Thread: Hard drive ramping up and down?

Originally Posted by neksmerj

Q1.Just recently my hard drive speed is ramping up and down. I'm assuming it's the hard drive and not the fan.

It seems to happen more often when graphics are involved such as Flightradar24.com

I know I'm light on for memory, my pc is about 6 years old running XP.

Q2. Is there a way to reinstall Windows XP without losing any data or programs?

Ken

Yep,
Boot from XP install disc.
start a normal install and do the SECOND option that has an R as its selection. So NOT the first...

can't remember if its Repairs or Re-installs. But not the first R selectable, use the second and it will keep users, data desktops etc, It just puts back all the windows files.
Not sure how this is going to fix your HD from powering up and down.
If its a notebook running on battery thats what they do, You can tell it in CP/power settings to not slow the HD down to save energy.

1 Hard drive will be on or off, constant disk speed when on, but the heads activity is variable depending on how much data is being written/recovered. Drive would normally only go dormant if there has been no drive activity for quite a time as they need to park the head and wind down to stop, then wind up and unpark the head to restart, takes a couple of second each way. Controlled from Control Panel>Power Options>Power Schemes. Issue could be head transits due to the amount of data being paged to HD and recovered, of it could be grahics card fan cutting in as the card works harder and generates more heat.

2 Yes assuming you are a good boy. Back all required data and preferences/settings to another drive and verify it. Reinstall you personally owned copy of XP from the CD, provide the reg key from the C of A, load antivurus and update, update drivers and XP to current specs, reinstall all programs from their distribution CDs and supply reg keys etc originally supplied with them, then restore backup data and preferences/settings. Should end up witha faster running install as you loose all the rubbish from the games/programs etc that you don't want to reinstall, and a more compact registry.

2 No if you have a computer from a funny source that came with installed software but no original CDs, keys, Cof A's etc. You can back up the entire drive and restore it onto another drive, shouldn't loose anything, but you won't see much in the way of a performance improvement as you keep the same fragmented registry etc that were slowing you down. Only benefit would be ability to have a larger drive to use.

A hard drive in a computer case should be pretty hard to hear, and it won't make a speed up/speed down noise on any sort of regular basis - if a drive hasn't been accessed in about 10-15 minutes it'll spin down, but it's rare for a drive with the OS on it to spin down while the PC is in use.

If it's an audible spin up/spin down noise, the best bet is the graphics card, followed by the CPU cooler and case fan if you have one. Open the case and get the old paintbrush out to see how much fluff you can remove.

Everything already written is quite correct but I'm a little more pessimistic when dealing with noisy hard drives. If you have only just noticed a noise where none existed before, treat it as a warning that HDD can and do die at the drop of a hat. It would be wise to plan and prepare for that eventuality.

Make sure you have backed up anything you wish to keep. Consider a system backup *and* a data backup. Having the two gives flexibility in how your replace faulty bits or recover from disaster should it occur. Make sure you can find install disks and licence info for your s/w. There are various s/w suites and apps around that will interrogate XP and report some, if not all, of the serial numbers/licence keys for s/w installed on your machine. This isn't foolproof but if you can't find printed or written records it may help.

External HDD are cheap (esp. compared to when your computer was shiny and new) so if you don't own one then now is the time to buy one. Several dozen USB sticks might work but a big fat external HDD is better.

If all is well and it's just the demands of s/w on an aging, under-resourced machine or the techniques already suggested get rid of the noise, you still have lost nothing but will have gained some peace of mind.

My 2cents.

PS You mention your computer being short on memory - is this for the apps you wish to run or the machine in general, can you fit more and what does it take ? I may have some sticks to suit you can have for nothing if the right kind.


edit: system backup suggested does not mean just o/s, I mean a kind of snapshot of your working computer complete with installed s/w.

I'm with Dabbler on this.

Back it all up right now.

If it is a desktop unit with the old style power connectors, give them a good clean.

But backit up anyway. If the noise you hear is the hard drive , it is about to roll over and die.