When I booted up this morning, my hard drive started making a weird and strange loud noise, like someone was hitting the side of the cpu with a pencil. This scares me, could my hard drive be getting ready to drop like a rock?

If it was loud, yes.... I would download the diagnostic software from the hard drive manufacturer and run it... BUT only after backing up any important data on the drive first....:eek: :eek:

Thanks for responding Budfred but I have a problem with this, I can't get in to back up any files. When I do a cold boot, I get this message:
SMART FAILURE Predicted on Hard disk------(name of hard disk)

Warning: Immediately back up your data and replace your hard disk drive.
A failure may be immenient

Press F1 to continue:

I press F1 and then all I get is the boot up screen "Windows ME" and that is is. It won't go on from there.

Also, there isn't any software provided that will allow me to correct this problem
By the way, I am using WIN ME , computer is a HP Pavilion

Well that is helpful information and pretty much means you are screwed....

You may be able to recover some data from DOS or using some of the data recovery programs available. If you have anything on there you absolutely have to save, shut it down now and don't even try until you are ready to do the maximum recovery possible... If you keep trying to access it, you will probably lose any chance you have of recovery. If you don't have any crucial data on there or if you already have it backed up (that would be a relief), it is time to check the drive to see if it is still under warranty. If it is, time to contact the warranter for a replacement and if it isn't, time to go shopping. Luckily, there are a lot of good deals on hard drives these days.

Thanks for responding budfred, just as I thought, i am screwed, so off to the store we go, hi ho,hi ho, hi ho

OfficeMax: Western Digital 80gig for $70 after rebates...

BestBuy: Seagate 80gig for $60 after rebates and Seagate 120gig for $80 after rebates

CompUSA: Western Digital 120gig for $90 after rebates, Maxtor 40gig for $40 after rebates and Western Digital 80gig for $100 after rebates.

Circuit City: 80gig for $60 after rebates (no brand noted) and Western Digital 160gig for $120 after rebates....

If the drive contains critical files that you absolutely need, then a data recovery service can retrieve them. But doing this will cost a lot of $.

your going to need a new hard drive anyway.
buy one,
take yours completly out,
butthe new one in, partition it fomat it, set up the new operating system....

get it up and runing,
now set your old one as a slave,
you should be able to see all your files once you double click the old drive.
but as you said you hear clanking,this means you have a mechaical problem.
scratch the above.
try putting it in the freezer litteraly.
and when you think it was in there long enough.
stick it back in and back up your files quickly.
good luck.

If you do the freezer trick, make sure you put it in a plastic ziplock type bag first. If you put it in without that, the moisture will kill whatever life it has left. You can do this a few times, but each time you will have less chance of it working the next time.....

thanks for the info, i have never heard of putting it in the freezer. my question is this, how is this helpful?

I can't tell you the details, but it has something to do with the fact that metal contracts in the cold. It is a trick that you can use, but it is a last gasp way to try to recover data in a dying hard drive.... Here is an article that talks about it: PCWorld... (http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,110320,pg,3,00.asp)

A chest or upright stand alone freezer works best......