Constant hard drive grinding.

[Dabgah]

In the past year my cpu has slowed down drastically and i was told i needed more ram and that my hd may be going bad. I remember having some trouble booting the cpu and someone helped me fix it by removing a text line on the bios boot and telling the pc to load c drive partition or something, i am not familiar with bios or boot screens at all really. But i had to use the windows repair cd to get loaded back in. I dont think my windows updater has worked in a while either, even tho it is a legit copy. I have CCcleaner and it lists some bad registry errors but i wasn't sure if i should use cc to fix them or look at formating.

Basicly any help on how to get my pc back to running smooth, booting and shutting down quicker and loading web browsers quicker would be appreciated. Is there a way to test my hd to see if its going bad? There currently is 80g free on the 1tb hd and disk Defrag has ran once a week since i built it apparently, i just changed it to once a month.



Built in 2010.
CPU: Intel - Core i5-760 2.8GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-P55-USB3 ATX LGA1156 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair - XMS3 8GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: Gigabyte - Radeon HD 5850 1GB Video Card
Case: Cooler Master - Storm Scout ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Cooler Master - eXtreme Power Plus 700W ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM 64-bit

 

[Froberg]

If your hard drive is making grinding sounds then you need to replace it!
Check if it's under warranty, Seagate has a function to check for that: http://support.seagate.com/customer/en-US/warranty_validation.jsp or you can contact your vendor depending on your local return laws.
Try downloading speedfan, there's a S.M.A.R.T check function there, that can tell you some info about your drive.
www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

 

[Dabgah]

Sofar seagate drive diagnostic has showed pass on everthing. The drive is 7-8 years old im sure warranty is over by now. It just sounds as if the drive is constantly being overworked while doing easy tasks such as web browser or sitting idle sometimes. Ill get my product number when i get home and check the warranty status just incase

 

[Dabgah]

http://www.userbenchmark.com/userrun/3610149
This is my bench results if youre able to tell anything from the s.m.a.r.t. results listed there. What can i do to try and get my HD running faster again?

 

[Froberg]

http://www.userbenchmark.com/userrun/3610149
This is my bench results if youre able to tell anything from the s.m.a.r.t. results listed there. What can i do to try and get my HD running faster again?

7-8 years old, it's a miracle it's still performing. A traditional mechanical hard-drive has a motor, that motor wears down over time. There's nothing you can do about it.
Drive performance, when it's a mechanical drive, will degrade over time. You need to replace it, as is evident from your benchmark test.
Replace it or don't at your own peril. You will lose data unless you replace it sooner or later.

 

[Dabgah]

Someone pointed out that my motherboard only supports sata2 where as others may be using sata3 for their benchmarks. However i do think youre right and the drive is dieing. This pc has been good to me so i cant complain to much. Would weekly defrags or long periods of pc on time hurt the drive? I was debating on formating the drive once i get files from it soon anyway, guess its time for a new one.

 

[Dabgah]

Would i need to copy windows and everyhitng to a new drive or am i able to use the same windows key on a new hd and fresh install? I have a 1tb external pocket drive i can save normal files to, ive just never had to swap hds or reinstall windows on this pc.

 

[Froberg]

Would i need to copy windows and everyhitng to a new drive or am i able to use the same windows key on a new hd and fresh install? I have a 1tb external pocket drive i can save normal files to, ive just never had to swap hds or reinstall windows on this pc.

Sata3 is backwards compatible, so you need not worry.
You can clone the system drive to a new disk using something like Clonezilla. But if it's been a long time since you made a fresh install, I would suggest going that route.
If you have funds for it, it's much better if you get a SSD drive for the system drive. 128 gigs is fine and cheap. Then you can get a cheap 1TB mechanical one for data.
You will notice a lot of speed improvement if you do get a solid state drive.

 

[Dabgah]

Ive looked at a few ssd's im wanting whatever i buy now to be usable in a future build if i upgrade my mobo/cpu. I am working with a friend who knows someone selling a pc to try and get his parts. As for windows if i do a clean install will my cdkey work or will i have to buy a new copy, since its on a different hd?

 

[Froberg]

Key will work fine.

 

[Dabgah]

Thanks for the help, ill back up what i need now and look for a new hd/ssd.