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    Dell Inspiron 9300 - HDD Starting to Click - Options?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by gtd2000, Dec 3, 2008.

  1. gtd2000

    gtd2000 Notebook Consultant

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    My largely trusty Inspiron is starting to get very sluggish recently and I've beeb hearing some strange clicking and screeching noises coming from the HDD bay area :(

    I'm guessing that HDD failure is coming to visit me one day soon.... :mad:

    It's not all bad, as I finally get my replacement Gateway 6860 FX on Friday but I'd like to know what options I have to keep my Inspiron running?

    How large a HDD can I replace the current 80GB version with?

    Is there anything that can be done to offset the failure of the HDD?

    Cheers in advance ;)
     
    gtd2000, Dec 3, 2008
    #1
  2. Sprint

    Sprint DTR Super Mod

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    Run chkdsk in command prompt. Can prolong the life a bit but screeching and clicking is mostly caused by a failing read head or motor
     
    Sprint, Dec 3, 2008
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  3. bigdarkmad

    bigdarkmad Notebook Evangelist

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    My WD Driver on my DELL STUPIO 1535 (Hot new - 8 days only) is "clicking" in IDLE MODE.
    But:
    244196351 KB total disk space.
    106326108 KB in 73459 files.
    43864 KB in 12134 indexes.
    0 KB in bad sectors.
    195379 KB in use by the system.
    65536 KB occupied by the log file.
    137631000 KB available on disk.

    4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
    61049087 total allocation units on disk.
    34407750 allocation units available on disk.
     

    Attached Files:

    bigdarkmad, Dec 3, 2008
    #3
  4. gtd2000

    gtd2000 Notebook Consultant

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    I ran chkdsk and it came up with a file error that was corrected.

    No other problems were noted.

    I'll see how things go over the next few days - I think a backup and new HDD is probably the best route.

    Any recommendations? :cool:

    (I have the ATA 100 drive.)
     
    gtd2000, Dec 4, 2008
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  5. Chetanji

    Chetanji Notebook Consultant

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    Run chkdsk again, and note if there are any errors in MFT, index, etc.

    If so, run...

    chkdsk /F/V/R
    accept run chkdsk on next reboot and don't touch the keyboard upon reboot.

    Definately use Norton Ghost or similar and do an entire image backup.
    You probobly have a PATA drive. Buy the biggest you can find.
    Most likely a 160GB Western Digital is ballpark.

    Definately, get a new drive and don't wait. ;)
     
    Chetanji, Dec 4, 2008
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  6. bigdarkmad

    bigdarkmad Notebook Evangelist

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    bigdarkmad, Dec 4, 2008
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  7. Tinderbox (UK)

    Tinderbox (UK) BAKED BEAN KING

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    Tinderbox (UK), Dec 4, 2008
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