How loud/often does a HDD click...?

Z

ZacharyS

Gawd
Joined
Jan 27, 2006
Messages
758
Like I know that HDD clicking = bad, but I've never actually heard it, at least I don't think I have. I've noticed my WD 2500KS (250GB) has started making a slight "tik" noise every 10 seconds or so. Regardless of whether my PC is idle or in use. Is this a problem?
 
Probably want to look in replacing the drive, i've heard it can take anywhere from a day to a year or more for it to go bad. Probably want to back everything up and if drive is still under warrenty try and rma it.
 
I don't keep anything on it but my programs, all my music and movies and documents, etc etc are on my 500 and 250 Seagate drives, the worst thing that'd happen is I'd have to re-install stuff =/

I guess I lied though, because it's not making the noise right now, so I guess it isn't a constant sound, but for a while it was. Oh well, guess I'll just be careful and see what happens, don't feel like messing with RMA right now :(
 
I have that drive and its very quiet most of the time but when it boots or does the odd scan now or then it can be chatty-klacky.
 
I hope that's it. I'm just gonna hang on to it until it dies (if it dies) just because I have two others that basically have all my stuff on it, so no worries about losing anything important. I'm definitely going to go Seagate only from now on though, the 500GB and 250GB drives I have from them are so quiet and fast :)
 
Different drives make different amounts of noise.

Once had a flatmate who kept his porn on one specific drive that was so noisy that he could easily tell when someone was accessing it over the network. Load up the Manage screen thing... blackmail...
 
You will know the sounds it makes when it is near death. They do not sound normal. I like to think of it as a cat runing into a cinder-block..blinded from the impact...violently scratching claws on the street corner.

Point in case: when hard drive is near failing there are some specific noises that are clues. Still make sure to regularly back up.
 
If it is making a click frequently, (less than a minute between clicks) then i think the drive is probably dying. Iv had the click of death on four drives so far. An occasional click is normal but a repetitive click is a bad sign. If the drive is still under warranty then id recommend replacing it as soon as you can. WD, Seagate, Maxtor have all been very willing to replace the drive for me when I told them the drive was making a constant clicking. If it's out of warranty then you might want to consider using it as a backup drive. With the click ive found that you start getting corruption errors rather than a flat out failure of the drive. Because of this the damage to your data will be more subtle. Good luck. I hope this helps.
 
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