Clicking sound from HDD then freezes

Ok this has just started happening not to long ago. I have Dell Inspiron 4100 and the HDD started making this clicking sound and when the noise starts the laptops freezes and I have to turn the laptop off manually. And when i restart it it starts clicking again and freezes on the windows start screen. Does this mean the HDD is messed up or is this normal but I don't think this is normal. Any help would be good.


Mr. Bullet

 

Its dying time for a new one

 

Yes, your hard drive is dying or already died. If you ever can boot up to Windows, make sure you copy all your valueable files to some external storage. The hard drive can be replaced but not your files. I hope you already have some back up. Good luck.

 

Even better, never try to boot again, but put it in an enclosure and connect it to another computer. That will put less stress on it and will give you a better chance of recovering the files. Start with the most important ones first.

 

Somewhat related:
I've noticed after writing a bunch of files (post-installation, for example) that my hard drive makes more clicking noises that are much louder than usual. It also squeaks while reading/writing-- I trust both of these are due to a possibly failing HDD and has something to do with the arms inside. My HDtune benchmarks drop drastically when this happens.

After defragging the drive, however, the clicking and squeaking suddenly stop and it behaves normally, and HDtune proves this.

...is my drive failing too?

 

I know this is a dumb question but I don't know how to backup info. I am really new to computers so can any one tell me I know I'm dumb

 

If u have vista ultimate / business, there is a complete pc backup option. Just look in control panel. For Vista Home / Home Prem I don't know for sure. Probably you could try one of the free backup tools.

I use SyncBack which has been working fine for me. No problems.

Also, please "search" on top of this forum there are many threads around here. Also take a look in the free software thread

Cheers.

 

Back to the topic:

I think its time to get a new hard disk and try to recover as much as possible from this one following E.B.E' post

 

it helps if you put the hard drive in the fridge and boot to recover info...that'll last you about 10 minutes before it dies again.

 

Hm, thats interesting, never heard of that before. Will have to keep it in mind. If someone has tried this before, please let us know the result.

 

Simply copy your important files onto a CD, DVD or another hard drive.

That does work (and there is a technical reason for it) but it should be a last resort when the computer will no longer boot.