Hard drive rattling

[Computer0304]

My hard drive rattles every time it reads or writes something. Should I worry about this or not? :sarc:
I ran chkdsk and there were no bad sectors and the drive passed SMART test.
I had this drive for 5 years but nothing has slown down. The hard drive is a Seagate ST3160815AS.

 

[indianacarnie]

A drive "rattling" is never a good thing. If its 5 years old then its nearing the end of its operational life irregardless of any tests ran. I'd be preparing for the worst if I were you . Back up anything and everything you want to keep and do this quickly if you haven't already. Get your recovery media ready for a new installation too and any paid programs and games you want to keep.

We have many talented people here and many fine tutorials, heres links to a few of the latter in case you haven't replaced a hdd before.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/67662-sata-hard-drive-how-install-setup.html

If you have any problems , we're here to help!

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Do not run or do anything with the drive until you get all the data on it backed up! And so so ASAP! A five year old drive that starts rattling is most likely on its last legs and could completely fail at anytime.

 

[OvenMaster]

I'd be concerned if this drive's rattling sounds are new, rather than if they have been heard since day one.
One of my storage drives is an IDE 80GB Western Digital Protégé (WD800EB) that came from an old eMachines. It's clattered and clanked and clicked since I got it in 2003. The SMART data shows it's still in fine shape, and I've lost no data, ever, so I use it as a backup drive.

By comparison, I had an absolutely silent IDE Seagate 320GB drive fail six months after the five year warranty ended. No noise, but lots of data loss.

It is my own personal opinion that newer drives just aren't made as well as older ones. I think that you get what you pay for, and today's new hard drives are cheaply made because they're disposable. I'm at the point where the next time I look for a hard drive, I will look for older models or even used ones, rather than pay for new, cheap junk.

 

[Golden]

I would first check to see that its not the screws that hold the drive in the case chassis, that are loose and rattling.

 

[Computer0304]

The rattling came from day one and also my laptop makes a more quiet sound like this. But the sound is pretty annoying... But just to be safe is there any good hard drive utillity tools that you guys know? I want to be able to check detailed S.M.A.R.T info. And I do not want the ones that comes with other programs. So what you guys are saying is that I'm lucky that the hard drive is still functioning. Nothing has slown down. My laptop got slower before getting a S.M.A.R.T. warning. And I scared to break something in the computer while checking the drive's screws. BTW the laptop was newer than this computer. But I do have a 5 year old external drive that could barely play videos on it. But its okay if that hard drive dies because all its contents are copied on a different hard drive. And I shouldn't worry about the computer's drive anyway beacause its contents are backed up already. I just want to test its speed for being 5 years old.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The rattling came from day one and also my laptop makes a more quiet sound like this. But the sound is pretty annoying... But just to be safe is there any good hard drive utillity tools that you guys know? I want to be able to check detailed S.M.A.R.T info. And I do not want the ones that comes with other programs. So what you guys are saying is that I'm lucky that the hard drive is still functioning. Nothing has slown down. My laptop got slower before getting a S.M.A.R.T. warning. And I scared to break something in the computer while checking the drive's screws. BTW the laptop was newer than this computer. But I do have a 5 year old external drive that could barely play videos on it. But its okay if that hard drive dies because all its contents are copied on a different hard drive. And I shouldn't worry about the computer's drive anyway beacause its contents are backed up already. I just want to test its speed for being 5 years old.

S.M.A.R.T. can warn you of impending HDD failure but a HDD can fail without any S.M.A.R.T. warning at all.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

As mentioned before it would be advisable to back all important data up before torture testing this drive. Seagates can be noisy drives but I've never had a drive sound like a rattle. A mechanical sound of the armature moving or clicking can be one thing and though not a great sound the drive can still perform and test well. Only two types of hard drives, those that have failed and those about to !

 

[indianacarnie]

I use HD Tune 2.55 myself. Its free. Heres a link : HD Tune Free Download - HDD Managers

I also use/have HWiNFO64 : Download HWiNFO64 - MajorGeeks

They both will give you more information than you need

 

[Faladu]

I would follow the advice here and get a new HD and copy the current partitions over to it.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

In a total disaster, I really only need my password tool and bookmarks, I back them up to multiple pen drives frequently, needed use for the now tiny 128meg ones, any way.

 

[Computer0304]

Is hdtune safe? Does hdtune modify anything important on a pc? And does it download other stuff with it?

 

[Computer0304]

I know it's been 4 months but i think thats just seagate drives being theirself and noisy. I think i overreacted in the beginning. I was just worried because i never heard this from other people's drives. I guess Seagate HDDs are just noisy. But i forgot to say that it only happens durning read/write.