My Western Digital Black 500GB HD is seemingly going out on me. It makes these every loud noises when it boots up and scratching noises while at idle. I have never experienced these noises before when I first bought the drive.

Now my question is has anybody here used those harddrive cloning programs before? What are your experiences with them. Does it transfer everything from the old HD including the OS, programs, and such over to the new harddrive?

I used to own a Maxtor harddrive on my old computer and it was probably the quietest and best drive I have ever owned. But I read something about Seagate buying Maxtor. Is Seagate is a quiet and reliable brand? I'm looking forward to buying the 1TB model of that drive.

Thanks for your time.

i might be able to answer this one ^^

you can try zar or dd_rescue or symantec ghost.

someone more experienced can give you more advice than me

Loud scratching noises sound like media damage. But from what you say the drive is still recognised and usable?

If you're half comfortable with Linux then GNU ddrescue is a good option. There are many good Windows apps too. Cloning the drive should do so bit-for-bit, so it will make an exact clone of the drive as the name implies. So yes, data, programs etc will all go across.

Do it sooner rather than later.

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The drive is still recognizable but I cannot risk having it break down on me.

Say, would you recommend a Samsung or a Seagate harddrive? I need something that is more quiet than a Western Digital. Even my Western Digital external harddrive is louder than my old harddrives.

Hi, That noise might indicate a bearing problem. Make sure you keep the drive cool while cloning. You can place an old 4" 100mm psu or chassis fan on top of the drive and that should do the job.

Thanks for the help. I found out the hard drive was not the cause of the noise, but you were on the right track about the bearings. Not the bearings on my hard drive though but the bearing on CPU fan. Somehow that thing got loose or something. So I might have to replace it or somehow find a way to oil it. Peeling the stick off the fan reveals a flat plastic surface.

ON yuor heat sink fan I would not take chances on this one. You should replace it and not just oil it. Better off for you on this one. Or get a new heat sink and install it they are cheap and will save your CPU on this one. Also you should find a back up program for your HDD and make weekly or daily back up of this if you do value your data. This time it might be your HDD but WD are known for problems and next time it can be your HDD.

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