Computer won't boot - hard drive suspect

A

Acetyle

New Member
Hello everyone.

My old computer is having a bit of an issue. She's not that old, but a pretty good system of her time.

Basically she's the best computer you can make without going into dual-core +.

When trying to boot up the computer it gets to the motherboard screen and the hard drive that has windows installed on it begins clicking and the computer reboots. I can access the BIOS by spamming delete before the computer tries to boot, but it doesn't appear changing any options in there will fix the issue.

The computer does have two hard-drives.

Thank you for reading and I appreciate any and all help / input anyone could put on the situation.
 
The clicking sound immediately points at a failing drive. Sometimes that will be the arm for the read/write heads slapping against the main spindle. It's time for a new drive! I would slave it later when a new drive or the other is OSed to see what files can be saved before tossing it.
 
Thanks for the input. I will see what can be saved tomorrow when I mix and match parts between my new beast computer and the old one.
 
When you hear that type of clicking sound and the system simply restarts right away you have to look at a drive going. At other times you won't hear anything and can still read from a drive while not being able to write to it like reinstalling the OS or simply creating a new folder. That's when the heads are worn.

Hopefully you will still be able to get anything important off of it. Once the mechanical parts in a drive go no data recovery software will help.
 
Update:

Tried messing with the hard drive on my system and got mixed results.

At first the computer wouldn't go past the Windows log on screen. Then after messing with the jumper on the hard drive I removed the jumper and got windows to start. It started VERY slow.

Once I was in Windows the hard drive was not recognized.

Didn't get to put my hard drive in his tower unfortunately.
 
Apparently there's still something left of the drive maybe enough to get everything off. But as far as running it for a host OS drive at this point you are seeing the problems a failing drive presents.

Since you will have to replace it anyways to keep that system running you really don't want to keep working with it if you have anything important you want to save from it before it goes entirely. Otherwise you need to bring it or send it in to a professional data recovery service for about the price of a new drive for rescuing directly off of the drive's platters.
 
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