My computer is making noises

[Lilaena De'Ville]

This is almost always a bad thing, yes? ^_^;

update: I've been diagnosed by sound as having a hard drive about to blow up. Hooray! I'm backing up everything I need to back up since my last back up, and then I suppose I'll ride this computer into the ground.

[Yog]

Can you describe the sound, and are you sure its coming from the harddrive (not cooling fans)? Funny noises from the HD is usually a warning of mechanical failure and looming death, so yeah, be very precautious and back up ALL your files of value. This includes, email, bookmarks, word documents, graphic files, website stuff, passwords, settings, and anything you might regret losing.

If the hd crash gods do strike, they wont care if its personal data. It would wipe out your entire windows system with all the files, and recovery is unlikely.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Well it was really getting fairly loud - sort of a higher pitch and louder noise than is normal...like it was running loudly? - I thought it might be my fan but my hubby and my brother both say they think it's probably my harddrive. It just got quiet again though, so I don't know what that means. ^_^;

[Yog]

If you're not afraid of opening your computer case, its an easy way to verify this. That is if the sound comes back:

1. Shut down computer.
2. Unplug harddrive power cord.
3. Start up computer. Windows won't boot obviously. But all your case fans, CPU fan, gfx card fan etc should still be spinning. If the sound is there, HD is not the problem..
4. Turn off, connect it all back together, and turn on computer to use windows again.

Of course, if the sound stopped, it makes it more difficult to diagnose. Its best to test when / if the sound returns.

[Yog]

In fact, even the sound does not return, you should still be able to find out for sure using that method. You said the sound was louder / higher pitch than usual, so you should recognise the sound of the device.

[Morgan Evanar]

You don't have to pitch your computer. You could likely get a larger hard drive for less than $100. :)

[Yog]

So true. HDs are cheap

[Jaime Tomahawk]

If my PC makes noises at me, I make noises back

[Park Kraken]

My case fans like to make noise for me when I start my computer up. My foot banging on the side of the case takes care of it.