My 8 month old IBM deskstar 40 gig is whirring loudly. Is it surley on it's way out, or is there any way to save it, IE: lube or something?

Thanks....

You need to try scanning and defrag'ing the HD.

Please do not try to lube it. :)

I defrag it and maintain it on a very consistant, regular basis. This is a mechanical problem

If you recognize it's a mechanical problem, the only way is to replace it. You can't lube a HD and you don't want to.

I would back it up asap
once its gone its gone for good ( sorry )

Before you do anything have a read of this article http://www.otakupc.com/News/ibm_75gxp_fail.shtml

Regards

Thanks for the link. But i think it is something to think of in the future if you intend to use a IBM, which i will never do again. Once the drive is whining i think it's already done for. I will back up my files on CD and call the place i bought it from.

Thanks all

i have a ibm had a 20 gig and it went out on me and it was dead and i was never able to obain anything the damage was soo bad anyway yea make a backup and save everything i bought a new hd and its fine ... does ibm make poor quality hd or somethin

you should have gotten a s.m.a.r.t. disk error, matter of fact if you could record the error it would facilitate the warrenty replacement of the hdd.
check the ibm website for a utility to check the smart status of the disk

p.s. as has been said, backup immediatly