My HDD is “ticking” and freezing my pc

Asked By Username 320 points N/A Posted on - 06/23/2011

Hi,

I am running Windows XP SP3 in regular load, and my HDD is a Samsung (I don't know about the exact model, i can check if needed). My problem is that, i boot my pc, start working on normal tasks (say surfing the web), and after some minutes my HDD start doing a noise similar to a "Tick", like if it were skipping over data constantly.

It does it a few seconds and then it continues. In the meantime, the PC freezes completely, and then also continues normally. I'm wondering if it may be related to some bad cooling, which i don't really think as i am in a cold region and its winter now, or a disc failure, and how would i go to diagnose it? I need some urgent advice as in case its a bad issue i should backup everything right away.

Thanks.

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• Question Category: Hardware

Best Answer by jhony_deep

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Answered By jhony_deep 0 points N/A #107170

My HDD is “ticking” and freezing my pc

Dear

On top priority take backup of your all data. Tick tick voice mean, your hard drive is going to die very soon. There are many heads in one hard drive and when any head of drive hang, voice of tick tick produce and system is going to hang / freeze. Two year before i have also samsung hard drive and due to same problem my hard was dead. Its a hardware problem not software so any diagnostic utility or repairing software did not over come on this problem.

Take backup and replace your hard drive as soon as possible.

take care

jhony

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• Posted on - 06/23/2011
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Answered By j.paul 5 points N/A #107171

My HDD is “ticking” and freezing my pc

You definitely need to back up your data and replace your HDD ASAP. There are many tools you can use to Check/ Verify your HDD. As you are using Samsung HDD, its better to download this application to check your HDD. 

ESTOOL (a HDD checking utility from Samsung)

There is another tool Known as CoreTemp, it also checks the HDD temperature and also provides HDD Checking utility.

Also Windows have inbuilt Chkdsk command which you can invoke from dos.

 

 

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• Posted on - 09/12/2011
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Answered By Sharath Reddy 590495 points N/A #301590

My HDD is “ticking” and freezing my pc

The “ticking” on the hard drive indicates that the computer is reading data from a damaged sector or bad sector. It “ticks” because the computer tries to read data from the damaged area over and over that’s why the machine freezes once in a while. It doesn’t mean that your hard drive is failing unless you receive a S.M.A.R.T. error.

That problem is pretty normal on hard drives and is a sign of wear and tear as you use your computer. You only need to fix it and it will be back to normal. Download PC Tools Performance Toolkit then follow the instructions to download and unpack and then install it. Once installed, launch PC Tools then go to “Recovery” tab and click “Repair Drives.”

On the next screen, select “Surface Scan” and check “Perform on reboot.” Select your system drive or drive C from the list and click “Start” and then “Continue.” Close PC Tools then restart the computer to begin testing your hard drive. If bad sectors were found and fixed, repeat the scan until it no longer detects a bad sector for three times in a row.

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