|
Before you ask what I mean about hard drive clicking: our clients have
had a rash of hard drive failures lately — meaning, there's a clicking noise coming
from their hard drives. With the coming season, it's not going to any easier for computers.
What to do if you hear clicking from your hard drive
Simply put, if you hear a clicking from your hard drive, and your computer freezes or
takes too long to boot up — shut it down IMMEDIATELY. Your drive has gone bad and
will be completely unusable within a short amount of time.
If you get your computer to us when it first starts exhibiting these symptoms, we can
usually save your drive's data (your files and programs) intact. Each time you try to get
it to boot up after this first happens, you are considerably decreasing the possibility
of a simple copying of what's on your hard drive. If copied within a reasonable amount
of time after the initial symptoms you can be back up and going in a matter of a couple
of hours.
The alternative is to shut down your computer and call us, or to keep trying to boot
up — and then you will end up calling us with a completely dead hard drive.
Personally, I'd rather you not have to go through that, so give us a call when your
drive first starts making loud clicking noises and you have problems booting, ok?
Why is this happening?
Air conditioners (also known as A/Cs) use a LOT of power, as anyone who pays power bills
knows. What you may not know is that when they are first turned on, that huge power usage
causes a large spike in the whole building's power system. In newer buildings (including
houses), this spike, or over-voltage, is usually confined to the specific circuit that
the A/C is on.
How this comes about and and how it affects your computer is varied:
| Situation A |
You work in an older building (or house) and every time the
A/C kicks in, it creates a surge (too much electricity) throughout the entire building. |
| |
| Situation B |
You work in a newer building (or house) and the A/C is on the
same main circuit as your computer, hence when it starts up, it creates a surge on your
circuit. |
| |
| Situation C |
Everyone in town starts their A/C at a similar time (when the
work starts) causing a huge surge in the town's power, not just your office. |
What does this have to do with your computer?
Your computer is an electrical device. It is also a sensitive electronic device. Sensitive
electronic devices really don't like having the amount of power changed drastically —
it hurts them. And just like with humans, enough hurt causes no more activity, or to put
it simply, death.
Now this can be as simple as a dead power supply, but can be as drastic as a dead hard
drive — which of course means there goes all your data.
What to do if your hard drive is making clicking noises
Turn off your computer immediately and call us. Do not turn it on again, or you'll
lessen your chances of being able to recover your files and programs. (See
Computer Services : Clicking
Hard Drive Repair.)
To those of you who do not have a backup system installed yet, call us at (818) 352-8700.
You needed to get one going yesterday!
| 
