Clicking hard drive... can it be a SOFTWARE issue?

[DeafeningSilence]

That's what Circuit City is claiming.

I bought a laptop from CC, with 3-year extended warranty coverage. Once in a while, when trying to access various files, the HD would spin, click, and after a delay, say that the file was unreadable. Failing hard drive, right? So this starts happening more and more often, and finally the corruption reaches ntoskrnl.exe, so Windows won't boot (this happened after I had the laptop about one year).

So when I call CC to get my HD replaced, they want me to rule out software problems. Fine. So I format the drive, re-install Windows, and the problem has "gone away." To me, it's obvious that since I'm only using 2.5GB out of the 30GB drive, the corrupt areas of the drive simply aren't being used yet.

Am I right? How can I demonstrate this? Defrag and Chkdsk turn up nothing. Help!

 

[DaveSimmons]

try to find out the HD brand (My Computer, Properties -or- Control Panel> System> Hardware> Device Manager) then go to the manufacturer site for a drive test utility.

 

[DeafeningSilence]

Thanks for the suggestions. It's a Toshiba computer and drive. Unfortunately, my searches so far have been fruitless...

 

[Green Man]

Toshiba doesn't have a tool to test thier hard drives. You can use the Hitachi drive fitness test or the Seagate Seatools to test the hard drive. Both are available as an ISO you can burn to CD.

 

[BadThad]

From what I recall, the actuator on the read head is what causes the clicking sound, so it shouldn't matter how much of the drive is being used, it should always click if it's bad. That said, what you described sure sounds like a failing hard drive. Try Green Man's suggestion.

 

[CrispyFried]

if its bad sectors it may only click when it hits the bad sectors as it tries to recalibrate and try again.

scandisk with the surface scan option checked does not produce errors or the click?