Toshiba Laptop Satellite A135-S4487 With a Noisy Hard Drive
The Toshiba Satellite A135-S4487 comes with a 100GB serial advanced technology attachment drive; some models also include a secondary 120GB SATA device. Modern hard drives use one of two technologies to read and write data: traditional drives use disk platters, which write and read information using magnetic hot spots; others use microchips, like USB flash drives, and contain no moving parts. The former produces a lot of noise when performing some tasks, but certain sounds indicate a problem with the drive.
Other People Are Reading
-
Bad Sectors
-
CheckDisk, also known as CHKDSK, accessible from Disk Properties, performs a thorough scan on all the sectors of a hard drive to determine whether or not segments of the drive are damaged; if a sector is defective, the computer won't be able to access the data on that part of the drive. Because bad sectors reduce the effectiveness of the read-write behavior on a disk, if the device contains numerous damaged sectors, the drive may be noisy when searching for viable portions of the drive to write data to. CHKDSK marks off these damaged segments of the drive so that the operating system doesn't attempt to make use of them in the future.
Crashed Drive
-
The hard drive uses a read-write head to perform data transactions on the disk platters. When the drive initiates a write operation, the platters begin to spin at high speed. An actuator moves the read-write head into position and the air pressure that the spinning disk creates raises the head off the platter. Problems occur, however, when a dust or dirt particle is trapped on the disk; when the head comes in contact with this particle, it touches the platter, scratching the hard drive and causing more debris to scatter across the surface. This event is called a hard drive crash, or head crash. Head crashes can produce a clicking sound; if the drive becomes noisy and freezes at the same time, the drive is likely failing.
-
Windows Indexing
-
When the Toshiba Satellite A135-S4487 is idle, the operating system begins indexing, or cataloging, the locations of files and folders stored to the hard drive. The OS uses this data when performing searches. While useful, the process can cause the drive to thrash, which sounds similar to the noises the disk makes when it's performing a large file transfer. You can disable indexing from within Services, accessible through Computer Management or Control Panel -- but note that future searches will take longer to return results.
Solid State Drive
-
Even if the disk drive that comes with the Toshiba Satellite A135-S4487 is in good condition, with no bad sectors or mechanical problems, the drive will still make noise when performing read-write operations; solid state drives, on the other hand, don't make noise at all. SSDs are much more expensive than HDDs, but the former perform better, generate less heat and have a longer shelf-life. If the noise your HDD produces is distracting enough to make computer usage bothersome, you can replace the existing drive with a 2.5-inch SATA SSD.
-
References
- Toshiba Support: Satellite A130/A135 Series User's Guide (PDF)
- PCSTATS.com: Beginners Guides: Stopping Vista From Thrashing Hard Disks to Death
- Upgrading and Repairing PCs; Scott Mueller
