Unsolved: HDDs "ticking"

D

Dwarfer

Guest
Hi, I need an URGENT solution to this problem it has been going on for about 2 weeks now and its beginning to annoy me.

I would appreciate replies from people only who can help on this issue


this is difficult to put in writing so im going to explain this as simple as i can good luck ok here goes ........

ever since i upgraded my motherboard this has started > when my pc is idle the hdds go into a 'seek' frenzy EVERY second ... this results in what i can only describe as a "tick" rhytham..

TICK >>>> 1sec of SILENCE >>>> TICK >>>> 1sec of SILENCE >>>> TICK >>>> 1sec of SILENCE >>>> TICK >>>> 1sec of SILENCE >>>> TICK

The 'tick' is the head moving, it does this for about 3 minutes AFTER I keep the pc idle, when I start a task (ie, rip dvds) the data from the DVD is sent to the hard drives (raid0 array) and is buffered,

technical theory possibility
it seems to me that this behavour is caused by the HDDs buffer gathering a second of data and then transfurring it onto the disks whereas a normal hdd would send the data from the buffer to the platter in 32kbytes (or so) packets, it seems as if my hdd buffer is ignoring the Kbytes rule and just sending the data to the head by the second and NOT the amount of data


note: i recently installed windows vista, but it still 'ticked' in XP (my previous os)

please please help me this is doing my head in, it is NOT normal behavour


thank you!!
 
Usually when I hear ticking/clicking like that, its because the HD is dying. To be safe I'd backup all your important data.

I can't tell if this is a software issue or not, but it would be helpful if you had another OS like linux installed to see if its a Vista issue.
 
Addis said:
Usually when I hear ticking/clicking like that, its because the HD is dying. To be safe I'd backup all your important data.

I can't tell if this is a software issue or not, but it would be helpful if you had another OS like linux installed to see if its a Vista issue.
Click to expand...

thanks for reply

speaking of os, it did this in my prev os (xp), it's only just been formatted if thats any colsolation. the disks (both as drive c: ) aren't that old so i'll accept faulty if thats wot u mean, i still have a great deal of warrenty left but it ticks with both hard drives
 
DavidNW said:
In addition to what Addis has said, it might be an idea to download the latest version of 'SpeedFan'. It has a utility within it that will give you a detailed online report as to the 'health status' of your HDD/s. This may proved helpful in determining if the latter is on the point of failure. Here's the link below:

Download SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer
Click to expand...

thanks you kno i actually tried downloading that last night but it didnt work with vista, i couldnt find a vista fix for it.


ticking is with both hard drives so a possible driver issue (raid0)
 
Excessive disk usage could be due to a number of things. Some anti-virus and desktop search tools are programmed to run when the computer is "idle". Another reason would be due to Windows swapping memory. This would be caused due to a lack of memory. Finally, disk "ticking" could be caused by a faulty hard disk. It may be re-writing due to errors. I assume you have SMART enabled on the hard disk?
 
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