Is my computer getting ready to crash?

Does it sounds like fan noise or a more mechanical hard drive sound?

Back-up your data ASAP. One way or another you are close to losing data if you don’t back-up.

It sounds like the Hard Drive is about to go. If it isn’t mechanical it is software and either way you need a back-up.

How much free space is on your drive?

Sounds like a fan…but could also be the latter you mention.

I can not back up any data. Unless I email them to my wifes computer.

Is it a laptop or a desktop?

[mod says] Question moved from Meta to General.

Desk top..but the scandisk I have is compleatly ignored and will not work at all.

If it is a desktop you could try popping it open and (usually only a few screws to remove the side) and check the fans. It should be pretty obvious how the fans are doing.

If the sound is coming randomly and not attached to any action you are doing with the computer I would say fans, I have had that before. When was the last time you took off the cover and really blew it out, gave it a good cleaning on the inside?

Do the fans supposed to be running all the time? It seem that mine is under a lot of strain struggling to stay running. If the fan is the problem I will try that Thanks.

The fans run whenever there is power to the board, if not you could burn your CPU up quick, even with a fan and heat sync. I actually installed extra fans in the tower I build to make sure I had enough cooling goin on.

Mine spin all the time. If they are not spinning that is a huge problem but it is also not the source of your noise.

Other than the noise, if your computer starts (cold boots) in its usual time, without having to wait for the drive to overcome “stiction”, and if programs run normally without hanging up at load time, and if other data loads in normal time, and if, as others have said, the noise is constant, then it probably is fan noise.

But if you have any of the issues that I mentioned first: slow booting, slow program or data loading, then it may very well be a hard drive problem.

What kind of computer do you have that can’t do backups? Not even to CD/DVD drive? External USB drive? Floppy disk? Via serial ports?

PS: Computers are always getting ready to crash. That’s why you need backups even when they don’t “sound funny” and “act weird”, because sometimes they crash with no warning at all.

If it sounds like marbles or ball bearings rolling around on a plate, back up data quick. The hard drive is about to self-destruct.

Sounds to me like your powers source could be getting ready to poop out. I had this same problem when I thought my computer crashed. I took a guess and bought a new hard drive first then I bought a new power supple and it now works great again.

The odds are high that it’s just a fan. But you should back up your hard drive regularly anyway. Get an external USB hard drive and just drag your My Documents folder over to it. Depending on what email client you use, you can probably save your emails in bulk or as individual .txt files.

Sounds like a hard drive failure to me, so just to be safe I’d back up your porn everything important you might have.