Grinding, Rasping Noise

[woodelf]

When I usually turn on my pc tower, there is a little "tink" sound and it gets on with the start-up, etc, but now and again - more now than again - when I turn on, there is the little tink, but it is drowned by a grinding, rasping sound and I turn off the machine. I've left it for a few seconds or so, turn on again and that sound is still there...try again and still there, leave it and try again and it's gone!...until the next time! I could (should?) get someone to have a listen (look?), but Sod's Law says it would work okay and nothing happens...until the next time! Any ideas what this horrible noise could be and/or what is causing it? Ta Muchly and Take Care All!

[barry1010]

cmd prompt is the command prompt in Windows that gives access to the Windows system and executes admin tasks and troubleshoots problems.
Very similar in use to the old DOS prompt if you remember that from many years ago.

A good example is chkdsk - a task that checks the hard drive - or any drive for that matter. You need to be aware that using the cmd prompt can cause serious problems if not used carefully and properly.

[Mamyalynne]

As Barry says, be careful and don't use cmd prompt if you are unsure ,get some help first Woodelf.

Mamya (smile)

[woodelf]

Oh, don't worry Mamya, I'll definitely be getting in some help and I suppose it will have to be real and actual eh Barry, rather than the written word?..."Phew!" say at least a couple of people who were thinking they were going to be roped in! - and I suppose you all think my hard drive is on its way out?...four years ago re-fitted with 1TB drive - is this going to cost a lot? - ooops sorry Barry, tried your other link and it works fine, just trying to digest it...one for Douglas there?

[barry1010]

I still think it is more likely to be your fan, woodelf, and hopefully that free program will reassure you about the state of your hard drive.

If you do need to replace the hard drive I strongly recommend you replace it with the new fangled SSD rather than a mechanical hard drive. They are much cheaper than they used to be and make a big difference to your computer. Hopefully you won't need to replace it yet, though.
In the meantime make sure all your files are backed up.

[woodelf]

Okay Barry, your words are reassuring, but there is one aspect of it all I'm not sure about and that's backups. I've got my backups on automatic, first Sunday of month and when backups are done, they only seem to take a few minutes...now would this be the whole drive, as it were or just new stuff that has been added to the drive since the last backup...I never seem to get the hang of this...and while we're on backups, I've been backing up on an external drive since 2018 and do you think that could do with some erm editing or deleting?...I don't even know if I've got the full drive amount on the external thing anyway!...Many Thanks for your patience!

[barry1010]

What system do you use to back up? Just the W10 File History?
It seems that it is backing up new files only, which if how I would expect routine back up to work.
Assuming your hard drive has the space it would do no harm to open File History and select ‘back up now’

[woodelf]

Which is why I'm a bit wary Barry, as I aint a clue what was done when someone said they had backed up my whole system and I only know to steer clear of it (the Network) and I'm only presuming the whole system was put on and is on the external device!...I'll have to get someone in and start from fresh, as it were.