Noisy Harddrive

My computer is 6 months old and just recently the harddrive has been clicking alot. And im guessing its starting to fail because of all the usage it goes through.

I got a new computer because my old harddrive failed too and I just needed to upgrade.

I'm hoping there is some way I can fix this without having to replace my harddrive. If I do need to can you guys give me any tips on making my harddrives last longer so I dont have to replace them as often?

My dad says its probably the gaming I do on my computer because its constantly accessing the harddrive.

Please help me out. Thanks.

EDIT: I just noticed if I lift or move my computer it stops but then it goes again shortly after. Right now I have a book and a magazine stacked underneith it elevating the front of the case. Is this bad, and I'm hopeing there is some other way to solve this rather than cheapassing my way through it like this. :P
NEVERMIND its going like crazy again.

I would hurry up and buy an HD before you lose your crap, slave the busted drive , pull the data and sell it on Ebay while it still works It's not a Compaq Computer BTW is it>?

No its not a compaq its a custom made.

SO your saying my harddrive is dead and there is no way to save it?

If so, then can you give me some tips on how to not destroy harddrives so quickly?

No other reason for an HD to click like there's no tomorrow... btw when was the last time you defragmented your drive?

I defragmented about 30 mins ago. It actually made the clicking worse.

What brand is it? Is it the same as the old onw that went bad?

My old one was a Segate and the one right now is a Maxtor. Both 80 GB.

Its just my experience, but I've found older 80gig drives don't last like the newer ones. I've been using a 60gig in my main machine pretty much all the time for gaming... and when its not gaming, I'm ripping music from DI.FM

It might have to do with shoddy bearings, or maybe a weak power supply. If you shut down and restart your system, check your 5v and 12v rails... make sure they are within 5%, as every drive I've lost (4 total, 3 were 80 gig, 1 was a 30 gig- 1 seagate, 2 maxtor, 1 WD) the PSU was also failing after I checked it out closely.

You can always download the disk utilities from Maxtor called PowerMax. Make the floppy and do the longer tests. This will tell you whether or not your HD is to blame.

Drives become hot after a while. Bearings fail when it gets too hot. No matter what the problem is, the drive shouldn't be making constant noise. The defrag symptons you described sounds like the little arm (don't know the proper name) inside the drive is failing.

my old comp was a dell, got the 80gb maxtor with 2mb cache.... (cant get any older than that), lasted me 2years 7 months, AND STILL GOING WITHOUT A PROBLEM. I did tons of gaming, and video encoding on that b4 i got these 2 wd 120gb hds on my new comp, the 80gb is now back in the dell, still working away like it was just brand new....

dont blame maxtor!

i have had 2 maxtor drives fail on me for no reason no clicking they just died