Could my HDD be on the way out Help and advice on software, hardware, configuration and general computing issues and problems

[theshedman]

Hi, when I turn on my PC a lot of the time it will not boot up and sometimes it will boot then it freezes. I turn it on and the red HDD comes on but it is a solid light and not a blinking one. Anyone got any ideas. I have had my PC for a number of years about 8 I think and about 18 months ago had new power supply, motherboard and graphics card. It is an 80 Gig HDD but not sure what make it is. If it is the HDD I would like to transfer some things to new one before it packs up altogether. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

[stoneyboy]

theshedman,
Look at the bios screen when you boot and see if smart monitoring of the HDD is reported. If not go into bios and see if you can turn it on.
Failing this install a new HDD as a slave format it, partition it and put all the files you want to keep on the second partition. You can then instal the operating system and programs on the first partition and scrap the old drive. When you are sure you have finished with the old drive (which may contain sensitive information) put a hammer through it.
end

[theshedman]

Hi, I ran disc check on it and it came up with loads of faults so am guessing it must be the HDD. It has never come up with anything wrong on it before. Once I have got it going it seems to work fine apart from the odd bit like it won't recognise my flash drive so that I can load my pics etc on to it. Thanks for the advice. Shed

[stoneyboy]

theshedman,
With a computer that old you may have to instal drivers for the flash drive to be recognised. You could try running scandisk on the HDD and check 'automatically fix errors'.
end

[theshedman]

Hi stoneyboy, just thought I would let you know that it was the motherboard that was faulty. Had to take it to the shop to get it done. I was sure that it was the HDD but turned out to be the other. I only had new motherboard 2 years ago so I didn't think it would be that. As the HDD is getting on though I think I will get it done quite soon or get external one to use as backup. Thanks for the help again. Good to get some extra feedback as I don't know too much about these things. Cheers Shed.