It would be unusual for a hard drive to fail like that.  It is, as Kenneth said, more likely a fan.

There are several fans.  One is the power supply fan, the "case fan."  It is not uncommon for these to go bad, particularly on 
cheaper power supplies.  You might be able to tell that it is the power supply fan without even opening the case.  You start the 
computer and listen for the sound.  Then you stick a pencil into the power supply fan to stop it.  It the sound stops, then you know 
it is that particular fan, and the easiest thing to do would be to replace the power supply with a compatible one.  Generic power 
supplies are pretty much all the same form factor, but it is hard to tell for a proprietary one.  Power supplies are not too 
expensive.

If that does not work, then you open the case.  There are one or two fans inside the case.  For sure you will have a fan on the cpu. 
You will probably  notice immediately that it is rattling, but if it is not apparent, you can try the pencil test again.

You might have a fan on your video card (but in an eMachine system, the video might be on the motherboard), so you could try that.

If the rattling still goes on through these tests, you can check the hard drive(s) by turning the computer off, unplugging the power 
cord to the drive(s) (one at a time), then turning the computer on to see if the noise stops. If it actually is the hard drive, you 
can attempt to copy your files if the drive will work long enough.

In all the fan tests, start with the computer off, turn it on, and perform the check as soon as the noise appears.  You do not want 
the computer running any longer than necessary in case it is overheating.  If the cpu fan is defective, then the cpu could rapidly 
overheat and be toasted.  Also, stick the pencil into the fan just far enough to stop the blades, no farther, as you don't want to 
short anything out.  These are all simple tests that anyone could do, especially the test of the power supply fan which doesn't even 
require you to open the case, so do not be intimidated.

Your biggest danger of causing harm is if it is the cpu fan that is not working, as that could cause the cpu to overheat.  Replacing 
a cpu would be much more expensive than replacing a power supply or hard drive.

You computer should be good for a few more years!

HTH

Dean Kukral

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joyce A" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 1:05 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Is it dead?


This morning when I tried to boot up my three-year-old eMachines, running Win XP Home, SP3, I heard a loud, continuous rattling 
sound.  When the page came up, each icon in the toolbar jittered for a moment, and the clicking sound continued, so I shut down and 
tried again:  same thing happened.  Is my hard disk fried?  Is it safe to boot it up long enough to back my files up to the 8-gig 
USB memory stick I bought last week?  And is there anything special I need to do in order to back things up?  I figure I'm going to 
need a new computer, or at least a new hard drive...  Many thanks for any help!

Joyce in SE Ohio

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