Is there a ghost in my computer? It's knocking!!!

[blueblitzkrieg]

My computer keeps making this noise, it sounds like someone knocking at a door. It does two knocks, then there is a break for a couple of seconds, and it knocks again. What the hell is it and how do I get rid of it (it's very annoying)???

[Sannum]

1. Uh, Oh.

It happened to me and it crashed. Back up everything right now.

[blueblitzkrieg]

4. You serious???

The thing is that it's done this before and there were no problems afterwards. I would restart my comp. but I'm downloading somethin' and I wanted to wait until it was finished.

Is it a virus or something??

[benburch]

7. No, not a virus.

A hard drive failure. You are presently using the bad spot on the disk for your downloading, most likely, and that's why you are hearing it now. (Nothing you can control about that, BTW, the operating system software chooses what parts of the disk to use.)

[benburch]

2. Your hard disk is failing.

That sound is the head being homed to attempt to clear an error. It is a sign of major problems with the disk. You should buy a new one ASAP before this one dies totally and you lose everything.

If you have a backup device such as a DVD-R or CD-R back up as much of your stuff as you can RIGHT NOW.

[blueblitzkrieg]

5. HOLY SHIT....

this computer is pretty new though (two years old)..why would it be failing????

[benburch]

8. Hard drives have moving parts...

Anything with moving parts will fail. These days, hard drives are not as reliable as they were a few years ago because downward price pressure has made them cheapen the manufacturing processes. A sign of this is that most drive makers have shortened their warrantee times greatly.

[benburch]

10. BTW, a new drive should be cheap!

You can get a 80 GB drive for less than $100 these days.

[Wonk]

9. If you can't back up your files RIGHT NOW then turn off the computer

until you can back them up onto an external drive or CDs (or DVDs etc).

[Wonk]

3. Back up all of your important files right now

because it might be your hard drive on the verge of failure.

[trof]

6. Probably needs a valve job.

;-)

[blueblitzkrieg]

11. I just restarted and the knocking is gone!

Im saving my important documents and files now..but is it better now??

[benburch]

12. I wouldn't trust it!

These things might go away for a while, but the problem still exists. Likely you are not using the bad part of the disk right now as your download has finished and rebooting caused Windows to allocate new swap files.

[blueblitzkrieg]

13. How much would it cost to buy a new hard drive?

Sorry, I know very little about this stuff, my parents bought me this computer when I left for college...

[benburch]

16. Really cheap.

How big is the current drive? I can find you a good price.

[blueblitzkrieg]

18. 37.2 GB nt

[benburch]

21. Here is a 40+ GB new Hitachi drive for $50

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=0A30755-N&cat=HDD

[Deja Q]

27. Sams Club has a 160GB hard drive for $79 - or buy online

New, not refurb. 7200RPM, 8MB cache.

250GB model is $129 (2 cents more per GB and consider that post-format capacity would put the 250GB at a comparative disadvantage.)

Online prices are the best, but if you know someone with a sams card, get them to buy the drive for you.

[Occulus]

14. Not by a long shot.

Your HD is dying, my friend. Back up everything, shut down your PC, and check to see if you have enough cash to get a new one. I would recommend a Western Digital drive; I have one that's several years old, and it's still reliable.

This is a problem that cannot be fixed. You are experiencing a hardware failure of catastrophic proportions.

[ReadTomPaine]

15. Yes, it does sound like hard drive failure.

There is an outside chance it's a failing fan (they generally make odd, uneven whirling sounds) or power supply (they click, but don't knock), but if your description is accurate, that knock is your hard disk failing. Unless your computer has been jarred or knocked about recently and this is just a single surface defect on a magnetic platter, this is about as clear a warning as you'll get that drive failure is around the corner. As others have suggested, back up now. If possible, don't reboot until the backup is completed.

Best of luck, hard disks are cheap nowadays.

RTP

[blueblitzkrieg]

17. Shit..thanks..

Where do I buy them? Do I have to get someone to install it or can I put it in myself??

[benburch]

19. Any place from Best Buy to Office Max has them.

They are very commonplace now.

If you have computer nerd friends there at college, I am betting they could switch out the drive and copy over your data in a couple of hours at most.

If you pay somebody to do it they will charge you too much for it.

Changing a hard disk in a desktop computer is generally a one-screwdriver job.

[blueblitzkrieg]

22. Hmmm

I live off campus..don't think any of my friends would know how to do it. Would I have to take the computer in or would they come to my house and do it? Could I teach myself? Do the people at Best Buy or Office Max install them or do I have to get a computer tech place to do it??

[benburch]

25. Generally you would have to bring it in and leave it.

There are some computer repair businesses that do house calls, though.

You could learn to do it, but it would be best if you found somebody who has done it before, especially the data transfer part.

[blueblitzkrieg]

26. Forgot about my aunt

shes a computer buff and might know how to do it. Anyway, I'm shutting my computer down now and am going to call her. Thanks everyone for the advice. Wish me luck! :scared:

[BlueJazz]

20. I'll bet it's your floppy drive getting caught in an access loop.

...but that's not to say it isn't your hard drive.
If it starts again, put a floppy in your "A:" drive and see if it stops. ...or pray that it stops! or else it might very well be your hard-drive..

[Warren DeMontague]

23. Knocking, not good, grinding REALLY BAD

if coming from the HD... My experience.

[blueblitzkrieg]

24. lol, luckily no grinding...

yet. :scared:

[blueblitzkrieg]

28. One more question

should I delete my mp3s I've downloaded? If I take my comp in to get fixed and they see my music I've downloaded could I get in trouble?

[benburch]

29. Nope.

Don't worry. If there is no illegal porn on your system, you have no fears. I've never heard of anybody getting dinged for mp3s on a hard drive. I mean, they don't know you don't have those albums! And it's legal to rip your own albums, so no worries!

[blueblitzkrieg]

30. Whew

Didn't want to have to delete my mp3 collection! I've saved all my important files so I think I'm okay for now..the knocking is gone for now but I'm going to computer stores tomorrow to find a new drive. Thanks for all your help.

P.S. forgot to tell you, love your website - I don't as much now 'cause I'm kind of taking a break from politics, but I used to download the Randi and Mike shows pretty regularly from your site. It's a great resource. :thumbsup: