A couple of years after buying a computer, the hard drive starts to “junk”. His condition must be monitored constantly so that he does not present an unexpected and unpleasant surprise, breaking down at the most inopportune moment. One of the alarming signals in the behavior of a HDD that has stepped over a two-year period of operation is strange sounds, reminiscent of a crackling in an old phone. Why your hard drive clicks and what to do about it, we will tell you further.
Normal and abnormal sounds during device operation
Sometimes the hard drive can make strange sounds during operation, and this has nothing to do with failure . Here are some examples:
- In the process of diagnosing the hard drive, a special utility detects sectors that do not respond to system requests – which is why the hard drive clicks from time to time, and this is normal.
- When the power saving mode is on and the PC falls asleep, you may also hear a crackling sound.
- If the laptop battery is weak and does not supply enough current, squeaks and crackles appear – plug in the charger and they will disappear.
- During a heavy load on the HDD (when running resource-intensive programs and games, etc.), the disk spins up noisily, and then stops. If it doesn’t last long, then everything is in order.
Causes of clicks and squeaks in the hard drive
Now let’s talk about the causes of abnormal sounds:
- Overheating – a long game, streaming data rewriting, etc. – leads to strong heating of the hard drive. A faulty cooling system leads to the same result (check if dust has settled there, if the fan is spinning), unstable connection to the board and power supply , the formation of oxide on the contacts. Overheating is accompanied by strange sounds: buzzing and clicking.
- Servo Marking damage. Each hard drive is “lined” with beams, which ensure uniform rotation. Distortion of such a beam reduces the performance of the device. As a result, you may hear a tapping sound while the PC boots up when launching programs.
- Damage to the cables or ports through which the hard drive connects to other devices will cause the HDD to click during operation. You need to see if the wire is intact and if it is securely attached to the port.
- The disc is not installed correctly and knocks when turned on. Make sure that it does not lie slanted and that it is well secured.
- The hard disk is damaged : it was damaged as a result of a fall, impact or from the ingress of dust particles, debris.
Troubleshooting on your own
The very first thing to do if the hard drive clicks is to find out the reason for this. Start with the simplest: check your laptop’s charging and PC power supply, connection reliability, device position, power saving mode, cooling system status.
WD Blue hard drive
Clean the disc and fans from dust: use a soft round brush for painting or makeup, as well as a vacuum cleaner. It is inconvenient to wield a rag: you can accidentally touch important elements or scratch the disc. Do not rush to use utilities to check the status of the HDD – they impose a significant load on it, which, in case of some types of damage, may result in complete breakdown. Try to get by with the options provided by Windows first:
- Double click on the “This PC” shortcut.
- Highlight the system drive and right-click on it.
- Stop at the item “Information” and select the tab “Service”.
- You will be prompted to diagnose and defragment the disk – agree by clicking on the button.
- Wait until the end of the process and restart your PC – usually, strange sounds disappear after that.
When you hear noises and the hard disk head knocks, install some program that can display data on the hard disk temperature on the monitor and run it. If the mark exceeds 40 degrees, you need to take measures:
- Move the laptop to a hard, non-fabric surface so that the soft material does not block the ventilation holes. It will be even better if you have a special stand with large fans inside, this will allow you to quickly bring the hard drive to normal temperature.
- For a stationary PC, buy or ask someone for an external cooler – this is a small fan that is available as an accessory and is attached to the radiator grill (as a rule, it comes with installation instructions). It is possible that your cooling system is not keeping up with the load.
Certain reasons, as well as ways to eliminate them, should be discussed separately. This will largely make it clear why the hard drive clicks, and even does not start at the same time.
The reasons for the clicks, which are harmless and caused by the operation of the drive and the entire computer, will not be considered here.
The reason is overheating
One of the common reasons why the hard drive clicks, and is also not detected yet, is the overheating of the drive. Under the influence of temperature, sounds uncharacteristic of HDDs may occur. But it is important for the user to know how overheating is diagnosed and what to do in such a situation.
Disk temperatures can rise to dangerous levels under the influence of several factors:
- Long-term work. On average, storage devices work for about 5-6 years. Yes, there are examples of much more durable hard drives. But statistics are pretty accurate. The older the device is, the worse it starts to work over time. Overheating becomes a consequence of a natural failure. Alas, this problem is solved in only one way. This is a replacement.
- Ineffective ventilation. An existing cooler can break down, become clogged with dust, lose its performance under the influence of time. This increases the temperature and produces strange, unusual sounds. If you notice that the hard drive on your computer beeps and clicks, it is recommended that you check the cooler, clean it or replace it as soon as possible. Unlike the HDD, the new cooler is quite inexpensive.
Cooler for HDD – TITAN TFD-8025GT12Z Ret
- Lost connection of the loop or cable. Here it is enough to check the tightness of the connection of loops and cables to the power supply and to the motherboard. It is possible that it is because of insufficient contact not only that the hard drive clicks, but also the computer freezes. Loose connections can lead to overheating and more serious malfunctions if the problem is not addressed right away.
- Oxidized contacts. They often lead to overheating. As a result, the hard drive then clicks may not be detected on the PC or laptop. You can check the presence of oxides only by dismantling and visual inspection of the contact side of the board. It is important to note that one of the causes of oxidation is excessive humidity in the room where the computer is located. After cleaning the contacts, it is advisable to influence the humidity, move the PC to another room.
Types and characteristics of hard disk interfaces
In fact, overheating includes several probable reasons due to which the hard drive clicks on the computer and is not detected, thereby delivering additional problems to the user.
But this is not the only reason for the appearance of extraneous sounds.
Damaged servo markings
During HDD production, so-called servo markings are recorded. They are needed in order to synchronize the rotation of the discs, as well as to correctly position the heads.
These are rays coming from the center of the disc. They are located at the same distance relative to each other. Each tag has its own number, place in the synchronization chain, and a number of other important information. This is what contributes to the precise definition of areas of the disc and to ensure stable rotation.
Servo marking is called a set of many servo labels. If it is damaged, certain areas of the hard disk may not be read. In this case, the HDD will try to read the data. The process proceeds with symptoms such as delay in work and loud knocks. The knock comes from the head, which at this moment is trying to contact the damaged servo.
It is worth noting that damage to servo markings is a serious and complex problem. Depending on their number, the HDD can continue to work, but the performance will drop noticeably. Or there is a complete failure.
You can fix the problem with a servowriter. Yes, now you can find a number of programs and utilities that are supposedly capable of performing low-level formatting. In fact, this is a fiction. Only a servowriter, that is, a special device, can fix the problem.
Damaged connectors and cables
In such a situation, you can face not only overheating and clicking, but also with a loss of connection with the hard drive, which is not detected. Therefore, it is worth starting diagnostics with checking the physical condition of the elements that serve to connect the drive.
The cable may be broken, not firmly inserted, etc. If possible, try using a different cable and check if the disc will click afterwards.
Debris and dust can accumulate in the connectors. The reason is trivial, but sometimes it is it that leads to the clicks of the hard drive.
Physical breakdowns
Despite its weight and massiveness, the hard drive is actually quite fragile. For him, such influences are unacceptable as:
- strong vibrations;
- shaking;
- blows;
- falls, etc.
This happens more often with HDDs on laptops. Although users of ordinary stationary computers should not rejoice. It is not necessary to hit or drop the device. Sometimes debris enters the system, gets under the writing head, and an almost irreversible process of deformation and destruction starts.
There are several probable reasons why a hard drive might click and not be detected:
- The head is damaged. This can be determined by a few clicks, after which the HDD performance is noticeably slowed down. Because of this, it also happens that sounds arise continuously for a certain period of time.
- Spindle breakage. In this case, the disk will first start to start, but then the process will be interrupted.
- Broken sectors. The appearance of unreadable sections, which is caused by problems of the physical layer, cannot be ruled out. In this case, the use of software recovery methods already gives nothing.
Extreme measures in difficult situations
If you opened the block with the disc and saw suspicious scratches that violate the markup, then there is no way to cope without special equipment that can correct the situation. Moreover, this is not a program, but a completely physical object – a machine for low-level formatting.
IMPORTANT. If on the Internet you find software, the annotation to which claims to be able to fix the problem with Servo Marking, know that this is not true.
If the disk is knocking hard and you are afraid that it will turn off any minute, quickly get down to saving all your important files. When the hard drive stops working, it will be difficult or expensive to get information from it if you turn to specialists. If you missed the moment, the disk stopped and does not respond, and for some reason it is impossible to visit service centers (or you were denied data recovery, believing that nothing will work), the last option would be dry freezing:
- Wrap the disc tightly with cling film and place in a plastic bag. It will be better if you have bubble wrap with large segments so that the disc does not touch the surface of the freezer and frost particles do not fall on it.
- Place the bag in the freezer and set aside overnight. It is best to use the dry freeze function to minimize the risk of moisture build-up.
- The next day, take out the package, make sure the disc is dry (or wait for it to dry), put it back in place and try turning on the computer. If the disk is working, then quickly start copying the most important things – you have a few minutes until the HDD warms up, and then it turns off again.
Remember, this is the last method and it doesn’t always work. Only when you are firmly convinced that nothing else can be done, you can try a similar operation.
