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My computer takes forever to turn on. I think it's a hard drive problem because when I turn it on, I hear a clicking like the hard drive is resetting. It goes to the problem start up screen where it asks to start up normally, start up in safe mode, go to last known configurtion, and something else. No matter which one I pick it resets to that screen about 10 times. It basically takes 20 to 30 minutes to start my laptop up. After that it works fine. Is there anything I can do to fix this.
Sounds like your hard drive is crashed. You will most likely need to replace it. Before it gets totally crashed try to backup your important data while it is running.
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Sounds like the hard drive has an issue. Do you hear a very faint clicking sound when it tries to boot up? put your ear near the front of the laptop, bottom of keyboard area and listen for a clicking sound. if you hear a click click click click sound repeating continuously, its a failing hard drive. If you hear ths sound, you will need to buy a replacement hard drive. Replacing it is easy. Turn your laptop upside down and look for the small door that houses your hd. Unscrew the door and take hard drive out. Now you take this hard drive to Staples and ask them for a replacement. Once you know what you need, whether Sata or IDE hard drive, you can buy a replacement cheaply on eBay or buy it from any computer store. pop the hard drive back in and then you should be able to install a new operating system on the laptop.
If you do not hear a clicking sound, then you may have a corrupted windows boot. Have you tried booting in safe mode? as you turn the power on, hold down the f8 button. You will get a screen asking if you want to boot in safe mode. Select, safe mode with networking. If it boots normally in safe mode, you can then put in your windows cd and do a repair.
If you cannot boot into safe mode, and you have tried replacing hard drive, but cd/dvd is still not working, then you may need o take it in or diagnostics.
You can buy very cheaply on eBay, a connector that will allow you to connect your hard drive to another computer via USB. This will allow you to test the hard drive and also possibly get data of of it, provided the hard drive is not too badly damaged.
I hope this helps.. Please ask any questions you might have.
If there was no clicking sound before and now there is after you installed a hard drive (goes click...click...click) then that is bad. A clicking sound is what you never want to hear from a hard drive. Means it's bad. Fans don't make clicking sounds.
run the chkdsk utility click start type cmd then type chkdsk/f/r this will schedule to occur on restart of your computer do not do anything while the chkdsk utility is in progress any input might damage (it will only schedule to restart if its your primary hard drive with an operating system on it) your hard drive also scroll to bottom toolbar right click select task manager application also processes if you see something that does not need to be running select end now you might have a virus slowning your computer also download and run a registry cleaner cc cleaner is 100%free http://download.cnet.com/ccleaner/ then defragment your hard drive and check the leads motherboard to hard drive make sure connections are good with no dust built up hope this helps
Sometimes it could be that it's not registering the letter for the drive. If you hear a chime when you plug it into the computer and turn it on, it is being recognized by your system.
If that is the case. Right-click on your "My Computer" icon, and click on Manage. Then go to "Disk Management". There, it will list your hard drive. You can distinguish it from your computer's hard drive by the size, and normally your computer's hard drive is set to Drive 0 by default.
Once you identify it, you can right-click and "Assign Letter Drive" and that should fix it.
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If it does not chime (first make sure that the sound is on). You can try and see if there is a clicking, or a whirling noise. A whirling noise is a good sign. A clicking noise is not. If you hear nothing, then something between the connector to the hard drive inside is bad or the cord connecting the drive to the computer is bad. If you narrow this down, you can normally get the right cause.
Fist clean your computer of dust using a fine air blower from a compressor specifically around your central processing unit making sure there is no moisture in the air line
as dust will cause a lot of static which will make a computer overheat and cause lots of problems
Try replacinng all leads that are attached to your external hard drive then try uninstalling a few unnecessary programs then click start run type cmd then type chkdsk/f which will automatically fix any corrupt files on your hard drive then defragment your hard drive good luck with this
I have to say from the sounds you describe the Hard Drive is totally destroyed, the noises you can hear are the mechanical parts inside grinding and clanking together. If the information is critical it may be recovered by a specialist data recovery company, but we are talking £100's even £1000's to do the job, so otherwise I would suggest taking case apart and buying a new hard drive for it.
Sorry its not what you want to hear but it sounds very terminal to me.
The reason the PC can detect a device is that it can see the Interface card that sits between the USB port and the Hard Drive.
More than likely, your hard drive is failing. This COULD be the cause for the freezing. The other thing that could cause the freezing is if the processor is getting too hot due to the failed fan. Either way you will need to have your HD replaced before it fails completely. The clicking you are hearing is the read head hitting the case of the hard drive. It might have started from being too hot. If the parts of your computer are getting too hot, it will increase the chances that they will fail in the future.
Sorry to tell you, but looks to me your Hard Drive is dead :S
As I think it's on warranty, better go to assistant, but tell them you need the info on your hard drive (if needed) or else they probably replace the HD with a remanufactured one.
That My Book thing is a pain in the rear. You need to check that your computer has USB2.0 and not 1. if it is 1.0, you'll take forever to do anything on the drive.
Confirm that you have USB2.0 rather than 1.0 before we could move on.
There can be 3 possible problems since you hear the clicking sound. 1 is that the drive is not receiving enough power from the power supply and it is attempting to turn on. 2nd is the controller board is damaged and 3rd is the drive itself is damaged. From my experience with WD external drives. the 3rd is my best guess. One thing you can try is to buy an external chassis for the hard drive and take the hard drive out of the My Book and put it in the chassis to see if it works. Get one from a place with a good returning policy would also be good as well
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