I bought my desktop computer 12/06, used. So it's about 5 years old. It's a Gateway Media Center running XP Pro, with 512 mb of RAM and a 240 GB HD plus several other attached devices (DVD, CDs, printer, etc.).
The HD (Western Digital) has never been noisy. What is noisy is the fan in the power supply. It runs at varying speeds almost contantly, and it's loud. Other than that, this has been a great computer. It does everything I want it to do, and considering the small amount of RAM on board, plus I've managed to load the HD with over 800,000 files...its no wonder it runs slow at times.
The problem is, lately the Hard Drive has become noisy when it boots up. It's a whirring sound that eventually goes away once its up and running for half an hour. No error messages. Everything seems to be running normally.
But I'm wondering if, at 5 years and counting, the HD has reached the end of its useful life, and I should be planning to replace the HD and/or the computer?
My second question is, assuming I keep what I have a while longer, I have another HD that I removed from my previous computer. It's a 250 gig WD for matted with Win 2000 Pro. It has about 140 gig of files and programs on it. I don't need or want the content, which means it could be reformated with XP Pro.
Is there any way to use this drive as an external backup device? My wife's computer is almost identical to mine, and about the same age. I could just about backup both computers and have room left over. The thing is, the HD may require a ground, and if I used it as an external device, it may not work. It may not work anyway...this may be a bad idea.
Appreciate any suggestions you might have.
Tbone
The HD (Western Digital) has never been noisy. What is noisy is the fan in the power supply. It runs at varying speeds almost contantly, and it's loud. Other than that, this has been a great computer. It does everything I want it to do, and considering the small amount of RAM on board, plus I've managed to load the HD with over 800,000 files...its no wonder it runs slow at times.
The problem is, lately the Hard Drive has become noisy when it boots up. It's a whirring sound that eventually goes away once its up and running for half an hour. No error messages. Everything seems to be running normally.
But I'm wondering if, at 5 years and counting, the HD has reached the end of its useful life, and I should be planning to replace the HD and/or the computer?
My second question is, assuming I keep what I have a while longer, I have another HD that I removed from my previous computer. It's a 250 gig WD for matted with Win 2000 Pro. It has about 140 gig of files and programs on it. I don't need or want the content, which means it could be reformated with XP Pro.
Is there any way to use this drive as an external backup device? My wife's computer is almost identical to mine, and about the same age. I could just about backup both computers and have room left over. The thing is, the HD may require a ground, and if I used it as an external device, it may not work. It may not work anyway...this may be a bad idea.
Appreciate any suggestions you might have.
Tbone
