A couple of years after purchasing a computer, the hard drive begins to act up. Its condition must be constantly monitored so that it does not present an unexpected and unpleasant surprise by breaking down at the most inopportune moment. One of the alarming signals in the behavior of a HDD that has passed the two-year period of operation is strange sounds reminiscent of the crackling sound of an old telephone. Why your hard drive is clicking and what to do about it, we will tell you further.
Hard drive clicks and won't turn on
Why is this happening:
- Device self-test when the HDD marks bad sectors;
- Switch to energy saving mode. This causes it to shut down;
- Power outages;
- Temperature increase;
- When positioning the read head;
- The hard drive clicks and does not display if the ferromagnetic layer or servo marking is damaged.
The manufacturer of the device plays a big role. Models from different brands may indicate a malfunction in different ways.
Normal and abnormal sounds when the device is operating
Sometimes the hard drive may make strange sounds during operation, and this has nothing to do with a breakdown. Here are some examples:
- During the process of diagnosing a hard drive, a special utility identifies sectors that do not respond to system requests - this is why the hard drive clicks from time to time, and this is normal.
- When the power saving mode is set and the PC goes to sleep, you may also hear a crackling noise.
- If the laptop battery is weak and does not supply enough current, squeaking and crackling sounds appear - connect the charger and they will disappear.
- During 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 fine.
Hard drive clicks on startup
Check the HDD status. Let's use the resource offered by the system.
Further:
Check the boxes as in the screenshot:
When the scan is finished, restart your PC.
Let's start the renovation
Well? Ready to work? Then let's begin.
- Unplug your computer.
- Remove the wall of the system unit and take a shaped (phillips) screwdriver of the required size: you will unscrew your hard drive.
- Be sure to disconnect the hard drive inputs to avoid breaking the wires.
- After carefully removing the fasteners (well, bolts or screws), remove the hard drive.
- Turn it over.
- Do you see: on one of its sides there is such a metal cover? It is attached to the plastic base of the general hard drive housing using bolts or screws. But there is one point: the slots! What are splines? These are the slots in the bolts or screws into which you insert the “tip” (“nose”, point) of the screwdriver. It's clear? So: there are ordinary cross-shaped slots, and there are also slots for a special hex key. A bolt that has such a slot is very difficult to unscrew, although you can try if you wish. But still, I recommend buying a set of special miniature hex keys - such a set costs a penny, but the benefits are a lot! In general, you understand me. We continue to disassemble the hard drive.
Voltage drops
Interruptions cause the operating device to make sounds. If the knocking noise disappears, everything is fine with the device. For laptop owners, the reason may be the battery. Replace it.
The hard drive clicks and then turns off due to overheating
How to determine if the HDD is hot. Measure his temperature. Use specialized software for this. For more details, see the article: “Programs that detect PC hardware.” Due to overheating of the HDD, the PC may freeze or shut down. Let's look at why the temperature is rising:
- The device has a long service life - more than six years. To solve the problem, buy a new device;
- Poor ventilation. Over time, the cooler becomes clogged with dust and becomes less powerful, so the temperature of the system unit rises. Check the fans, remove dust or replace them.
- Poor cable connection. Check the connections. If the contact is weak, the voltage may be unstable. This leads to overheating.
- Oxidation of contacts. This may occur due to high humidity.
Remove corrosion with an eraser.
The servo markings are damaged
During manufacturing, servo marks are recorded on the HDD. They are used to synchronize the rotation of the device and the correct position of the heads. These are “stripes” coming from the center. Special marks are applied to them. This is used to ensure that the rotation is stable and the areas are correctly defined. Servo marking is a set of servo markings. If it becomes damaged, part of the disk cannot be read. HDD tries to read data, this will be accompanied by a knocking sound. The clicking sound occurs because the read head is accessing a faulty servo tag. The device clicks and stops.
Correcting the damage is possible using low-level formatting. There are currently no programs for this. Formatting occurs with a servowriter device that applies such markings.
Physical damage to the cable or connector
Check for mechanical damage on the cable. Is it held securely in the plug? If there are any, replace it. Try connecting it to a different connector to check.
Incorrect position
Securely secure the HDD with bolts and place it horizontally.
When positioned at an angle, the head will engage the disc. Then it clicks like a clock. If the system uses multiple HDDs, secure them at a distance for better ventilation.
Physical breakdown
Often occurs after the device has been dropped. This is especially true for mobile PC owners. Most often, read heads break. Restoration will be performed only by a specialist.
Extreme measures in difficult situations
If you open a block with a disk and see suspicious scratches that violate the markings, 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 you find software on the Internet that claims it can fix the Servo Marking problem, know that this is not true.
If the drive is making a loud noise and you are afraid that it will turn off any minute, quickly get to work 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 have missed the moment, the disk has stopped and is not responding, and for some reason it is impossible to visit service centers (or you have been refused data recovery, believing that nothing will work), the last option is dry freezing:
- Wrap the disc tightly in cling film and place in a plastic bag. It would be better if you have bubble wrap with large segments so that the disk does not touch the surface of the freezer and particles of frost do not fall on it.
- Place the bag in the freezer and leave 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 that the disk is dry (or wait until it is dry), put it back and try to turn on the computer. If the disk works, 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 that this is the last method and it doesn't always work. Only when you are firmly convinced that nothing more can be done should you try such an operation.
WD external hard drive clicking
If the BIOS does not see it, the reason is in the cable. Change it. Light knocking sounds indicate it's time to replace the bearing.
WD models are characterized by:
- Frequent clicks, then the speed slows down - a problem with the heads;
- Constant startup that stops and starts again - problems with the spindle;
- Sounds reminiscent of scratching - bad sectors.
With such problems, you cannot solve the problem yourself.
No answer
Of course, you won't always hear the hard drive beeping. Sometimes he can “die” and still not make a single sound. This is the saddest outcome that can happen. Most often, there is only one way out of the situation - buying a new device. But not everything is so bad, there is a chance to bring the device back to life. If the drive stops responding to the computer, most likely the problem is with the board.
Previously, craftsmen found a working board and replaced the damaged one. Now this is not easy to do, since the architecture and technology have changed, and each hard drive receives its own microcode. And even if it is possible to replace the board structurally, then, most likely, you will have to say goodbye to all the materials.
There may be several reasons for such a breakdown. These are also voltage drops, during which one of the diodes or some other component of the board suffers. The developers are trying to eliminate such problems, so they install a pair of diodes with different voltages. Replacing a diode is generally easy. If you have to change the entire board, then you need to find the ROM block and transfer it to a new one. But this is not always easy to do, since some developers embed the microcode from the ROM in the firmware, and therefore replacement is not possible.
Instead of output
We looked at the reasons why the HDD clicks. When a knocking noise occurs, first check its condition. Take advantage of the built-in OS tools. If the HDD head is damaged, professional repair is required in a specialized workshop. I don't recommend changing it yourself. You can damage the device even more, it will be impossible to restore it. After restoring the HDD, install an uninterruptible power supply device. This will reduce the risk of damage due to voltage surges. Place the system unit so that it is not subject to vibrations and shocks.
Squeak
It doesn't matter whether the external hard drive beeps or the internal one. The problem is almost always the same: “sticking” of the magnetic heads. The engine tries to start the system and mechanisms, but cannot. It happens that after the next job the head parks incorrectly, remains directly above the surface of the plate, and later sticks to it.
If you encounter such a problem and hear the hard drive beeping, then most likely you will not be able to intervene in this matter yourself. More precisely, of course, you can try, but the thing is unsafe. Because you will have to open the device, and this must be done in the absence of dust around. Inside, you will have to remove and replace the heads, which is also not something everyone can do. In general, this breakdown is only in the hands of specialists.
But if your hard drive is beeping, it could be an indicator of another problem. There is a possibility that the spindle, the axis on which the plates rotate, is blocked. This usually happens when the device is dropped or hit. Only a professional can fix this problem, since it is necessary to replace the axis or rearrange the magnetic plates in another hard drive, which is called a donor.
