My harddrive keeps making this funny sounding 'Thwock' noise, and then my PC freezes for a few seconds, sometimes for about 30 seconds or so! The worst is when I try to load up certain games like FEAR and MOH, then as soon as the first game screen image is rendered, it freezes altogether, and I have to switch the machine off at the wall
Any ideas what may be causing this?

what make hard drive? you can run diagnosis tests on hard drives.

I use SeaTools Online from http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/ but the're others about

It sounds like it's on it last legs

Looks like you already answered your own question with your first sentence. If you're hearing sounds and experiencing freezing, avoid using the hard drive or you can further risk all of your data being erased! If I were you, I'd quickly backup all of my critical data and look to buying a new hard drive. However, you should check the IDE cables in the computer first. Another thing to look at would be using Scandisk to look for bad sectors and perhaps downloading a diagnostic from your HD's manufacturer.

Hello Lee,

Do what the Captain says, he's right, you're HD is on the way out, back up all your data NOW!.

You will have to install a new hard drive, if the old one is still working piggy back it, transfer the data and OS from it, you'll need to buy software for this or if you can't be bothered, back up your data, make a list of all your programes, find the CDs and your OS CD.

Try to do a full virus check in safe mode on the old HD before you back up, if your worried that hard drive will pack up first, just back up.

Install your new HD, install your OS, install software and data, time consuming yes but a fresh install = faster machine, don't forget to do a virus check if unable to so on the old HD, do a malware scan as well.
Johanus

The HDD is brand new! I've only just installed it onto a new system. are there any other possibilities?

Hello Lee,

There may be several reasons why a hard drive fails to boot.

New it may be but if the hard drive is making that noise, it's a faulty hard drive, it does happen.

You could try running dianostics as Brain Damage suggested if you can but methinks it's still your hard drive.
Johanus

Ok, I've bitten the bullet and bought a new hard drive. I figured that I could do with a 2nd one anyway. I am eventually looking to set up a RAID array with them as i have heard that this way is more secure, but for now I am looking just to install xp onto my new drive and then transfer all my files over to it from my old drive. As I have only ever installed one HDD per system, I am a bit unsure of the best way to go about it. I've heard of something called 'mirroring' but not quite sure what it is.Is it just a case of installing the new drive, installing xp onto it and then once the system is up and running I am assuming that windows will recognise both drives and I can then move files from one to the other? Both drives are SATA so there's no direct cable link to each drive, will this be a problem when it comes to file transfers?

Any help appreciated.Thanks