PCTech Forums

Hi all,


My computer just started this today. ok, so i hit the power switch on my computer and it boot's up normally, but then when it gets to the Windows Xp Pro loading screen, my HDD starts to make a clicking noise. Like a Floppy Disk being written (but less noise).

now, everytime when i hit the power button my computer. I hear that noise immediatly, and my computer will not start up.

Please help, any ideas?

Is my HDD busted? or does it just need a tap on it to shake it in place?

"man, if it is busted, i'm so screwed becuase i have years work of project on it."

That noise is call "The Click of Death"
Stop trying to start the system it only makes it worse.
Get yourself a new HDD set it as master, disconnect the old one, load windows onto the new drive
Once it is up and running put the old drive in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer for at least 2 hours.
Set the old drive as slave and start your system there is a good chance that the drive will spin up.
If it does spin up get everything off of it you can, it will be the last time it will run.

I have used this method twice to recover data from a dieing drive and it worked once and failed once.

If its a Western Digital and you have the floppy that came with it you can run the diagnostics, I've had it knock the click out of one or two systems, the knock is the reading head traveling too far, but most of the time, as Gecko suggest its not a good sign.

You can also download the tools from WDC here is the link



I have found, that hooking up the bad drive as a slave might give you some time to copy files over to a good drive. We are talking about 5 to 10 minutes. you have to know where you are going and type fast.

Hope this helps, good luck