Windows 7 - Hard drive failing

I built a Sandy Bridge and foolishly used a Samsung 103J Spinpoint 1TB drive.

NOw being a first timer I just put it altogether and swircted on > loaded the OS -7 Home and began computing.

However the Samsung has made quite loud clicking / scratching noises form the start as it reads / writes and after two months this morning is making a *loud noise that I can only describe as an out of aligment rubber whell rubbing on the side of the case. THis is now loud enough for me to hear outside of thee room.

*(A thrum thrum noise as you get with an old ceiling fan sometimes)

I have been told that I should have set the drive up when I built the machine - partitioning the drive etc before loading the OS.

I have since installed two Seagate's - 1x500MB for back up and 1x1TB for storage - it was when I looked in Computer that I saw that the smaller one was listed as having a 10MB partition which I think I backed up the OS form the C: drive by copy / paste, and the 1TB ws not even there - arousing my curiosity as to why it was not listed.

So I am left feeling a bit of an idiot knowing that I should have researched it a bit more before going in gung ho with drives etc.

I ma thinking that perhaps my only recourse is to take out the Samsung and make th larger Seagate my OS drive after partitioning and formatting it.

I have a small 3.0USB external drive I have system images on which I am hoping to be able to use to recover some of my photos, passwords, apps etc - if this is possible even if it is only the important stuff.

Everything was going fine until now and it is now frozen solid, and I think only unplugging it from the main power supply will I be able to shut it down.

So is there anyone who is good at teaching an idiot that could point me in the right direction

Samsungs have a good reputation. You just got unlucky, as can happen with any brand.

Not sure what you mean by someone telling you that you should have "set up" the drive before installing the OS. There isn't much to do---just partition and format. You obviously did that or you could never have installed Windows on the drive.

Not sure what you are asking. If the Samsung is broken, get rid of it and go to Plan B, which I guess is to use the 1 TB Seagate as a boot drive. No problem with that.

All you have to do is decide how many partitions you want to put on it. You gotta have at least one. Many on this forum would tell you to use 2: the first for the OS and the second for data. With maybe 75 or 100 GB for the OS partition and the entire remainder for data.

Then decide what you are going to do about backup. The 500 gig Seagate may ultimately be too small for that purpose?

What exactly are your questions??????

There was apparently a bad batch of 103SJ's, which is unfortunate. You're the second guy in as many days who's said the same thing: the drive is noisy.

RMA the drive tomorrow. What you're describing is definitely not normal. I have a few 103SJ's and they are indeed badass. Stuff like this happens though... if you buy enough parts, sooner or later you're going to get a dud. I just recently had to RMA a 2500k... buying it wasn't foolish, and your pick wasn't foolish either.

Hope you get it sorted out soon.

Yes ignatzatronic thats what I was told to do to "set it up" - as in format / partition any drive on putting one in as you described - but I honestly don't remember doing that when I put it together in the first place. I just assembled the machine and just switched it on.

Would it have been possible for the motherboard (Gigabyte GA-H67A-UD3H-B3) to have detected it and set it up? as it seemed to go through a sequence of things without me touching it, I know the only thing I had to do after was to load the OS and set the BIOS to ?ACHI?

So it looks like plan B - back up to the external / power off / remove the Samsung, small Seagate, and the external / format / partition and install the OS on the the Seagate Barracuda 1TB ST31000524AS it seems to be a more solid looking built device to me anyway. In hindsight (wonderful thing what?) I would have spent say up to double the money and bought one of those black edition drives with a faster read rate but everyone seemed to think that the Samsung was the one to go for (probably because it was cheap and you get what you pay for don't you??).

The smaller Seagate after formatting it and removal - just keep it for a spare.

Now the info on the system image (external drive) can I use some of the data off of it after I get the Seagate set up? or do you think I should just use it as a spare as well.

Sorry to be such a nuisance but I was just so excited re building it and should have researched it a lot more than I did. Anyway thanks to both of you for your time and patience I really do appreciate it you know.

-- am going to get some more tabs for my flu and then start

The partitioning and formatting was presumably done by the Windows install disc early on before Windows was actually installed. That would be the standard procedure.

Samsungs have at least as good a reputation as Seagate and might be a bit behind Western Digital in the rankings, but any can go bad. I just think you had bad luck.

I don't know what your current backup scheme is, but if you are going to do a fresh Windows install you need to essentially go through the same procedure you did on your original build---backup personal files (video, email, mp3s, bookmarks, any downloaded programs, etc) and then boot from your Windows disc. Disconnect anything other than the 1 TB Seagate before you begin.

After you get Windows installed, then you can reconnect the backup drive and copy your data back.

Give some thought to your partitioning scheme as mentioned in my first post before you begin---do you want just 1 partition or 2. You can install Windows on a little partition of say 100 GB and make the second partition AFTER you install Windows if you in fact want 2 partitions. If not, just go with a single 1 TB partition and let Windows make it and format it during the install process like you did before.

I don't know that you would need anything from the system image assuming you are doing a fresh install and have your data backed up through some non-imaged means.

If you hadn't "setup" the drive, there's no way Windows' installer would have continued. There's no real "process" to do before you run the installer. In fact, I prefer to install to blank drives anyway. During the setup process, you'll have a chance to format it, or choose to format some of it as a partition. If not, you won't be continuing.

Have removed the Samsung and just left the 1TB Seagate in there and it is so quiet the Nexus silent fans are louder. In fact if this was not showing the screen then I wouldn't know it was even spinning - it's just so quiet.

Now I just powered up put in the Windows disk and it all seems to be running fine and is this what I should be seeing in computer management?? If not I haven't got much more than my security on it and can go back and do it again if I have to, as it has seemed to partitioned itself like the Samsung did.

Opinions please to make sure I've got it right this time or not.

Oh and have tried to access my back ups but I just keep getting something about no access because of the sort of files they are.

Looks normal to me.

Is it critical that you get at your backups? If so, are they part of an image file and what application did you use to create the image?

No ignatzatsonic It was just that I had most of the photos passwords and the minor spelling type apps and the like in there but I can work through them.

I was more concerned that I had it right this time and that I learnt quite a bit from the drive failing and subsequent re installation info that flowed on from yourselves I am eternally grateful for all that everyone has put in for me.


I truly did have no idea re the setting up of a drive I was just a rank amateur and thought that it was just a matter of putting it in and turning everything on. In fact I intend doing another build reasonably soon and will be that much better prepared eh?

You are all just a nice lot of fellows in this forum I am so glad I found it (by a typing error in a Google search as it happens) and reckon I have at least doubled my knowledge since joining up.

Once again thanks so much for your time and most of all patience, because I know how you blokes must feel at times with individuals who do are not that savvy.


Oh sorry - I just used the Back up & Restore in the Control Panel to do those system images.