Hard drive failure signs?

You turn on your PC one day and you hear noises from the hard drive. You could hear clicking, buzzing, clanking, grinding, and etc. Buzzing and whirling noises for example hard drives will pass diagnostic tests 95% of the time. These noises are signs of failure which could happen at any time. Grinding and clanking type noises are usually hard drives that have already failed or damaged. Best thing to do is backup your hard drive. You can either do this yourself with a CD-RW or have someone do it for you. If your hard drive is totally failed there are services who can save your files but be prepared to pay through the nose. When your drive starts to show signs of failure thats the time to take action don't wait till it totally fails. Any computer repair shop can backup your important files when the drive is still functioning if your not confident enough to do it yourself. If your PC is under warranty your hardware maunfacturer is only required to replace the drive they will back the old one up but only for a fee. Your data is not under warranty ever. Some make this mistake thinking their warranty covers their data files it doesn't. PC manufacturers will load the OS on replacemant hard drives as a customer convenience and many times they will load some of the programs which came with it but not always. Be prepared to spend a few hours loading programs on your replacement hard drive because your PC manufacturer is only obligated to load the OS. Hard drive failure can happen suddenly with no warning this is rare but it does happen. If your PC is out of warranty and you must purchase a new hard drive you may think about getting a larger capacity drive. Larger drives only cost a few dollars more and a lot of times sellers will have specials that you can get a larger capacity for like few dollars more or they will have a rebate offer. Just make sure you check your PC capabilities. Some newer hard drives use SATA and don't work in older machines. Older machines use IDE so make sure you check what your PC manufacturer recommends if your out of warranty.

As always I hope this information is helpful.

Tim