Gaming My HDD is spinning fast loudly all the time since today

[Fel]

I have a small problem - I had my PC on during the night as usual and when I came in the morning and switched it on (because about an hour earlier somebody put it to sleep) suddenly my harddisk began spinning very fast, doing this weird sound similar to a fan working at maximum speed. It's like a really quick "tur tur tur tur tur" sound and it's heating up the PC, though not much - but the case is slightly warm as if I had been playing some games every time I switch it on even when it has been turned off for few hours.

I opened the PC with my bro and we cleaned all the dust out of it so that wasn't the problem.

Any tips?

 

[Foxi4]

How old is the hard drive?

 

[Fel]

About two years? Maybe three.

 

[Foxi4]

Odd. That's not much at all. What brand is the hard drive? It sounds like the bearings are starting to wear off. It's only natural and happens to hard drives, especially when you move them/use them alot.

 

[Nimbus]

Has it been clicking at any point, whether now, or at any earlier point in it's life like the one in this video

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6sA_YUYjYE&feature=related[/youtube]


Or making any similar noises or variations on that noise.

If it is, your hard drive most likely is about to take the biggest "you know what" it's ever done in it's life.

 

[Foxi4]

I believe he reffers to a completely different sound - this one is clearly clicking, he described it as a "fast fan", which leads me to a rather different conclusion.

Hard drives with worn off bearings will still hold data perfectly well, but I agree, they are on their way to complete destruction in a matter of a year or two. That's why I think it's odd, since the drive is relatively "young".

 

[Fel]

It's nothing like the video, it's not clicking - it's like a fast fan, but I can hear that it's not the fan.

My HDD is Western Digital, WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B2 ATA.

I'll also add that it was making this weird sound when once I accidentally completely filled my C: so that it had only 1GB left but once I deleted the data it stopped doing it. However right now all my disks have some space left so that shouldn't be the problem. Curiously enough when I deleted some stuff and restarted the PC the sound stopped but after jacking in external HDD and doing some stuff it first began (together with the monitor) emitting a high pitched sound, then switched itself off and when it came back on the HDD once again began spinning fast.

 

[Nimbus]

It's nothing like the video, it's not clicking - it's like a fast fan, but I can hear that it's not the fan.

My HDD is Western Digital, WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B2 ATA.

I'll also add that it was making this weird sound when once I accidentally completely filled my C: so that it had only 1GB left but once I deleted the data it stopped doing it. However right now all my disks have some space left so that shouldn't be the problem. Curiously enough when I deleted some stuff and restarted the PC the sound stopped but after jacking in external HDD and doing some stuff it first began (together with the monitor) emitting a high pitched sound, then switched itself off and when it came back on the HDD once again began spinning fast.

The high-pitches sound strikes me as a power issue, as we had a set of speakers that did that once. Have you made sure the hard drive's power cable (External ones and internal) are plugged in properly and aren't damaged and whatnot.

It also sounds like your hard drive is struggling to process and retrieve data, how much space you got left on it?

 

[Fel]

The cable is properly plugged it plus the high-pitched sound happened only once. I also removed the cable when cleaning the PC so now it's definitively plugged in the right way.

Hm, I've got 15,7 GB on C: (368 GB total and it's in red), 10,7 GB on D : (48,8 GB total, blue) and 8,04 GB on E: (48,8 GB total again and blue too). However I had about 5 GB left on C: previously and it didn't make the weird sound, only when it was down to 1 GB.

 

[Foxi4]

Have you ever defragmented your drive at all? I suggest doing that and then checking if it carries on "struggling".

 

[Nimbus]

The cable is properly plugged it plus the high-pitched sound happened only once. I also removed the cable when cleaning the PC so now it's definitively plugged in the right way.

Hm, I've got 15,7 GB on C: (368 GB total and it's in red), 10,7 GB on D : (48,8 GB total, blue) and 8,04 GB on E: (48,8 GB total again and blue too). However I had about 5 GB left on C: previously and it didn't make the weird sound, only when it was down to 1 GB.

I'd say that C: Is probably the culprit, what on gods green earth are you storing that's taking up that much. RED=Low on space.

Defragment it first, then sort out stuff that you don't need and move it onto some other device, like another external Hard drive.

That reminds me...I need to sort out my /home partition at some point on my Arch Linux install.

 

[Fel]

The cable is properly plugged it plus the high-pitched sound happened only once. I also removed the cable when cleaning the PC so now it's definitively plugged in the right way.

Hm, I've got 15,7 GB on C: (368 GB total and it's in red), 10,7 GB on D : (48,8 GB total, blue) and 8,04 GB on E: (48,8 GB total again and blue too). However I had about 5 GB left on C: previously and it didn't make the weird sound, only when it was down to 1 GB.

I'd say that C: Is probably the culprit, what on gods green earth are you storing that's taking up that much. RED=Low on space.

Defragment it first, then sort out stuff that you don't need and move it onto some other device, like another external Hard drive.

That reminds me...I need to sort out my /home partition at some point on my Arch Linux install.

But isn't it strange that before it could be at 5 GB and it wouldn't make this sound? I'll try it though. And wouldn't it be better to first delete stuff and then defragment it? I'll try it once I get back home, thanks!

I do defrag regularly, it's set to do it by itself each week or two at night.

EDIT: And I forgot to answer your question - well, we do have quite a number of games installed and store some animes/TV shows.

 

[Fel]

I've tried clearing up some space and defragmenting it but still nothing. It continues to read/write all the time.