Computer Trouble

HeavySketch

I think I should start off by saying that I know next to nothing about computers.

So a while ago my computer had started to shutdown by itself while I was using it. A bit later, it would shutdown, like, every five minutes. Now its gotten to the point where, when I turn it on, the screen stays black and there's a clicking sound going on inside the computer. I've been told that the clicking is coming from the hard drive and that it could be broken. Not good, right? How would I go about fixing this?

I asked a friend and was told that one way to fix this is by getting the hard drive from my old computer and placing it into the broken computer. From there I can copy and back up my old stuff. Then I can reformat or get a new hard drive. Is my friend right? Or should I not trust him and go ahead and just take it to Best Buy or something and have them fix it? I'd like to try and fix this without having to spend a lot.

Thanks in advance.

TychoCelchuuu

Best Buy will not fix your hard drive. It's hard to know how dead it is but right now you have two options. Option one is installing a new, blank hard drive, then sticking Windows on that, and then trying to copy the stuff off the old one onto the new one. Option two is bringing the hard drive to a professional service that will recover stuff for you (expensive). The only harm in trying option one first is that you may damage the hard drive even more when you attempt to access it on your own. Option two, of course, is going to cost you a lot of money.

Bendery It Like Beckham

In my opinion go with option 1, because unless you have something worth 3.5k USD on your dead harddrive, paying for information recovery isn't worth it.

HeavySketch

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

Best Buy will not fix your hard drive. It's hard to know how dead it is but right now you have two options. Option one is installing a new, blank hard drive, then sticking Windows on that, and then trying to copy the stuff off the old one onto the new one. Option two is bringing the hard drive to a professional service that will recover stuff for you (expensive). The only harm in trying option one first is that you may damage the hard drive even more when you attempt to access it on your own. Option two, of course, is going to cost you a lot of money.

So for option 1, does it have to be a new hard drive or can I use the one from my other computer? Plus once the stuff is copied, can I still use the messed up hard drive or does it have to be replaced? Cause if it needs to be replaced, then I guess I should just copy the stuff onto a newer hard drive instead.

Tofystedeth

If your harddrive is making the clicking sound that mine did, then short of sending to a place where they'll stick the platters into another case inside a cleanroom, you aren't going to be able to get that data back most likely.

I've that occasionally, putting the harddrive in the freezer for a while can make it work temporarily in these situations, but not often, and not well. That disk is most likely completely out of commission.

1ddqd

Buy a new hard drive; it has a new warranty (Seagate & Western Digital have 5 year warranties) and is going to be fresh and blank. If you use the hard drive from your other computer, if it has a windows installation on, chances are it's not even going to boot. It will just end up blue-screening unless it's the exact (or near to the same) setup.

Just suck it up. Hard drive prices are down and cheap, installing windows is (relatively) painless.

TychoCelchuuu

HeavySketch wrote: »

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

Best Buy will not fix your hard drive. It's hard to know how dead it is but right now you have two options. Option one is installing a new, blank hard drive, then sticking Windows on that, and then trying to copy the stuff off the old one onto the new one. Option two is bringing the hard drive to a professional service that will recover stuff for you (expensive). The only harm in trying option one first is that you may damage the hard drive even more when you attempt to access it on your own. Option two, of course, is going to cost you a lot of money.

So for option 1, does it have to be a new hard drive or can I use the one from my other computer? Plus once the stuff is copied, can I still use the messed up hard drive or does it have to be replaced? Cause if it needs to be replaced, then I guess I should just copy the stuff onto a newer hard drive instead.

Sticking an existing hard drive into the machine will almost certainly not work unless the two machines have identical (or close to identical) hardware. You'll need a clean hard drive, basically. The clicky one is dead, if not now then sooner than later, so it makes sense to buy a hard drive no matter what.

The freezer thing actually works. I don't know what the heck it does or why it works but it does. Just make sure there's no condensation on the thing before you plug it back in.

HeavySketch

Hey guys, I just wanted to say thanks for the advice. I've got a big problem though.

I went ahead and bought a new hard drive, plugged it into the computer and then tried turning it on. But after a minute or two, the damn thing turned off again! It's happening all over again. I don't get it.

What else could be the problem? I'm sure it's not dust or overheating. Could it possibly be the power supply? God, I'm pissed.

Crashtard

Sounds like you might have a power supply that's kicked the bucket.

Daedalus

Or a faulty motherboard.

BahamutZERO

Also, what's your reasoning for being sure it's not overheating? Have you turned it on and looked at each of the fans in there to make sure they're all running? Particularly the fan over the CPU.

Movitz

Im almost willing to bet money on that it's the PSU. I've had two of them dying on me. The first one started smoking and there were great lightning effects coming from it. Scared the shit out of me.

The secon one, however, displayed exactly what you're describing. A long slow death with clicking and also a bit whining.

[Edit] It's easy to check it since you mention that you have an old computer. Just put the old PSU in the new case. You might even not have to move them at all. Just hook the cords from old case to new case to see if it runs stable. I've done this a couple of times with an older setup but to be honest, it was pretty messy.