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there's a peculiar 'grinding' (for lack of a better word to describe it)
coming out of the mid-tower box, for just a few seconds, on boot up. What is
it likely to be ? A motor on the hard drive; a fan ? I took the case cover
off but cant see anything amiss. Everything appears to work ok so there
isn't anything obviously wrong. Is there a particular utility that may help
diagnose a latent hardware failure?

Could it be the floppy drive looking for a boot disk?

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 21:20:15 -0500, "fhg" <_(notreal)>
wrote:

>there's a peculiar 'grinding' (for lack of a better word to describe it)
>coming out of the mid-tower box, for just a few seconds, on boot up. What is
>it likely to be ? A motor on the hard drive; a fan ? I took the case cover
>off but cant see anything amiss. Everything appears to work ok so there
>isn't anything obviously wrong. Is there a particular utility that may help
>diagnose a latent hardware failure?
>

Harrison wrote:
> Could it be the floppy drive looking for a boot disk?

Yes, it could and probably is. 'Boot Up Floppy Seek' is probably
enabled in the BIOS.

>
> On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 21:20:15 -0500, "fhg" <_(notreal)>
> wrote:
>
>> there's a peculiar 'grinding' (for lack of a better word to describe
>> it) coming out of the mid-tower box, for just a few seconds, on boot
>> up. What is it likely to be ? A motor on the hard drive; a fan ? I
>> took the case cover off but cant see anything amiss. Everything
>> appears to work ok so there isn't anything obviously wrong. Is there
>> a particular utility that may help diagnose a latent hardware
>> failure?

Has this grinding happened since day one or has it just started? Hard
drives will sometimes begin to make noises. Doesn't mean they're about
to break down, but they could, and it's a reminder to back up your data.

fhg wrote:
>
> there's a peculiar 'grinding' (for lack of a better word to describe it)
> coming out of the mid-tower box, for just a few seconds, on boot up. What is
> it likely to be ? A motor on the hard drive; a fan ? I took the case cover
> off but cant see anything amiss. Everything appears to work ok so there
> isn't anything obviously wrong. Is there a particular utility that may help
> diagnose a latent hardware failure?

"fhg" <_(notreal)> wrote in message
news:RY0Ob.24515$. ..
> there's a peculiar 'grinding' (for lack of a better word to describe it)
> coming out of the mid-tower box, for just a few seconds, on boot up. What
is
> it likely to be ? A motor on the hard drive; a fan ? I took the case cover
> off but cant see anything amiss. Everything appears to work ok so there
> isn't anything obviously wrong. Is there a particular utility that may
help
> diagnose a latent hardware failure?

You should then go to the website of your hard drive manufacturer(like
Seagate or Western Digital)and do a diagnostic test of the drive using the
utility they provide.
>
>

Classic fan symptoms.

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 21:20:15 -0500, "fhg" <_(notreal)> wrote in
24hoursupport.helpdesk:

>there's a peculiar 'grinding' (for lack of a better word to describe it)
>coming out of the mid-tower box, for just a few seconds, on boot up. What is
>it likely to be ? A motor on the hard drive; a fan ? I took the case cover
>off but cant see anything amiss. Everything appears to work ok so there
>isn't anything obviously wrong. Is there a particular utility that may help
>diagnose a latent hardware failure?
>

SgtMinor <> wrote:
> Has this grinding happened since day one or has it just started? Hard
> drives will sometimes begin to make noises. Doesn't mean they're
> about to break down, but they could, and it's a reminder to back up
> your data.
>
> fhg wrote:
>>
>> there's a peculiar 'grinding' (for lack of a better word to describe
>> it) coming out of the mid-tower box, for just a few seconds, on boot
>> up. What is it likely to be ? A motor on the hard drive; a fan ? I
>> took the case cover off but cant see anything amiss. Everything
>> appears to work ok so there isn't anything obviously wrong. Is there
>> a particular utility that may help diagnose a latent hardware
>> failure?

Nortons (if you have it) could be scanning the drive too,it does that.