The Knowhow
As stated above, we highly recommend you make a backup of your important files and information as soon as you can.
See our article on backing up your files for more information.
A failing hard drive might show various symptoms, such as:
- Regular clicking noise coming from the computer
- Freezing or hanging
- Windows not starting
- Frequent error messages
- Computer becoming unresponsive
- Slow performance
- Data loss
While these symptoms alone aren’t conclusive, they do suggest that further diagnostics would be worthwhile.
How to test your hard drive
If you can load Windows:
-
Open Start
and click Computer -
Select the hard drive you wish to check - usually Local Disk (C:) and click Properties
-
Click the Tools tab
-
Click Check now
- Tick Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors
- Click Start
-
You will be told that Windows can’t check the disk while it’s in use. Click Schedule disk check.
-
Restart your computer and your disk check will start
Any problems will be detected and automatically fixed. This can take a while to complete depending on the size and type of your hard disk drive.
If Windows doesn’t load
If you are still having problems with your computer and the disk check has failed to find and fix any problems please see our separate article on Troubleshoot Windows start-up problems.
