HD clicking? [Archive]

Kyle1886

01-06-2010, 14:21

The last few mornings when I boot the PC, I hear a "clicking" sound, and only lasts a few seconds. This morning it was just a couple of clicks, yesterday five or six. During the rest of it's run time all seems fine no abnormal slow downs, etc. I can't tell if it is one of the hard drives (2- Western Digital 250G SATA-2) or the big fan that is mounted right in front of the drives (Ultra Tower case). The "clicking" is not as pronounced as the "click of death" associated with the old Iomega Zip drives, nor lasts long enough to pin point it's source. (Non RAID config any longer, just separate drives). (I've used PC's as a tool since 1984, but not really heavy into the tech end).

Custom build, WinXP.

Ideas? Thank you for any feedback.

Toyman

01-06-2010, 14:47

Maybe a bad or dirty fan?

Kyle1886

01-06-2010, 15:59

Thanks, but I've cleaned all the fans. About every 4-6 months I clean the interior since one side of the case is "see through". Thanks again.

IndyGunFreak

01-06-2010, 16:28

It's one of the hard drives, get your data backed up.

C.Lee

01-06-2010, 16:47

Hi, go to WD's website and select your model hard drive then download Lifeguard/ Lifeguard tools for your hd.
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?level1=6&lang=en

Use lifeguard to test your hard drives and find out which one is starting to croak.

You could try unplugging the fan before starting the pc and see if the noise stops. You can then unplug each hard drive and start the system to isolate the noise.

Kyle1886

01-06-2010, 16:54

Thanks folks, appreciate it.

C.Lee, where will I find the mod. #, ? Looked on the sticker on top of the drive. Probably have to remove them?

Sgt. Schultz

01-06-2010, 16:56

It's one of the hard drives, get your data backed up. :agree:

Isaiah1412

01-06-2010, 17:48

The clicking is the R/W "arm" because a mechanical issue with the drive is causing it to travel more than normal and then snap back into place. Usually this is not IMMEDIATELY serious but there is always a chance that the arm will travel too far and either damage one of the platters or move out of alignment. At that point the drive is hosed unless you execute some very painstaking repairs or send it to an extremely expensive data repair expert.

Basically you are playing russian roulette with your data. Personally I'd pull the power cord from the drive (which will prevent the arm from moving at all), but a new drive and copy everything off it. Then junk the old one. Clicky drives should never be trusted.

MavsX

01-06-2010, 20:12

It's one of the hard drives, get your data backed up.

yes...do this.

at my work, we literally average a hard drive crash a month. And we buy good hard drives..seagate barracudas..for the desktops...servers...different story..but still...back your crap up!

C.Lee

01-07-2010, 03:37

Thanks folks, appreciate it.

C.Lee, where will I find the mod. #, ? Looked on the sticker on top of the drive. Probably have to remove them?

Hi Kyle,
You can download Belarc advisor http://belarc.com/free_download.html
and it will give you the info. Just copy the model # and Google search it and you will figure out which drives you have.

Or you can click on control panel, system, hardware tab, device manager then expand "Disk Drives" and it will give you the same info, just copy and Google search the info, Western digital drives should start with WD.........

Like others said, you should back up the data now.

Kyle1886

01-07-2010, 08:19

Thanks guys, and C.Lee, all I can say is---Dhaaaa, I knew about disk manager, just panicked and logic went bye-bye.

Since the drives are not RAID any longer, does the replacement drive need to be "like/kind, (SATA-2) or will any drive suffice? (You guys are great, I'll have more questions as I attempt to initiate a fix, thanks for the assistance all)

Kyle

IndyGunFreak

01-07-2010, 08:26

Thanks guys, and C.Lee, all I can say is---Dhaaaa, I knew about disk manager, just panicked and logic went bye-bye.

Since the drives are not RAID any longer, does the replacement drive need to be "like/kind, (SATA-2) or will any drive suffice? (You guys are great, I'll have more questions as I attempt to initiate a fix, thanks for the assistance all)

Kyle

If they're not on a RAID, you could get any Sata drive... have you narrowed down which drive it is? How large is the drive?

IGF

Kyle1886

01-07-2010, 09:42

Indy, both drives are 250 Gb. I think it is the main "C" drive, naturally, but not certain. Funny, it only does it on a cold boot after being off over night. So far, not on a restart, or warm. Since funds are really tight, thinking of just not shutting down at night...I know--still risky.

Kyle

Drjones

01-07-2010, 11:10

It's one of the hard drives, get your data backed up.

yes, this. Backup your data from that drive ASAP & get ready to replace it.

HKUSP45Css

01-07-2010, 19:52

Arm travel can also be caused by a screwy data block structure and is not always a harbinger of doom.

Back up your data

Boot to a Windows CD, go to recovery console, run chkdsk /r and walk away.

Come back later and see if Windows repaired any bad sectors. It could be just a jacked file system but, hard drives ARE mechanical, they ARE destined for failure at some point.

If it's still clicking after the checkdisk, image it, replace it, dump the image on the new drive and chuck the old one .... and, Robert's your father's brother, like it never happened.

Stoneofrefuge

01-15-2010, 10:30

You can be surprised that average homeowner who has a pc never cleans them. Very few do, many people wonder why pc fails. I have seen a computer case full of lint and dust enough to choke an army. I would suggest investing in an air compressor, then a water & air separator, then a long hose with a blower attachment to get all the junk out of the pc. I have seen so many pcs burnt to the point that it was going to take 600 bux to totally repair the unit. Hard drive clicking means its time to buy a backup drive before it quits working. I have hard a drive click and ignored it. My mistake. It failed and I got a message, ntlr is missing.

I hope I can help out some.

Kyle1886

01-15-2010, 11:19

Stone, thanks. Since my tower has a "see through" side, I do keep it very clean inside. (Sort of paranoid about heat build-up too so have more fans than required, but hard drives do go south).

Thanks.

Kyle1886

01-30-2010, 12:14

Thanks you all for your insight. As suspected, one of the drives (D-the backup drive), was going bad. Fortunately thanks to you feedback you confirmed what I suspected, and I did not lose any data. Thank you.

Kyle

IndyGunFreak

01-30-2010, 20:06

Thanks you all for your insight. As suspected, one of the drives (D-the backup drive), was going bad. Fortunately thanks to you feedback you confirmed what I suspected, and I did not lose any data. Thank you.

Kyle

Well, at least it was the "backup" drive, and not the main drive. As long as you don't have over 200gigs of porn.. err.. pics and videos.. You should be able to get by w/ 1 drive for now.. :)

Glad you save your porn..er.. pics and videos. :)

IGF

MavsX

01-31-2010, 11:52

Well, at least it was the "backup" drive, and not the main drive. As long as you don't have over 200gigs of porn.. err.. pics and videos.. You should be able to get by w/ 1 drive for now.. :)

Glad you save your porn..er.. pics and videos. :)

IGF

haha..that's a lot of porn! In college i used to burn cd's full of porn movies and sell them to the guys in my dorm. It was awesome. The guys who would buy them were not tech savy so to speak. Suckers.

IndyGunFreak

01-31-2010, 19:07

haha..that's a lot of porn! In college i used to burn cd's full of porn movies and sell them to the guys in my dorm. It was awesome. The guys who would buy them were not tech savy so to speak. Suckers.

I read something, somewhere... That Jared Fogle(Subway diet guy) did the same thing while he was in college...

Clever.. :)

IGF