|
|
snoylybum
new user
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 7
|
|
Hi -
Just recently started hearing an intermittent feint sort of knocking/clonking noise from my Sony Vaio laptop.
The knocking happens every 5 seconds and then slightly longer - say 11 secs..
The noise is signalled by the orange led light on the front of the machine.
My C drive is almost full but my D drive has plenty of space yet.
|
|
RichieP
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 4721
|
|
It's probably the hard drive. Not a good sign.
D: is probably a partition of the same hard drive. Very unlikely to be 2 hard drives in a laptop.
--------------------
 OK OK I can't go any faster! aaaaaaaaaaaagh!
|
snoylybum
new user
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 7
|
|
Thanks for the reply.
If to you it sounds bad - what would you suggest needs to be done?
|
RichieP
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 4721
|
|
If any of the data is important to you, back it up immediately. Do this to a removable hard drive, CDs, DVDs or a USB drive.
Buy a new hard drive, something like this and reinstall your Operating System.
You should have a recovery disk that will take care of the reinstallation and all the drivers. You will lose any installed programs though, so you'll need installation disks or downloads to put them back. If you don't have them, you could always consider taking an image of your hard drive using something like Acronis True Image. This will copy your hard drive exactly as it is now. You then import the image onto the new drive and it looks exactly the same.
You need to find out if it's an IDE hard drive or SATA. What's the exact make and model of the laptop?
--------------------
OK OK I can't go any faster! aaaaaaaaaaaagh!
|
snoylybum
new user
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 7
|
|
Vaio laptop VGN-FJ3M-W running XP home and SP 2.
|
RichieP
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 4721
|
|
As usual, not a lot given away by Sony on their website or their manual.
Go into Device Manager:
Right-click My Computer > Properties > Hardware Tab.
Click the + next to Disk Drives.
What does it list the hard drive as?
--------------------
OK OK I can't go any faster! aaaaaaaaaaaagh!
|
RichieP
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 4721
|
|
As usual, not a lot given away by Sony on their website or their manual.
If you're likely to have to replace it anyway, do you feel brave enough to take it out and have a look? If there's lots of pins at the end, it's IDE. If there's a couple of L-shaped connectors, it's SATA.
Or do this:
Go into Device Manager:
Right-click My Computer > Properties > Hardware Tab.
Click the + next to Disk Drives.
What does it list the hard drive as?
--------------------
OK OK I can't go any faster! aaaaaaaaaaaagh!
|
snoylybum
new user
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 7
|
|
FUJITSU-MHV-2080BH-PL
|
RichieP
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 4721
|
|
I'll stick my neck out and say it's a SATA then. Link here
The one I linked to higher up is also SATA, although it may be lower capacity than yours.
So, what do you want to do next?
--------------------
OK OK I can't go any faster! aaaaaaaaaaaagh!
|
snoylybum
new user
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 7
|
|
OK - well, firstly I'm starting to off-load some important files and images from my C drive onto DVDs. Then get my son's external hard drive to use from now on.
I'll then check to see if the noise still continues.
Just a question - could I somehow make just one drive instead of the partitioned C and D drives? How hard would this be to do and do you think it would ease the congestion on the C drive?
|
RichieP
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 4721
|
|
To combine into one partition you'll need specialist software such as Partition Magic.
This won't help recover your drive if it's faulty.
If you want to test your drive properly, download the relevant utility from here
You need to create a bootable CD and run the test from there.
--------------------
OK OK I can't go any faster! aaaaaaaaaaaagh!
|
Sandhound
regular
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 418
|
|
G'day snoylybum.
You can download FJDT for Window diagnostic tool here.
It's the one at the bottom of the page.
The other one is for DOS.
Edited...
The link here is different page to yours RichieP.
--------------------
sandhound.co.uk
Edited by Sandhound (Sun Dec 09 2007 09:33 PM)
|
snoylybum
new user
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 7
|
|
Thanks guys - just ran both the short and extended tests - both PASS.
So, I'll still continue with the back-up / deleting process and see if that cures the noise. Which, strangely enough, has now stopped!!
Why do you think there are 2 partitioned drives on this laptop? Is it something Sony does?
As I'm not brave (nor experienced) enough to use Partition Magic, I'm thinking about getting someone around to do it for me.
But only if you suggest that it might be beneficial.
|
RichieP
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 4721
|
|
I don't think putting your hard drive into 1 partition will make a difference. A lot of new computers have their drives partitioned. It's meant to make it more efficient, if you store data on D: and Windows and Programs on C:
Was the noise more like a ticking/clicking than knocking?
Is there a CD left in the drive?
--------------------
OK OK I can't go any faster! aaaaaaaaaaaagh!
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
