Hard drive clicking

[MatiasZ]

I have a hard drive which is starting to make some unsual noise. Every once in a while, I hear a click, like if it were lossing power for a second, or something like that. It happens about 3-5 times a day. However, I have three hard drives plugged and I kind of need the three to have the system running (I could leave just the OS one but it would be a lot of trouble and having the computer unusable for work), so I can't know which one is it. I've run some SMART tests and all came OK for all the drives, but I don't like this a bit. Is there any way to know which drive is making the noise?

Tanks in advance,

Matias

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

Change your power supply. NOW!

I had this problem several times. Over several weeks, I tried everything you could possibly think of.
In the end it was a power supply change that solved the problem.

SMART will always give you a good result on this problem. Don't bother trying to diagnose this problem, just change your PSU.

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=26479&highlight=clicking+hard+drive
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=34288&highlight=clicking+hard+drive
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=35301&highlight=power+supply

Conclusion:
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=872730&postcount=48
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=873237&postcount=49

If it's not a PSU issue you can test it via detaching unnecessary components and checking your computer out.

 

[tabs]

I've had this too, but it wasn't the PSU in my case. Simply the HD on it's way out.

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

I may be jumping the gun, sorry.
I just don't want anyone else spending the time I've spent on fixing this issue.

 

[MatiasZ]

Change your power supply. NOW!

I had this problem several times. Over several weeks, I tried everything you could possibly think of.
In the end it was a power supply change that solved the problem.

K.I.L.E.R thanks for the fast answer Yeah, I know what you mean about the power supply, I had that problem on a different PC which drove me nuts as you and finally changed the PS and it's worked like charm for years now. I will check it somehow to see if it has anything to do with power, but I suspect (don't know why) is just the hard drive "failing". But yours is a great suggestion too, will check it somehow.

I think one of the hard drives is way newer so that one might be the problem. Still, any other ways to diagnose the drive?

Regards,

Matias

 

[Rainbow Man]

All my IBM / Hitachi drives click a couple times per day. Always done that. I consider it normal (4-5 drives bought over a period of several years).

I assume you're sure your drives haven't done this before. Some say drives do this when they start to get old and decrepit. Maybe it's true I don't know.

I've actually never had a drive die on me.. (Touch wood.)

I wouldn't trust SMATR too far. Not farther than I can throw it anyway the parameters are hard to interpret and rarely all that accurate from what I hear. It seems different manufacturers implement smart in different ways.

If your manufacturer offers a diagnostic utility I'd suggest running it. IBM used to have one I think Hitachi still maintains it. That should give you the most accurate information as the manufacturer should know how to interpret its own diagnostic information.

FGood luck!
Peace.

 

[MatiasZ]

I'll look in Seagate to see if they have any good drive utility. I have 1x Raptor 74Gb and 2x Seagate 320GB 7200.10 series. One of the 7200.10 is pretty new (about 2 months). I THINK the noise might be related in the timeframe of the arrival of the new disk, so that might be the problem. The problem is I have it full of data and 300GB worth of backup is a lot of backup to do :S

 

[Rainbow Man]

I remember several yearsa go that new Seagats perform some form of self-test when they're new during idle times that takes a couple hundred hours to complete. And that test was said to create some noise from the drive.

If you just bought a Seagate this could be what it might be doing.

Or it could be that new Seagates aremeant to make clicks every once in a while like my IBMs/Hitachis.

Peace.

 

[MatiasZ]

I remember several yearsa go that new Seagats perform some form of self-test when they're new during idle times that takes a couple hundred hours to complete. And that test was said to create some noise from the drive.

If you just bought a Seagate this could be what it might be doing.

Or it could be that new Seagates aremeant to make clicks every once in a while like my IBMs/Hitachis.

Peace.

That's interesting... I whink what I'll do is find out somehow which drive is making the noise, and make sure no critical data is in there... and let it live a couple of months and see how it goes. Thanks for the tip

 

[Frank]

The clicking is totally normal. And don't be surprised if it makes a bit of noise for up to a minute afterwards, depending on the drive. It's simply the drive recalibrating itself, and totally harmless.

Strangely enough, it's often the better drives that do so.

Also, if the drive suddenly starts to make noise when you're not doing anything, it's simply Windows doing a background optimization.

Trust your SMART status.


One exception (this happens mostly with 2.5" drives in laptops): if you hear multiple clicks in quick succession, the arm of the drive tends to get stuck in the arm rest some of the time. That happens when it has gotten a serious shock while idle. In that case, you should replace it ASAP.

 

[Frank]

I remember several yearsa go that new Seagats perform some form of self-test when they're new during idle times that takes a couple hundred hours to complete. And that test was said to create some noise from the drive.

If you just bought a Seagate this could be what it might be doing.

Or it could be that new Seagates aremeant to make clicks every once in a while like my IBMs/Hitachis.

Peace.

Yes, that's the thing. But it takes at most a minute.

 

[Rainbow Man]

and make sure no critical data is in there...

That's a good idea. Better be safe than sorry.

Preferabyl we should have no critical data on any drive at ay time!

I actally run a program to backup my most critical stuff to a secure web server.. Backups are our friends. So actually what you should do is have your critical stuff on ALL your drive(s).

And somewhere else too preferably.
Peace.

 

[MatiasZ]

The clicking is totally normal. And don't be surprised if it makes a bit of noise for up to a minute afterwards, depending on the drive. It's simply the drive recalibrating itself, and totally harmless.

Strangely enough, it's often the better drives that do so.

Also, if the drive suddenly starts to make noise when you're not doing anything, it's simply Windows doing a background optimization.

Trust your SMART status.

Really? But how come I have two "identical" drives and apparently only one is doing it? Shouldn't both be the same in that case? The noise is always a single noise, with no followup noise of any kind, activity nor clicking.

That's a good idea. Better be safe than sorry.

Preferabyl we should have no critical data on any drive at ay time!

I actally run a program to backup my most critical stuff to a secure web server.. Backups are our friends. So actually what you should do is have your critical stuff on ALL your drive(s).

And somewhere else too preferably.
Peace.

Do you know of any program that can make an "incremental" backup to a LAN location? What I would like is a program that once a day or maybe 3 times a week or whatever I setup, checks to see any files that were modified from my initial backup, and overwrites the old ones. I would like the backup to be without compression, just a whole copy of the files as if I did it by hand, or at least have an option to do that.

Thanks for the answers!

 

[Rainbow Man]

It's not what I use (I have a proprietary program issued by the service I'm subscribing to) but syncback should probably be able to do what you want.

Peace.

 

[MatiasZ]

It's not what I use (I have a proprietary program issued by the service I'm subscribing to) but syncback should probably be able to do what you want.

Peace.

Thanks! I'll give it a try

EDIT: It works like a charm... even the freeware version. Thank you very much, I've been looking for something like this and so easy as this for a long time.

 

[Rainbow Man]

You're quite welcome! Glad to have bween of help.
Peace.

 

[Neb]

I'll look in Seagate to see if they have any good drive utility. I have 1x Raptor 74Gb and 2x Seagate 320GB 7200.10 series. One of the 7200.10 is pretty new (about 2 months). I THINK the noise might be related in the timeframe of the arrival of the new disk, so that might be the problem. The problem is I have it full of data and 300GB worth of backup is a lot of backup to do :S

My Seagate 7200.10 does it to and it's new. It is the calibration and possibly the sector check system kicking in. The HDD will do this for quite some time.
If you hear a loud click then it may only be the head arm moving across the platter to keep the mechanism in condition and not hold the head on top of the same spot on the disc platter to prevent heat build up in the spot.
But if the sound is a fast "click,click,click" and then a 1 sec pause and then the same then it may have problems reading the sector (damaged sectors).

 

[MatiasZ]

My Seagate 7200.10 does it to and it's new. It is the calibration and possibly the sector check system kicking in. The HDD will do this for quite some time.
If you hear a loud click then it may only be the head arm moving across the platter to keep the mechanism in condition and not hold the head on top of the same spot on the disc platter to prevent heat build up in the spot.
But if the sound is a fast "click,click,click" and then a 1 sec pause and then the same then it may have problems reading the sector (damaged sectors).

Is just a long click, I don't know if is a "click" per se, it sounds like a not regular noise from the drive, but it could be what you (and Frank) describe. I'll keep an eye on it just in case...