bad hard drive Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Why is my PC’s hard drive making a clicking sound?

Posted on May 31, 2021

Question from Nancy D: Rick, my computer has started making a faint, but noticeable clicking sound when I first turn it on.

It only clicks for about 8-10 seconds, then it boots up normally and runs fine until I shut it down.

It’s hard to tell for sure, but I took the cover off the side of the computer and the clicking sound seems to be coming from the hard drive.

I haven’t downloaded anything recently or made any changes to the system that I’m aware of.

This machine came with Windows 8.1 but it’s been updated to Windows 10.

Do you have any idea what I can do to stop the clicking? [Read more…]

Save money by doing your own file recovery from a failed hard drive

Posted on June 23, 2020

It happens to most everyone sooner or later. You turn on your PC and discover that it won’t boot.

You hear a clunking sound from your hard drive and whisper “Oh, no!!!” after realizing that the drive has gone belly up on you.

All is not lost if you have a current backup that works. You can simply replace the bad drive with a new one and restore everything in short order.

But what if you don’t have a backup? Or what if you have a backup but it has somehow become corrupted and you can’t restore from it?

Well, that’s when you have a choice to make. [Read more…]

Q&A: Why won’t my computer boot from a hard drive that was removed from another PC?

Posted on November 12, 2018

Question from Travis: I have a Gateway desktop computer that got struck by lightning.

I also have an old HP desktop that had a bad hard drive. Both PCs ran Windows 7.

My cousin connected the hard drive from the Gateway to his computer and the drive seemed to be working fine, so I replaced the bad hard drive in the HP with the one from the Gateway.

But now after switching the drives, when I turn the computer on Windows won’t boot up. All it does is display a blue screen with an error message on it.

What do I need to do to fix this?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Do I need to replace a hard drive that fails the SMART Check?

Posted on August 13, 2017

Question from Eugene N.: Rick, I have a 2 year old laptop computer that I fear might have a failing hard drive. I’m a professional photographer and I primarily use this PC for editing my photos.

Everything was working fine until late last night, but now every time I turn the computer on I get an error stating that the hard disk is in danger of failing and I need to run the hard disk test in system diagnostics.

When I run the disk test it says “SMART Check: FAILED”. Do you think I need to just go ahead and have the hard drive replaced or is there a way to fix this error?

I sprung for a 2 year extended warranty when I bought the laptop, but I’m not sure it’ll cover the repair if it turns out to be a software problem. I’m not worried about losing any data though because I create a new system image after I download the photos from every shoot.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Why won’t my Acer laptop boot into Windows?

Posted on April 14, 2014

Question from Daniel W.: I have a 2 year old Acer laptop with Windows 7. I can’t get it to boot up anymore. When I turn it on it beeps and displays this message:

“No Bootable Device — Please Restart System”

What could be causing this? I hope it’s not a bad hard drive but I suspect that it is. This just started last night and it’s very aggravating.

Anyway, thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]