Very slow start up and clicking noise

[dramacydal]

Hi, Day before my laptop froze while watching a movie, so i put it off and restarted and then start-up took about 15 mins. its was freezing every few seconds with click noise which i think its from the hard drive. Now im currently using it on safe mode with networking.. its working fine but sometimes its freezes up for a couple of mins. the clicking noise comes on

Whats my issue? faulty hard drive or ive hit a malware? ( i was messing with some usenet stuff )

If i ive to format, how do i do it? Laptop originally came with vista ultimate but recently i send it for repairs to repair the dvd drive and the guy put in windows 7 ultimate for me, which i assume is a fake copy. So how do i format and i dont have the cd as well.

 

[unoriginal1]

Sounds like your hard drive is about to go. Backup whatever important data you have and run a hdd diagnostic on it.

Reformatting won't help in this issue. Kinda concerned that someone would put windows ultimate on your lappy. Assuming that is not a legal copy. That or he up-sold you to something you really really didn't need.

*edit* nvm my ultimate comment. Completely overlooked it had vista ultimate on it before. Was most likely an upgrade.

 

[dramacydal]

Sounds like your hard drive is about to go. Backup whatever important data you have and run a hdd diagnostic on it.

Reformatting won't help in this issue. Kinda concerned that someone would put windows ultimate on your lappy. Assuming that is not a legal copy. That or he up-sold you to something you really really didn't need.

*edit* nvm my ultimate comment. Completely overlooked it had vista ultimate on it before. Was most likely an upgrade.

Thanks for the quick post, Thought so its hard drive dying to but how come its working fine on safe mode? anyway could you help me on how to reformat with a cd?

 

[dish_moose]

Clicking usually mean hardware failure - I can remember hearing that noise on a drive that had failed. We sent the drive away for data recovery - did not get any usable data. Head the advice - backup and get yourself a new HDD... or SSD.
-Bruce

 

[dish_moose]

Edit - double post
-Bruce

 

[smorizio]

spindle motor or spindle arm failed causing the read right heads to hit the platters.

 

[dramacydal]

What hdd to get? this is infact my old laptop which im currently using as a back up as my other gaming laptop is not powering up. Anyway can you give me a link on which hdd to buy?

Laptop name - Sony vaio CR VGN-35G

 

[smorizio]

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152366
slightly larger 250g drive same speed. you can also get 500g sata drives for the laptop. before you order a replacment is the laptop still under warranty??

 

[spawnkiller]

Save all you can or want and change your HDD, it will fail soon as clicking is never a good sign... generally, you'll have SMART alert at startup soon after that begins to click and after a few times, the HDD will simply not start anymore...