Hard drive makes strange sound

[Pixel]

A bit off topic, I know-

A few weeks ago, my computer started making this awful *clunk* *clunk* sound on boot up. Almost immediately I began suspecting the hard drive. From what I've told, this type of noise in an HDD is a sign of catastrophe. At first it seemed to happen randomly on boot, but later I discovered that it mostly happened the first time the computer was booted/powered on after it had been off overnight.

Eventually I used the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic utility and what are supposed to be thorough tests- the drive passed them all OK best I can tell.

Hmmm...

After a little research on the net I decide to try removing one of two sticks of RAM (both are Crucial 256 MB PC2700 DDR333) from the motherboard. Turned the machine back on and no clunking sound on boot. Apparently, the clunking noise hasn't been heard since.

Could it have been the RAM? Any other possibilites?

TIA

[Kilroy]

Quote (Pixel @ Jan. 05 2006,8:39)

Could it have been the RAM? Any other possibilites?

A bad DIMM, or not enough memory will cause your system to use the hard drive as 'temp RAM:, and the constant read/writing to the drive will cause the thrashing, or clunking you were hearing.

 Although these don't sound to be the problem in your case the noise could not be your drive but
- a bad bearing in the power supply fan, or a bad fan unit.
- a bad CPU fan
- a cable or cables to close to a fan (usually the CPU fan)
 
Sorry, I've been doing computer IT support for some 15 yrs, so I jumpedat the chanceto actually be able to answer a question here  

[Creighton]

I'd back that drive up pronto (just in case). Dust/cat hair etc... stuck in the vents/fans and power supply should be cleaned out. Poor air circulation and heat build up will kill PC components quick. Problem with when a HD crashes it is too late to do anything about it. Other than very costly data recovery:-(.
I don't turn my boxes off. Figure the wear and tear of boot-up is not worth the electricty savings.
Creighton

[Pixel]

No apologies man, I need the advice.

I've backed up what I consider to be my important data.

Here while back, I booted the machine with the HDD out of the case (still cabled up to the motherboard/power supply), and listening for the sound, I'd noticed the hard disk drive would seem to spin up (make a high pitched whirring sound as it was working), then after I heard the *clunk* from whereever, the drive would pause for a second and the spin up again. That's why I think the sound may be coming from the drive.

I've swapped RAM for the suspect stick. I'll prolly have to wait until tomorrow to see if the sound is made again. It might even be a bad slot on the motherboard, I don't know. (and wouldn't that be lovely- a Soltek motherboard lasted a little over a year in this machine, until the nVIDIA nForce2 333 IGP north bridge toasted itself. The current motherboard - VIA KT660 north bridge- is now just over a year old.)

I should mention I have a dual boot machine. Right now I'm in Windows 98 SE. I also have Mandrakelinux 10.0 Community Edition on the same drive. The clunking sound has happened only while booting WINDOWS or when Windows actually begins putting the GUI on the screen. AFAIK, it doesn't happen when in Linux. Could that be a clue?

[Skeleton Man]

Cool.. it looks like I'm not the only techie on the boards.. (sysadmin/programmer/hardware tech) I guess soda machines/coin-ops are a natural progression from computers ?