My X31 HD keeps on cranking

I recently bought an X31 thinkpad off-lease (it's my very first laptop) and as I'm using it,the hard drive keeps on cranking (i.e. grinding noise) as if it's constantly active.

Not a minute goes by that the HD indicator lite doesn't lite up green & active. It also keeps up a steady crank/crank/crank/crank matching the rhythm of my breathing.

Is this normal?

I don't experience this with my Dell desktop that I purchased new.

I also can't stand this keyboard. It's cramped and uncomfortable, with hard-to-access keys. Also the spacebar has poor response, resulting in run-on words.

I'm seriously considering purchasing a dual mouse/keyboard adaptor, since both keyboard and trackpoint are VERY uncomfortable forme.

 

Is system performance also slowing down? This could possibly indicate hard drive failure. You should drop in another hard drive if possible to see if the same issue occurs.

 

Run HD Tune on the drive see what it says.

 

Actually, my Dell/XP desktop system has become even slower.
The latter is probably due to both my dialup and 256mb RAM

Whereas the X31 is probably only due to my dialup.

P.S. I'll have to check out what HD Tune is all about.

 

OK, I just looked up the HD Tune site. I gather they offer a free service via email to anyone wishing to know if their HD is OK?

Part 2 of their FAQ (Verifying Performance of HD) was over my head.

OTHER OPTION:

I can opt to bring my laptop to a local technician for a free diagnostic. He charges about $150 for a new 40 gig hard drive including installation.

Thing is, taking it to a tech brings up privacy concerns, because I'd transferred my personal data to the X31. Maybe cookies as well since I've been surfing for a number of hours, or anything else I may not be aware of.

So my next question is:

If I delete my History & Favorites & Documents & Recycle-Bin will that wipe out my personal stuff? I'm not worried about deletions since I have backup. I've just used it for a day or so, there's nothing much new on there besides browsing history.

P.S. Since as previously mentioned, the spacebar offers such poor response, does that mean that the laptop was probably heavily used by the previous owner? I can't understand the spacebar problem, because I've been using my LITEON desktop-keyboard for maybe 15 years, and MANY hours, and it's still serving faithfully, as good as when new. I'd bought it at a computer fair in those good 'ole days, and I love it. BTW, note the X31's LCD also sorta has a light [non-intrusive] scratch.

 

HD Tune is a free hard drive diagnostic tool which can tell you the health of you hard drive. Download the installer file and and run it on your machine. Then run HD Tune and see what it says.

You can probably buy a drive for less than $50 on the internet, just make sure you get the right connector. The X31 uses an ide connector. The hardware maintenance manual on Lenovo's site will explain how to replace it. It literally will probably take you less than five minutes to swap the drives. If you don't have the recovery discs, you'll have to buy them from Lenovo. They were $45 last time I checked. They keyboard is easily replaced as well. Good Luck.

 

Thanks!
Re: recovery disk - I recently got a Win2000 installation disk, but I don't know how to go about downloading drivers for the X31. It's sorta a catch-22 because I'd need to use the laptop to download drivers onto CD, since the laptop has a DVD-RW (supposedly it's RW - since that's how it was advertised). My desktop only has a CD-ROM drive.

I downloaded & ran the below, but suddenly (as you can see on the 3rd GIF below) a message popped up re: HD reaching a critical temperature. So I stopped the errorscan immediately & just did a screenshot

 

Go here, and put in your machine type. It will give you access to all the drivers for you machine. If you have the IBMTools folder on you machine, that will have all the apps and drivers. If you use a Windows CD, you will lose the use of the Access IBM button if you care.

 

Re: Downloading drivers - is it safe to use my laptop if the temp of HD is so critical (as per above screenshots?

According to my above HD Tune screenshots, do you think I need a new HD?

If it is safe to use my laptop, am I correct in following the below sequence:

(1) Insert one of my 700mb 48x [shrink-wrapped] Maxell CD-R into the DVD-RW drive.
Bear in mind I'm a newb at this process - it'll be my 1st dealing with DVD. Until now I only had CD-ROM on desktop.
Maybe this step should follow steps 2-3 below?

(2) go the the Lenovo link you provided. Click on AutoDetect My System

(3) alternatively, I should figure out where System Tools are on my X31
OR: alternatively, I need to enter a Type for my X31 (or select All Types? and select Win2000 (or select All Operating Systems Listed?

Then what?

Also:
If I need a new HD, which offers the best deals/shipping for all these:

HD (which brand/price)?

USB to PS/2 Dual Adapter (my mice/keywords are PS/2

USB Flash-Memory (Mine is only 128mb. I should get a USB pen with more memory.
I just took a look at this, & my head swam:
http://www.memorysuppliers.com/cuus...ngid=9959581&gclid=CNqFt9bB340CFSEQZgodAn9isA

 

I'd appreciate if someone can spare the time to address my above followup Qs. Thanks!

BTW, the reason I sometimes have delayed responses is because computer fluoresence causes me bad symptoms including dry eye, inflammations, etc. so I need to ration computer time (Just explaining)