Hard Drive Dying?/SSD Slow Boot Time

LiamV123 · 6 May 2016 at 15:12

Every day if I'm listening to tunes on iTunes, every now and again I'll click a song iTunes will frozen more or less and I can hear my drive ticking then it'll stop ticking and the song will play.
Is my HD dying?
My SSD also boots up slow compared to what it use to, tried everything reinstalling Windows 7, tweaking BIOS settings. Nothing works.

Jamesyboyjim · 6 May 2016 at 15:19

Is there apps installed on the HDD that are loaded when Windows starts? If that drive is struggling it'll cause windows to freeze while it tries to read it even though Windows is installed on the SSD.

I would get that HDD backed up asap. I ignored a dodgy drive for a few days a week ago and now I've lost almost everything that was on it.

LiamV123 · 6 May 2016 at 15:24

Just games and software are on the HDD, no boot up apps are on it. So you think I should buy a new HDD because of the ticking?

Jamesyboyjim · 6 May 2016 at 15:39

LiamV123 said:
Just games and software are on the HDD, no boot up apps are on it. So you think I should buy a new HDD because of the ticking?

Its certainly not a good sign! I'd at least backup anything important asap!

LiamV123 · 6 May 2016 at 15:42

Will do, will get the money and buy a new 2TB HDD or maybe larger capacity. Maybe buying a new SSD will fix the slow boot time?

wonko · 6 May 2016 at 16:07

If you haven't got a backup then that should be your priority whether your disk is dying or not... (I think I'm channelling bledd, er BMcB, here...

)

Some green drives sleep after a period of inactivity and can take a few seconds to wake up again - it's possible that's what is happening but 'ticking' is a sign that the drive is struggling to read the data correctly. Looking at the SMART data may give some clues (e.g. using CrystalDiskInfo, HDTune). Once you've backed-up I'd run the manufacturer's diagnostics.

LiamV123 · 6 May 2016 at 16:50

Will do, the SSD issue is a problem on it's own.

deano-5 · 6 May 2016 at 18:07

Try running Trim on your ssd. (its like defragging but for ssd)

ED209 · 6 May 2016 at 18:22

when you re installed the OS did you have the HDD connected?

sometimes the OS during install stores data on the HDD (MBR) which maybe causing the slow boots.

when doing a OS re install the only drive you should have connected is the OS SSD\HDD.

LiamV123 · 11 May 2016 at 14:00

I belive my HDD was installed when I installed my OS, but I'm not sure I have a feeling it wasn't. I'll run trim and check to see if my HDD has any MBR data on it as well.
Checked my SSD and HDD, my SSD has partion style MBR and HDD as GPT.

LiamV123 · 23 May 2016 at 19:16

Any help anyone?

mahius · 23 May 2016 at 22:27

Sounds to me like the hard drive is dying. Especially since I've had a dying hard drive before. How long have you had it for and what hard drive is it exactly? There are good 1TB HDs for around £50 and 2TB for a fair bit more. Or spend a whole lot extra on a 960GB SSD if you so desire.

Some of the larger hard drives, when new can make loud noises when in use, even when brand new. My WD Black is failry noisy and I was going to return it. But I Googled it and found that it was a downside to the some of the WD 2TB drives.