Partitioning and Noise

Hello

Recently I did a full clean install and did my first partitioning.

Media Direct partition

20GB OS

90GB Data

I have been installing software and games etc on my Data partition and noticed my hard drive is making quite a bit of noise (constant noise for minutes at a time). I run programs such as firefox from that D partition. Is that the source of the noise?

If so should I move some of my D partition to my C partition and install software there to reduce noise?

 

Xp or Vista?if it`s vista,might be superfetch and indexing.

 

XP SP3 Home

It just suddenly starts making alot of noise fora while then is silent (almost) then noise etc

 

I`ll let the expert handle this one , but it must be a program within xp that does some writing,maybe indexing or something similar.

 

Thanks eleron for your input! lets see what others bring

 

After further testing I notice the hard drive light is constantly flickering whether its faint or alot. then every minute to 3 minutes even durring sleep or idle, the light and hard drive rev up. The hard drive becomes very loud and for about 2 minutes non stop.

 

The cause may be any antivirus or autodefrag program too but I'm sure you anticipated that. Have you tried reinstalling the drivers? Maybe the write-caching is not enabled or other hdd function due to faulty installed drivers. I don't think the partitioning cause this though. I doesn't make any sense. Currently I have my 120gb hdd partitioned in exactly the same way..

 

Ya avast has never done this and doubt it does. Which drivers would be the write ones to install? Chipset?

 

ATA/SATA controller? Like Intel Matrix Storage Manager for example.

 

Ill try again last time it only extracted files so i ignored it
cheers

 

If only extracted files you should install manually.

 

how do I uninstall/install usually im fine with drivers but im new with ata/achi cheers

 

No need to uninstall just update. And Intel's drivers is a setup, so its all automatic

 

you sure no uninstall? It could have installed really quickly >.< I "thought" only extract but not sure. Hmm intel site to get them? Vostro 1500.

 

I don't uninstall. Dells driver Vostro 1500 XP http://www.mediafire.com/?y9g3j9itzhm
Intel drivers here

By the way I'm not sure that this will fix your issue. It's kinda blind shot, but you can't lose if you have the proper drivers..

 

dell link wont download. Ill try to grab the cd when I can get home and try it

Its alright I am still happy since someone is actually trying. I my self hate threads when no one responds.

 

Try this dell link http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/downloads/en/downloads_splash?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~mode=popup&file=205611

All Vostro 1500 XP drivers http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=WW1&osl=EN&catid=-1&impid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=VOS_N_1500&hidos=WLH&hidlang=en

 

all it does is extract which do i click to manually install?

 

Ok I'll try it on my laptop. Btw thanks for the rep

Edit: OK, go to device manager, search for IDE/ATA/ATAPI controlers. You will see Primery Ide Channel and Secondary Ide Channel but this is NOT for update. There should be other controlers in there. Try to update them. Just point Windows to the directory where you extracted the files.

 

download filemon:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb896642.aspx
and check what is writing to the disk

if the hd noise is too great u could try an embedded method using ewf which writes all changes to a ram overlay. of course this means u cannot modify your os... just rambling lol

 

Well outside of driver issues (which I doubt this is) you've got two or three other issues you need to isolate:

1) Is it the drive itself, no matter HOW it is partitioned? (so what HD are you using? Have you researched this model on the internet? Do you have a 2nd one to try?)

2) What exactly do you have that isn't regular default-install on the 2nd drive? Unless you're copying your registry over there too, there's no point to installing programs on a 2nd partition, as an OS wipe will wipe out their links in the registry, and this usually means reinstalling the apps -unless you've really got your stuff set up (but then a ghost image would be better in the case of an OS infection/corruption, so again why the 2nd partition for apps?)

That previous posted link to the DL app file monitor might work to help get some answers.

3) Where is your pagefile/temp OS files located? Move those, if you're using them, back to the root of the OS. If your HD heads are switching disk locations to access constant and critical OS services, you're going to not only be experiencing noises even from the best drives over time, but drive wear and SLOW DOWN. Maybe not so perceptible though, but still... if that IS the case it further negates the apps/OS stuff on the 2nd partition.


I've got mine set up with a few partitions -Root is on the 2nd one, data on the 3rd. (IF you need a separate partition for Swap files or paging, I recommend making it partition #1 and right next to the OS partition on a totally fresh install). I keep all my user data on the 3rd partition and things I change there, but the apps and OS are on the 2nd (root). I did the apps on the data drive a few years ago and ran into no logical reason or benefits in the end, and nothing gained and more lost than not.

So list what you've got running or what files are being written and we can maybe help from there. Also check your rig for rootkits and other non-friendly services. Panda, ICE and.. Heck I can't remember... (google rootkit revealers) as well as System Internals "Process Monitor/Explorer" and the "Ultimate Troubleshooter" are nice apps -some free, some not.

when you sort it all out, make sure you have a good 3rd party defrag tool working in the background when you're not using the machine: Perfect Disk 8 is the best I've discovered so far for consumer use, ease and function; auto-set up for a pass of smart defrag followed by a free-space defrag, after you clean out your internet browsing temp folders and all that (try CClean for this one). Do that on a regular basis, regardless of if you keep the apps on the other patition or not, and it ought to help out your HD a ton- and help keep your system "perky" (quick). The Ultimate Troubleshooter (not free though) is nice in that you have instant access to editing services and start ups. Process Monitor ought to tell you what is going on in the background and Filemonitor ought to help you see what is being written and where.

If that can't fix it, a new HD is the answer.

Let us know what you find out- it's a facinating problem to solve.

 

I am not going to pretend to have the expertise of above but since I have monitored this thread, yesterday. I am at a loss to see it as a partition issue. Why? Well description of symptoms, mostly duration, minute? I mean I don't know what apps but when I open applications for the most part does not play with HDD for one minute. OS is for the most part, essentials are in RAM. I don't have lots of HDD hits unless doing things I would expect to have hits. And on this note I suspect those would be in the same partition so I rule out "partition". I suspect hardware issues, why? Well slow sub par performance would be a possibility of things like partition issues or dare I even say "malware" but noise? You are not the first to configure this way, I did it myself back in the 98 days and not this issue. As granny said start trying to isolate. Good luck.

 

I actually solved the problem without knowing the issue. It is all but silent after I dropped my notebook and actually performing better. It just so happened i turned it off dropped it after stepping on a headset and turned it on to check if it was working. And what do you know I noticed the noise gone

Thanks everyone for the posts!

 

I suggest you to backup any important data from that drive.

From your original post description, you didn't have this noise before the partitioning. To me, it sounds like a failing drive soon. No matter where your data and software are installed, C, D or any other partition, accessing them should not make a different noise than accessing from C.

Also, the very loud noise you mentioned, is it "tthhh tthhh thhh" or "tick tick tick"? If it's more "tick tick tick", then yes it is a failing drive for sure.

 

Well that sounds good, should be included in the repair manual or trouble shooting section from manufacturer. I will remember that next time someone has HDD trouble. Maybe we should make a sticky about it. Do us all a favor! Back up all your data! I suspect if you don't within the month you might be posting about how to recover data from a failed HDD. Good luck.

 

I already have anything backed up on a second notebook. It is a mix of ticks and thhhs. The sound is back! after 12 hours

 

If you never had this sound before and it comes and goes, then it is definitely not normal. It's a sign of a failing HDD I'm afraid.

 

Im backed up. I am starting to think it is possible. Im ok though warrenty still covered btu even not I need a larger hard drive and gives me an excuse to get one

 

If you got everything backed up, it's all good.

You know, it is possible that only that section of the drive has problems. The old HDD I had in my Toshiba laptop, I had a 40 GB partition at the end of the drive where I read/write a lot in that particular partition. After a few years, the drive would make weird noise only when accessing that partition. Accessing any other partitions had no problem at all, so I figured that section of the drive is probably worn down by the high access volume. Although the HDD is still usable as long as I don't use that section anymore, but I don't trust the drive anymore. Maybe it could last a few more years or maybe it would die tomorrow.

 

Interesting stewie!!! suriously