as follows:

• Put the HDD in a caddy and connect it to another computer
• Back up the entire drive. Just do a drag and drop filesysem level copy rather than attempting anything like taking a block level image as the latter will take longer and will result in a lot more HDD activity
• Replace the drive in your friend's computer
• Reinstall the OS. Don't restore the OS from the backup since drive issues could have corrupted a system file, and also backing up the files will have messed with their attributes and permissions
• Copy the data back over from the backup
• Now run scans on the original HDD if you're really interested to know why happened to it. However, I wouldn't bother personally since a HDD which is mechanically malfunctioning will mostly produce spurious errors
• Either destroy the original drive, or physically mark it as malfunctioning to make sure it does not get used accidentally

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Oh one other thing I forgot to say. If possible you should connect the old HDD to a computer running a different OS. The last thing you want is for the viruses and spyware on your friend's computer to infect yours. So if he's running Windows, try to connect his HDD to a Mac or Linux box.

 

[Intimidator88]

Thank for the replys! I ran a SMART check during start up and got a message saying "Hard Disk failure is imminent. Please back up for hard disk and have it replaced!" So I reckon you were dead on about the HDD going out sadly. I'll have to ask him tomorrow if he wants anything backed up before discarding it. I am currently running a Disk Check now just to see what results it gives though.

 

[izy]

would advise he upgrades to 7 can always get cheap CD keys online or use Daz loader, the resource usage from vista is horrendous

 

[Intimidator88]

More issues now. So he got the new HDD and I hooked it up but when I went to boot up it won't boot from the Windows 7 DVD, just says Disk Boot failed. I've used the DVD for other systems so I know it works and is bootable. Even doubled checked the cables to make sure I had everything hooked up correctly.

Some key notes.

Made sure to change the boot order in Bios to the DVD drive.
Old HDD had Vista on it and the DVD has Windows 7.
The computer does detect the HDD in Bios.

 

[Originality]

If changing boot order in BIOS doesn't work, and there's no option to force boot one device (sometimes by pressing F12 at the POST screen or an option within BIOS itself), then try using the install DVD to make an install USB drive.

Edit: just in case, here's the first guide that Google turns up: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...6f8e0-b475-4f3e-8b49-6ef167eead59?db=5&auth=1

There are many ways to do it, and many tools than can do it (you can even do it using only the cmd prompt, which I think was covered in that link too). I personally use rufus v2.6, but I forget if it can take a live DVD and turn that into a bootable USB or if it only works with ISOs.

 

[Intimidator88]

If changing boot order in BIOS doesn't work, and there's no option to force boot one device (sometimes by pressing F12 at the POST screen or an option within BIOS itself), then try using the install DVD to make an install USB drive.

Edit: just in case, here's the first guide that Google turns up: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...6f8e0-b475-4f3e-8b49-6ef167eead59?db=5&auth=1

There are many ways to do it, and many tools than can do it (you can even do it using only the cmd prompt, which I think was covered in that link too). I personally use rufus v2.6, but I forget if it can take a live DVD and turn that into a bootable USB or if it only works with ISOs.

Ok done everything in that guide and when I went to boot the PC I got a message that said "Bootmgr is missing, Press CRTL ALT DEL to restart"

Edit: Redid the bootable usb but used Rufus this time and it worked like a charm. Thanks alot for the help!