Hard Drive Heatlh

Chose this topic because mine started showing signs of ages this week. Strange clicking noises i never noticed before. Founds a nice (free!) program to read smart data found in most HDD after Y2K. I wanted to put pictures but the Main site is actually fairly detailed. NEVERMIND discovered that it was a different site. can't find it now.

http://www.panterasoft.com/

Main page for HDD Health

HDD Health shows Smart data and runs silently in the background. Running it computer for 2 days it came up with the date of my HDD crash time. I have as little as six months until it crashes at current use and as much as two years before i need a replacement. Until then I'm keeping it defraged and backing up frequently. I will migrate my information as soon as I know I get another HDD. For everyone else who might experience a HDD crash I recommend that you buy a new HDD next weekend. Sure your current HDD might not crash for a year but what if it happens sooner? If you get the drive now you'll put stuff on it and take strain off the current HDD. And you don't run the risk of losing any files.

extra information will be added at request :P