Sign of a failing HDD?

check your page file is set properly dan there is a tut here somewhere ill look for it now for you

Cheers Had, i do have 1GB of ram installed on here, so the performance is pretty good, i'm no longer hearing any noises like that from the hard-drive, i was also listening to my iPod whilst i heard it so my mind may just be playing with me. . However, i've backed everything up for the sake of it, my paging file is currently set to System Managed Size, and i havent had any 'windows virtual memory low' messages appear.

Update:

Make and Model of Hard-drive:
maxtor 6y080l0

you can some time hear a clicking from the hard drive when the page is being use on start up but not if you have set up right just keep an eye on it and its no harm having a backup

Cheers had, just running some error checks now to see if it will improve situations. It has happened today but just the once, and once again, no interferences with the actual experience, may just do some registry cleans and defrags whilst im at it.

Alrightey.

I've ran Tune-Up Utilities One Click Maintenance, and now have a defragmented hard drive, cleaned out as much of the registry as possible, removed all temporary files but still having the clicking issue. The clicking noise just happens the once, it will click after the Windows XP boot screen has dissapeared (just before i log on to windows) and probably once after its finished loading windows explorer.

Also on odd occasions, it might freeze after its loaded windows explorer and starts to load the programs on the system tray. At the moment that would be Local Area network connection icon, Lexmark All in 1 solution centre and Bitdefender total security. So there isnt much to load, it will take roughly 15 seconds to logon to the system.

Everything is backed up, so if the entire drive fails, i have backups here and there to bring it back together again on a new drive if necessary.

My pageing file is set to system managed size at the moment, if i changed that should it help?

It does sound like a hardware failure that will kick in more frequently. Try a RAM test. At boot.

How would i go about doing that Mooley?

Is it where the computer checks how much RAM it has detected before it boots up Windows XP?

Yes. But you should use a Utility boot disk. I think I have one here somewhere. I could prob upload for you.

Go HERE dan and dl'd and follow the instructions. The free version will not test at boot but from within Windows. But it should give you a pretty good idea if you have a RAM problem nonetheless. I will look for the other one I have that you create a boot disk with to use at start up in the mean time.

I was uploading that but you can also get it get it free direct here

Code:

You need to register to see links. Register.

Originally Posted by ferguj1

Go HERE dan and dl'd and follow the instructions. The free version will not test at boot but from within Windows. But it should give you a pretty good idea if you have a RAM problem nonetheless. I will look for the other one I have that you create a boot disk with to use at start up in the mean time.

I'm trying this out now, all applications are closed (currently on my laptop), and its 4.8% complete - 0 Errors.

Update: Sorry, got mixed up between the posts.

I am pretty sure that this is the one I was talking about using at boot. HERE

Originally Posted by ferguj1

I am pretty sure that this is the one I was talking about using at boot. HERE

I've started the Mem Test program in your last post on the first page, currently its 22.4% complete with no errors found.

Update: now 33%

Update: Completed with no errors, it may just be the harddrive.

I've done a reformat and re-install of XP on the drive, and for some weird reason the clicking has stopped totally.

It's good that it's stopped but keep an eye on the drive, any clicking (does it sound like its trying to re-read the disk?) isn't good in the long term and backup regularly.