How can I tell if my Hard Drive is ready to go?

[hellas1]

Hi all,

I have an HP machine which is a number, 3-4 years, old.

I upgraded to Windows 7 64 bit and
I installed more RAM to boot.

I did this to invigorate my PC, to make it last for at 2 more years.

In the meantime, How can I tell if the Hard Drive is ready to die?

I noticed something recently, maybe it has always been happening:

When I click a program to access the .exe, I hear a "Zooom, click" and then the .exe files and the games main screen comes up. This does NOT happen all the time, only on certain games.

Please advise.
Thanks kindly!
hellas1.5

[Ishan]

Not sure what you meant but your problem is not related to your hard drive it's fine from the way you are telling your part.

[Doono]

A mechanical clicking sound coming from the hard drive is an early indicator of a failing drive, if this is the case make a backup of everything essential immediatly as hard drives can fail quickly or take a long time. they have a nasty habbit of doing it at the most inconveniant times as well lol.

If it dosen't sound normal it's probably going faulty is a good theory to live by.

[GasMask]

Let it go your HDD is not going to lose you data what usually brakes is the little pointer that does all the work once that goes dont worry just hook t up to a USB sata cable and transfer your junk to a new HDD when you get it also i had a broken HDD but i decided to leave it in and the little sod lasted another 5 months then it went .

[Bolkonsky]

Let it go your HDD is not going to lose you data what usually brakes is the little pointer that does all the work once that goes dont worry just hook t up to a USB sata cable and transfer your junk to a new HDD when you get it also i had a broken HDD but i decided to leave it in and the little sod lasted another 5 months then it went .

Nonsense. By this you might as well say that you had a finger infection but it lasted for 3 months before it fell off, but you just stitched it back on.

You'd have better luck taking the disk out of the broken HD and trying to find an identical one, and attempting to put it in that one.

Hellas, your best bet is to get a new HD, and put your files on it.

[Doono]

nonsense if the head goes the data is pretty much lost, how can you possibly read the disk once the platter head is gone lol.

[GasMask]

You have to remove the shell and then connect the USB to the SATA port you boot up in normal no need to slate it etc and then press explore it will do that takes a little time once its done you can access your data either as a backup or simply a back log but you will lose the main files so back your stuff up.

Another good thing to mention is EXTERNAL DRIVES they save a life.

[Doono]

Please don't post rubbish, if the platter head can't read the disk it's because the platter has generally crashed into the plates destroying the data. The head reads from the disk you can't magically read from the plates with a usb connection.