PC freeze

As some of you may recall, I recently posted several queries about a catastrophic hard drive (HD) failure affecting my primary PC (see signature below), catastropic because I was negligent and failed to back up the HD for 6-8 months. I am slowly rebuilding the database on the PC and its replacement HD from older saved data and the data my brother-in-law was able to recover from the errant HD.

In the meantime, I have been using my 2-year-old back-up PC. Surprisingly the back-up PC itself has been malfunctioning for several days. Basically the PC freezes during use at varying times after boot-up, ranging from 10 minutes to 2-3 hours. When the PC freezes, it emits a single, very distinctive metallic "click" sound. When this occurs, I cannot open or close any windows, programs, or files, and cannot access the shut-down and restart functions through the start key. After freezing, the PC doesn't emit any more "clicks" or other sounds. I have to crudely shut down and reboot the PC with the power button. During restart, about half the time, the PC goes into CHKDSK mode which deletes and recovers some non-descript files. As I am writing this, the back-up PC (I'm using my primary PC to write this) froze again while copying some files from it to an external hard drive; the only 2 windows open were the data folders, one for the PC, one for the external HD. I heard the characteristic click while writing this note and discovered the PC froze during the copy process. Again, I had to shut down the PC and reboot it with the power button.

My back-up PC specifications are:

Dell M1330 notebook PC
Intel Core2Duo T8300 CPU 2.4MHz
Windows Home Vista 32-bit
4GB RAM
Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD3200BEVT 320GB 5400RPM HD
Mata DVD+-RW UJ-857G ATA DVD recorder
Video/audio adapters Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset

Initially I erroneously thought the freeze occurred only while playing videos on Windows Media Player and VideoLAN media player. I verified the drivers for both are the latest versions and that both players are the most current editions. However, l discovered that the freezing occurs regardless of the PC tasks, such as the freeze episode described above. Its software security consists of Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), Malwarebytes (MWB), and the Windows firewall. The definitions of MSE and MWB are up to date and I always keep MSE running in real time with nothing detected in the past 2 weeks. Twice in the past week (most recently 2 days ago) I ran complete (not the quick ones) scans with MSE and MWB, again with no threats detected. I also attempted a Windows Vista OS repair with the original Windows Vista installation CD during start-up, but the PC indicated no problems or code errors were detected.

I have two possibilities/questions:

1. Despite the lack of errors detected during the Windows repair process at start-up, could the Vista OS be corrupted and require a complete reinstall? If the OS is corrupted, are there other ways of repairing the OS code such that a complete re-install can be avoided?

2. Could the metallic click sound that signifies the freeze herald a pending HD failure which also accounts for the freeze-ups?

I am greatly appreciative for any suggestions for diagnosis and treatment. Thanks much for reading and any suggestions.

 

Clicking noises from the HDD are typically a drive on it's way out. The sound you hear are the heads attempting to load over the platter surface and a retract away from the platter. And in some severe cases a power down of the drive.

Still sounds like a bad drive in your backup PC.

 

Thanks much for the responses and unified opinion. I learned my lesson from my last recent HD failure and last night copied all the important data from the failing HD to an external HD. Fortuitously Newegg still had an ongoing sale of the WD5000BEKT HD last night and I was able to order one shortly before the sale ended. I'm surprised, though, that the HD is failing, as it is only 2-2.5 years old and is a Western Digital (WD) which usually are durable and reliable; moreover its PC is a back-up and accordingly I haven't used it nearly as much as my primary PC. I also find odd and/or interesting that both of my notebook PCs suffered failing HD's 3 weeks apart. Regardless, this has been an interesting period for my PCs.

 

Yesterday I picked up from Newegg a Samsung Spinpoint 2TB, 32MB Cache, 5400RPM HDD for $79.99 and free shipping.

 

a non-unified opinion is that clicking noises, ONCE UPON A TIME, were universally considered to be a sign of a drive failure.

No more. Not for many years. Drives can fail without making a single noise. And some drives, when healthy and functioning 100%, make all kinds of noises.

Drive noises are specific to the mfgr/model of a disk drive. Some drive makers can tailor the 'acoustic signature' (noise) of a drive to suit the requirements of systems integrators.

Don't make generalizations about noises your disk drive may be making. Go to the mfgrs data sheets including any guides they publish for systems integrators.

 

Thanks for the thorough explanation of your problem. The clicking noise you're hearing is mechanical and therefore must be from the hard drive. For now, you should hope for the best and plan for the worst; as other members pointed out, back up your important data.

Next, go to Western Digital's website and download/run their LifeGuard Diagnostic utility made specifically for their drives. It'll check the SMART attributes of the drive for you. Let us know how it goes.

 

As Bog said thanks for the explanation, but i'll make a SWAG (Scientific Wild A$$ Guess) here. All signs point to a hard drive going bad as his symptoms match a failing hard drive. I've also been around the technology since I repaired Hawk and Phoenix drives for Control Data Corp and Winchester drives.

 

I greatly appreciate the responses and discussion about my PC's freezing situation and whether its HD is failing and the culprit. On Bog's recommendation, I located, downloaded, and ran the Western Digital Lifeguard diagnostic application on the HD. The quick test returned the following (Drive1 is the HD in question, WD3200BEVT):

Quicktest on Drive1 did not complete!
Status code = 07 (Failed read test element), Failure Checkpoint=97 (unknown test) SMART self-test did not complete on drive1!

I then attempted to run the extended (full) Lifeguard test, but the PC froze again when the test was about 40% complete and I had no choice but to crudely shut down the PC by its power button. As I am curious what the extended test will reveal, I will try to run it again, although since the intervals between freeze-outs seem to be decreasing substantially, this may not be possible. However, as the quicktest already apparently confirms the HD is failing, I surmise the extended test is not mandatory. I will replace the HD when the new one arrives from Newegg.

Thanks again for the helpful responses and discussion, and alerting me to the WD Lifeguard test.