Clicking hard drive

MagicSean · 29-10-2011 11:53am #1

I recently got a new system from Hardwareversand and the hard drive has started clicking every so often. Is this always a sign of impending doom or are there other reasons for it?

yoyo · 29-10-2011 11:55am

MagicSean wrote: »

I recently got a new system from Hardwareversand and the hard drive has started clicking every so often. Is this always a sign of impending doom or are there other reasons for it?

Some hard drives are noisey but clicking doesn't sound good, download UltimateBootCd and burn it to a disc, boot off it and run hard disk diagnostics for your drive model, this is the best way to check a dodgy disk

Nick

ARGINITE · 29-10-2011 11:59am

I find trying to match the drive noise to be a great Saturday morning game!
Have a listen here and see if you can find a match.

MagicSean · 29-10-2011 12:03pm

ARGINITE wrote: »

I find trying to match the drive noise to be a great Saturday morning game!
Have a listen here and see if you can find a match.

None of the options on that list look like something I want to have happen.

BostonB · 29-10-2011 12:04pm

Some drives are noisy but I wouldn't describe the noise as clicky.

Any drive with clicks, always failed eventually for me. Maybe yours won't.

That said a drive failing isn't a big deal, if you have a proper backup.

MagicSean · 29-10-2011 12:06pm

BostonB wrote: »

Some drives are noisy but I wouldn't describe the noise as clicky.

Any drive with clicks, always failed eventually for me. Maybe yours won't.

That said a drive failing isn't a big deal, if you have a proper backup.

Not really worried about a backup as it's new and there's very little on it.

BostonB · 29-10-2011 12:09pm

I doubt they'll swap it until it actually fails or starts failing and you can reproduce the problem. You could ask them? Maybe they would? If not you can use it no problem if you have a backup.

fatmander · 31-10-2011 8:08pm

Clicking hard drives are never a good thing
do a SMART diagnostic on the disk,
download a 30 day trial of aida64 from
http://www.aida64.com/downloads
when AIDA64 runs, go into storage on the left, expand and select SMART
post a screenshot of all the numbers in the right hand pane, if more than one disk, post screenshots for each

yoyo · 31-10-2011 9:44pm

fatmander wrote: »

Clicking hard drives are never a good thing
do a SMART diagnostic on the disk,
download a 30 day trial of aida64 from
http://www.aida64.com/downloads
when AIDA64 runs, go into storage on the left, expand and select SMART
post a screenshot of all the numbers in the right hand pane, if more than one disk, post screenshots for each

I wouldn't even bother with SMART, about as usful as sh*t. The best hard disk diagnosis is a full sector by sector scan. Was it Google or someone published a report where the majority of hard disk failures never triggered SMART?

Nick

MagicSean · 31-10-2011 9:48pm

something I've noticed is that it only seems to click when accessing new data.

yoyo · 31-10-2011 9:51pm

MagicSean wrote: »

something I've noticed is that it only seems to click when accessing new data.

Have you run a full diagnostics on it? I know it takes hours and is a nuisance, leave it go though, will tell you if its just a noisey drive or a dodgy one!

Nick

wal100 · 31-10-2011 9:52pm

I use THIS software for checking Hard drives

.

gbee · 31-10-2011 9:53pm

It's not called the click of death for nothing.

Your HD is like a supersonic aircraft flying inches over the sea, and a small wave will spell disaster, on your HD that small wave is a microscopic bit of dust.

The clicking is the HD spindle lifting ~ they usually don;t last long and will physically crash into each other with catastrophic failure.

Now, that said, your clicking might not be this.

31-10-2011 9:57pm

yoyo wrote: »

I wouldn't even bother with SMART, about as usful as sh*t. The best hard disk diagnosis is a full sector by sector scan. Was it Google or someone published a report where the majority of hard disk failures never triggered SMART?

Nick

Where I work I do use SMART as a guide. The problem is that the manufacturers set the threshold too high, so by the time the attribute has tripped the drive is long gone. If the Reallocated Sector Count or Current Pending Sector Count is anything but zero I'll consider the drive faulty. Haven't had any issues returning these but that may not hold true for an end user.

yoyo · 31-10-2011 10:02pm

Karsini wrote: »

Where I work I do use SMART as a guide. The problem is that the manufacturers set the threshold too high, so by the time the attribute has tripped the drive is long gone. If the Reallocated Sector Count or Current Pending Sector Count is anything but zero I'll consider the drive faulty. Haven't had any issues returning these but that may not hold true for an end user.

Theres nothing wrong with SMART and if its triggered it definately warrents investigation, the problem is from expierience it is not relyable 100% so I would say clicking even with an ok SMART reading is something to check out anyways!

Nick

fatmander · 01-11-2011 11:59am

"about as usful as sh*t" isn't quite the same as "from expierience it is not relyable 100% "

If a disk is dying and you run a sector by sector scan on it, all you're going to do it degrade the drive further, not to mention the drive possible getting locked on a bad sector

I agree with Karsini, any current pending or offline uncorrectables are a bad sign.
so are constantly increasing levels of raw error /seek error & ecc errors
mechanical shock if it exists and C9 'run out cancel' are also inportant attributes
chkdsk on the other hand
now that's sh*t

yoyo · 01-11-2011 2:54pm

fatmander wrote: »

"about as usful as sh*t" isn't quite the same as "from expierience it is not relyable 100% "

Yeah I was a bit pissed last night so didn't use a well thought out answer so appologies for that

. The problem with SMART is that it's not 100% relyable, and what I meant was if you hear clicking and SMART is ok, it should be investigated further. And your right about running HD scans can cause the drive to die completely, I would have suggested to OP to backup data first but he stated its not that important, then run the scan and check the drives for errors. Usually most manufacturers will require you do this before they will authorize an RMA

Nick

fatmander · 01-11-2011 3:06pm

lol@Nick
pissed while fixing computers,
thought it was just me that did that

yoyo · 01-11-2011 3:23pm

fatmander wrote: »

lol@Nick
pissed while fixing computers,
thought it was just me that did that

I actually once managed to break a pin of a old PATA hard drive a while back after doing some work on the machine under the influence, still to this day I've no idea how it happened (I'm guessing I used the wrong size IDE cable and the pins bent). So yes computers and Alcohol do not mix!

Nick

MagicSean · 04-11-2011 11:02am

So what program would be best to check the hard drive so?

bette · 04-11-2011 11:29am

I wouldn't bother checking a "clicking" hard drive. It's just not worth the hassle. If it's reasonably new simply send it back and get a refund or if it has had some use get what you can from it and then bin it.

MagicSean · 04-11-2011 11:44am

I dont suppose there's anyway to clone the hard drive onto my second one before I remove it so that I don't have to reinstall everything.

bette · 04-11-2011 11:58am

MagicSean wrote: »

I dont suppose there's anyway to clone the hard drive onto my second one before I remove it so that I don't have to reinstall everything.

If you have all your program discs the best way to go is reinstall. It's cleaner.

Clicking hard drive

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