Question about laptops HDDs...

[fohfoh]

Ok, recently my laptop started buzzing. It usually occurs if I put light pressure on the bottom right side of the laptop (Which is where the HDD is situated. So this is starting to cause me concern. I can hear light clicking noises from that area from time to time, but it's been like that for over a year, so I've pretty much ignored it. I probably will replace the HDD when SSDs fall in price and a nice intel 128GB is around 100 bucks or so. (Last I checked they were still rolling around 280-300 CAD) but for now, is there any concern for me? Buzzing or vibrations from a HDD can't be good, right?

Things to note: I assume this issue has begun to occur since I changed backpacks. There's no laptop compartment so I just chuck the thing in there. However, I feel that this may cause the laptop to be compressed, and since the build isn't as hard a shell to most typical laptops, It may have compressed the bottom aluminum shell components inwards.

Opening up this laptop isn't an issue for me.

So... any suggestions as to what I should do to deal with this? or is it just a minor issue I can ignore?

[billlanam]

No it isn't good.  In any case make sure you make regular backups of everything you want to keep, otherwise you will lose everything that is on your laptop.

[fohfoh]

IMO it's more annoying than a concern for me. I only hear it when I put it on a hard surface and rest my hands down hard.

Backups? Done. Had them done a while back already just in case.

School stuff? I have a memory card in the card slot just in case. Laptop works fine. Just sounds sort of like an electric transformer when I push down on it. (Can't feel vibrations.) HDD is a WD Scorpio black 320 GB @ 7200rpm. (Not that it matters)

This one essentially.

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=33669&vpn=WD3200BEKT&manufacture=Western%20Digital%20WD

It's taken a huge beating. I've dropped my laptop while it was on from quite a distance once, accidentally had power cut to the laptop while the computer was on and battery was removed (lots of times) etc. I'm surprised this HDD isn't dead actually. Just wondering if there's a need for extra concern at this moment.

[iindigo]

Reminds me of what happened to the old 12" 1Ghz iBook G4 my family used to have 5 or 6 years ago. One day it got crammed into a tight space by one of my siblings, and when I retrieved it and tried to boot it up, I was met with a very loud buzzing noise from the HD followed by "no system found". I took it out to verify that's what had gone wrong, and sure enough, the HD had been squeezed to death. Moral of the story: don't abuse laptops with plastic shells. It will probably mean their doom >_>

[fohfoh]

Hmm I wonder if opening this thing up and trying to resit the stuff would help...

[K7IA]

You can install a tool that will allow you to monitor your hdd health via the SMART feature. You might have to enable it from BIOS if it is disabled by default.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_S.M.A.R.T._tools

[fohfoh]

Hmm... I already use speedfan... but I assume that smartmontools will be the one I want to toy with when I have time. In all honesty, I've used diskcheck a few times already. HDD info itself seems to be A OK. But yes, I'll try the latter to see if anything else shows up in scans.

[Takeshi]

I could mention HDDHealth. I have no idea as to how much it'll help you, but try it out. Here's a direct link.

You should know that HDDHealth is a long-term tool. It can't just "scan" your HDD, and tell you what's wrong with it. Its brilliance comes through monitoring the HDD through days, weeks, months and calculating a possible time of death. The longer it has monitored your HDD the more precise the tool is.

[fohfoh]

I could mention HDDHealth. I have no idea as to how much it'll help you, but try it out. Here's a direct link.

You should know that HDDHealth is a long-term tool. It can't just "scan" your HDD, and tell you what's wrong with it. Its brilliance comes through monitoring the HDD through days, weeks, months and calculating a possible time of death. The longer it has monitored your HDD the more precise the tool is.

Meh, I added it for fun.

Says health is at 98% currently. So nothing to fear... yet. I'll see if the number changes after leaving it for a few days. Somehow I doubt it... but I'm still perplexed.

EDIT: on another note, this program doesn't pick up any of the specs of my HDD at all. I know the specs are there because I've seen them in Win 7 Beta/RC.

Really not liking Vista right now...

[Viseroid]

The SMART utility in Speedfan should be just fine. It has a pretty good library of supported drives.
I'm thinking it might be more of a vibration issue. Try opening up the laptop and see if the hard drive has too much wiggle room. If it does it can probably be fixed by lining the drive with some electrical tape. Perhaps there is a crack in the case that has recently occurred. If the drive doesn't make any sounds when you are not pressing down on the case I'm going to venture a guess and say it is just fine. Nevertheless, you should grab an external and back some stuff up.

[fohfoh]

I double checked last night. My mobo isn't supported. None of the 945 Mobos by intel that are part of mine are listed in speedfan. (G945/Q945/P945 series)

I'll double check the inside later on and try to keep everything screwed down and w/e.