Is My Hard Drive Dieing?

Ive had my f3jp since April, and recently I can hear my hardrive constantly making noises as if it's allways booting up. It used to be super quiet, even at start up. Now it is just getting annoying and very noticeable. Sorry if the hard drive description is too vague. Not sure how to bring this problem to your ears to hear.

Oh and another noise problem that ive noticed is my fan. It just started to get louder. Ive noticed it will speed up, slow down, then speed up again at start up.Once it reaches it's peek it stays at that speed, regardless of temps. Well, im assuming its at a higher speed becasue of the noise. It used to be quiet. I cleaned the vent and the fan, no changes. I just downloaded speedfan to see temps, right now it's saying core 0-28c and core 1-27c. Fan is still loud, any thoughts on either of my concerns?

 

Your core temps seem to be very good, no problem there. Maybe they are a little bit to cool even, what would be logical if your fans are always blowing. Mine usually are around 30-31 degrees Celsius. You could try turning them down a little to reduce noise, just keep an eye on the temps and make sure they don't get to high.

You forgot to mention if u use Windows XP, Vista, or another OS. If it's Vista then it's normal that it's active sometimes when you're not, it's probably doing some indexing or something. You can monitor it through source control if you want to know what it's doing exactly. How hot does your hdd get?
If you use XP or another OS; have you ever defraged your hdd?

But anyway, if you are sure the hdd makes more sound then it did once thats usually not a very good sign. Maybe it's wise to make some back-up's regularly just in case.

 

Yes, making a backup is the first thing you should do. Use an external HDD or DVDs or whatever means are easiest for you. The second step would be to check the SMART status of the HDD. Every manufacturer provides a custom utility to do that (usually an ISO image of a bootable CD).

I have links for the tools for two manufacturers:

Seagate: http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

Hitachi: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

About the fan: did you install any power management software lately (like NHC, RMClock, SpeedFan, Everest, etc.) If so that may be the problem. Also if you updated the BIOS, sometimes they change the temperature thresholds.

Otherwise I suggest you reinstall the ATK drivers (if you're at it you can install the latest version, check support.asus.com and look for your model and then ATK driver and/or ATK utility).