The hard drive started clicking, what should I do? Determining a hard drive (HDD) failure by sound. Reducing hard drive vibration is not difficult

If your hard drive is clicking, it may indicate a serious problem with your PC or laptop.

A hard drive is the main data storage device in any PC, be it a desktop computer or a laptop.

The safety of data and the possibility of their recovery directly depend on its serviceability and normal operation.

Therefore, it is very important to monitor the operation of this device. What to do if your hard drive is clicking, why does it happen, and how to deal with this problem? This is discussed in the material below.

Hard drive structure and operating principle

Often the appearance of extraneous and atypical sounds when a hard drive is operating is associated with its design. Accordingly, to troubleshoot the problem you also need to familiarize yourself with the hard drive structure.

The device can be glass or metal. These materials are used to make round plates on which a special ferromagnetic layer is applied. It is on the ferromagnetic layer that information is directly recorded.

One device may include one or more plates. If there are several of them, then they are separated by layers of non-magnetic material.

This material and these layers play an important role in the distribution of airflow within the unit. They also largely absorb the noise that appears when the hard drive (hard drive) is operating.

This structure has a part that directly stores information. But there is another part of the hard drive – one that reads and transmits existing data. They are read using magnetic heads mounted on relatively movable bases.

The head is fixed a few nanometers from the ferromagnetic layer. It remains at this distance due to the air flow that is formed during the rapid rotation of the plate with the information layer.

The faster the plates rotate, the faster information can be accessed. It is the speed of their rotation that is one of the main operational characteristics of the layer. At rest, when the computer is turned off, the read heads return to a special parking zone.

This zone is located at the center of rotation (spindle). Being in it, the heads cannot damage the disk.

Such discs have a fairly long service life. This is ensured by the fact that information is recorded and read contactlessly.

Rice. 1 How a hard drive works

Normal and abnormal sounds when the device is operating

In fully working condition, the new hard drive should not make any sounds during operation. However, there are acceptable deviations in this area. This may be a quiet and short-term hum that appears when the program starts.

However, there cannot be knocks or clicks in a working disk. Therefore, if such sounds occur, then this is a reason to be concerned about the safety of the recorded information.

Also, acceptable noise occurs when the disk does not receive sufficient power. In this case, you need to install a new power supply or connect a charger. And also sometimes the disk can make noise when the system overheats.

In this case, you need to connect a cooler. If the hard drive overheats, it may not be detected by the system at all.

However, if such problems are not observed, and the disk continues to click, then it is necessary to take care of the safety of information. Since there is a high probability that it will soon become unavailable. You need to save everything important on removable media and take the computer for diagnostics.

Without qualified diagnostics, it is impossible to determine whether certain clicks are dangerous or not. There is a possibility that their causes are not so serious and can be easily eliminated, but it is worth being on the safe side for the safety of important information.

Service wizards often do not recommend using diagnostic programs and utilities to determine the status of the hard drive. The principles of their operation and access to the media and system are such that in case of some breakdowns they can only aggravate the situation. This applies to an even greater extent to programs for debugging the hard drive.

Why is the hard drive clicking? Main causes and solutions to the problem

Causes of clicks and creaks in the hard drive

Why does the hard drive click or knock? Technically, this sound occurs when the read heads are positioned. That is, they return to the spindle, to their parking place.

The hard drive clicks for a number of reasons. The most harmless of them are:

Device self-test, during which the hard drive “marks” bad sectors;
Switching to power saving mode causes the hard drive to turn off (with appropriate power saving settings);
Power outages are also a cause (can occur due to a faulty laptop battery or power surges in the network);
Increase in temperature inside the thermoblock.

One of the most unpleasant and difficult to eliminate causes of clicking is damage to the ferromagnetic layer or servo marking of the disk. Because of this, the positioning of the read heads occurs. This state of affairs threatens the loss of all information stored on the disk.

Not only knocks and clicks, but also squeaks occur when the heads stop “seeing” the servo markings due to a malfunction. They receive no signals from it, and they begin to move and “search” for this marking.

As a result, extraneous sounds arise. Similar sounds occur when loading the hard drive firmware fails.

The HDD brand is also important. Although their devices are similar, they can signal a particular problem in different ways. Also, the hard drive may knock after the laptop is dropped. In this case, this indicates that the heads have failed.

Why is the hard drive clicking? Main causes and solutions to the problem

Troubleshooting yourself

It is very important to at least approximately determine the reason why the problem occurred. To do this, you first need to exclude all the most likely causes. Check what power saving mode settings are set on your computer.

Perhaps it turns off the hard drive when it enters this mode. Because of this, the read heads return to their place.

If you suspect a power outage, try installing a different battery in your laptop. Or, on the contrary, install a known-good hard drive into your device. If clicks are heard in this case, then problems with the HDD can be ruled out.

You can find out the status of the hard drive using the system resource:

Left-click on the hard drive image;
Select "Properties";

Rice. 2. Local disk properties window

Open the “Service” tab;
Run the “Run check” function;
Check the boxes for “Automatic troubleshooting” and “Scanning and repairing sectors”.

Fig.3. Checking the local disk

After completing this check, you must restart the computer. In some cases, no other measures are required. Such an impact can eliminate the problem.

However, immediately after rebooting the operating system, all data on the disk must be saved. And replace the disk itself with a new one as soon as possible.

Checking the hard drive temperature is carried out using the HDDlife or HWMonitor programs. The normal hard drive temperature is 40–50 degrees. If its temperature is higher, then most likely the knocking appears precisely because of it.

If scanning with diagnostic utilities has determined that the temperature of the hard drive is above 45–55 degrees, then it must be lowered. To do this, you need to carry out the following set of measures:

Clean the device from dust and dirt;
Connect an external cooler for general system cooling;
Raise the laptop above the table, place it on legs or a stand so that the external openings are not blocked by anything and air passes through them freely.

In any case, the hard drive itself, after the first clicks appear, is already beyond repair. Therefore, the main actions in this case should be aimed at saving important data. Since at any moment such a disk can turn off at any moment.

Why is the hard drive clicking? Main causes and solutions to the problem

Recovering information from storage media

In some cases, there may be a situation where the hard drive is no longer detected or does not start, and the information on it was not saved in advance. If you act incorrectly in such a situation, it can be lost forever.

First, check whether this drive is “readable” by the BIOS. If the disk is detected there, then it is possible to “save” the data. But if the disk is not displayed, then it most likely will not be possible to recover the data.

There is a radical method for temporarily restoring the device. To do this, remove the disk from the computer and seal it tightly in a plastic bag.

Place the bundle in the freezer for one night. At the same time, make sure that snow and ice do not get on the package. In the morning, take out the disk, unpack it and connect it to your PC. In some cases it may start.

In this case, save all important data very quickly. Disconnect the drive again. The point of this action is to quickly save data until the drive warms up again. As soon as this happens, it will stop working again. Of course, the likelihood that the hard drive will turn on after such measures is not too high.

It is worth noting that after such measures the device is unlikely to work normally. Most likely, the work will be extremely slow, with a lot of errors. Therefore, copying information should begin with the most important files. Since there may not be time left for others.

The most competent person to try to recover information from the disk will be the specialists at the service center. It is better to use their services without resorting to freezing. This will make it more likely that you will save a lot of data.

The hard drive clicks and beeps, we are restoring data, the HDD is not detected

If when you turn on the black screen lights up and the laptop does not turn on, but at the same time it makes strange sounds like beeping, crackling, squeaking, there is a 98% chance that this is a problem with the hard drive, remove the cover and get to the hard drive and try turning on the laptop again or computer

It happens that tapping is added to the hum of the computer. Why? Most likely the hard drive is to blame. This article will help you find out why your hard drive is knocking, what to do with your computer in such a situation, and how to avoid similar problems in the future.

To avoid confusion, it must be said that the hard drive is not the only name for this part of the computer. It is also called a hard drive or HDD. It’s just that when you talk about computers in Russian, you still use the term “hard drive” more often.

Why is the hard drive knocking?

Tapping is not necessarily a sign of a breakdown, so if you hear a suspicious noise, don’t get upset ahead of time. You may not need to do anything. Even a working hard drive sometimes knocks in the following situations:
When it overheats. The knock triggers the thermal calibration process.
When the computer goes into sleep mode.
When the hard drive is scanned. In this case, the cause of the sound is bad sectors.

If the computer knocks in other cases, most likely, one of these faults is present:
The power supply is not working well.
The voltage "jumps".
The Winchester shifted.
The magnetic layer of the disk has mechanical damage.
The switching amplifier is broken.
Damage to the hard drive head, which is supposed to read information.
It is quite difficult to understand why a hard drive is knocking by ear, especially for a beginner. Even when the breakdown is the same, one model of hard drive sometimes knocks differently than another. So, if you need to know exactly why there is a knocking sound, you will have to study the issue, perhaps with tools in hand, or go to a service center.

What to do when your hard drive is knocking?

If the hard drive is knocking, but the computer is still working, the first thing you need to do is secure your important data. Almost everyone has files that are not worth losing, even during repairs. Copying data to a flash drive, moving it to online storage, or saving it using an external hard drive is a matter of taste. Although, of course, if we are talking about hundreds of gigabytes, the last option will be optimal.

Then you should use one of the programs for diagnosing and managing the hard drive. For example, HDD life will do. It will show what condition the hard drive is in - how much wear there is, whether there is overheating. Further actions depend on what the results are.

If the program shows that there is overheating, you need to replace the thermal paste and clean the computer from dust. Didn't help? This means that the fans are probably faulty and need to be repaired. After the temperature returns to normal, the tapping of the hard drive will most likely go away.

If the program claims that the hard drive is too worn out, it makes sense to replace it with a new one. However, you can try to replace only the most damaged parts.

The program didn't show anything, or it couldn't start because the computer wouldn't turn on? So, we'll have to look into its insides. You will have to check the condition of not only the hard drive, but also the power supply.

If the power supply is not working properly, it needs to be replaced. The same goes for damaged hard drive parts.

And finally, you need to check whether the hard drive is level and secure. If this is not the case, the situation needs to be corrected. Sometimes this is enough for him to stop knocking.

If you have doubts that you will be able to carry out repairs yourself, you should carefully weigh everything. Do you want to improve your skills and don’t mind damaging your computer even more? So, we can start. Do you have any desire to risk your computer? Then it’s better to contact a specialist.

To prevent the tapping from returning after repair, you need to follow a few simple rules. Compliance with them will extend the life of your computer.

Firstly, defragmentation should be carried out once a month. Secondly, it is better not to let your computer overheat. Usually it is enough to change the thermal paste and repair the fans on time, but the laptop may need a cooling pad. Thirdly, you cannot hit the computer, even if it works disgustingly - this is not good for the hard drive, or for other parts either.

The hard drive can start clicking at any inopportune moment, and these clicks indicate an imminent breakdown. Important data, documents, family archives stored on it can easily sink into oblivion if you do not pay attention to the uncharacteristic behavior of the equipment in time.

During normal operation, the hard drive may also make various sounds. For example, when waking up from sleep mode or during active recording to disk. But if you hear some uncharacteristic sound, similar to clicks, then the disk most likely has mechanical damage.

Why might your hard drive click?

Hard drives have many moving mechanical parts. If you are, then the likelihood of a breakdown is very high. But even an ordinary drive operating inside the case at an ideal temperature can fail.

Problems can occur with any part of the hard drive:

Reading heads;
Spindle;
Bearings;
Magnetic heads;

As soon as you hear any unusual sound coming from your hard drive, you need to think about saving data to external media. This could be flash drives, the cloud, disks, Dropbox, whatever is at hand. This is necessary, because the disk can break completely at any time, after which it will be difficult to recover the lost data.

If you have valuable data, definitely try different software and, even more so, open the disk yourself. You need to be wary and think about transferring data already when the disk starts making any strange sounds for the first time. You should not delay contacting specialists so as not to cause a permanent breakdown.

Good afternoon.

At the beginning of the article I would like to immediately say that a hard drive is a mechanical device and even a 100% serviceable drive can make sounds in its operation (the same grinding noise when positioning magnetic heads). Those. The presence of such sounds (especially if the disc is new) may not mean anything; it’s another matter if they weren’t there before, but now they have appeared.

In this case, the first thing I recommend is to copy all the necessary information from the disk to other media, and then begin the procedure for diagnosing the HDD and restoring the functionality of the files. Of course, comparing the sounds of your hard drive and the sounds given in the article is not a 100% diagnosis, but still, for preliminary results, it’s not even bad...

To make the reasons for the various sounds from the “hard drive body” more clear, here is a small screenshot of the hard drive: what it looks like from the inside.

Winchester from the inside.

Sounds made by HDD Seagate

Sounds made by a fully functional Seagete U-series hard drive

Knock of Seagete Barracuda hard drives caused by a malfunction of the magnetic head unit.

Knocking noise from Seagete U-series hard drives caused by a faulty magnetic head unit.

A Seagate hard drive with a broken spindle is trying to spin up.

A Seagate hard drive in a laptop with poor heads creates clunking and clicking sounds.

A Seagate hard drive with faulty heads produces clicking and crackling sounds.

Sounds made by Western Digital (WD) hard drives

Knocking noise from WD hard drives caused by a faulty magnetic head unit.

A WD laptop hard drive with a stuck spindle is trying to spin up, making a siren sound.

WD 500GB hard drive with bad heads - clicks a couple of times and then stops.

WD hard drive with bad heads (clunking sounds).

Sounds of Samsung hard drives

Sounds produced by a fully functional Samsung SV-series hard drive.

Knocking noise from Samsung SV-series hard drives caused by a faulty magnetic head unit.

Hard drives QUANTUM

Sounds made by a fully functional QUANTUM CX hard drive

Knocking sound of the QUANTUM CX hard drive caused by a malfunction of the magnetic head unit or damage to the Philips TDA chip.

Knocking sound of the QUANTUM Plus AS hard drive caused by a malfunction of the magnetic head unit.

Sounds of MAXTOR brand hard drives

Sounds made by fully operational hard drives of “thick models” (DiamondMax Plus9, 740L, 540L)

Sounds produced by fully operational “thin models” HDDs (DiamondMax Plus8, FireBall3, 541DX)

Knock on thick models (DiamondMax Plus9, 740L, 540L) caused by a malfunction of the magnetic head unit.

Knock of thin models (DiamondMax Plus8, FireBall3, 541DX) caused by a malfunction of the magnetic head unit.

Sounds of IBM hard drives

The sound of an IBM hard drive without unparking and recalibration, usually this happens when the controller malfunctions.

The sound of an IBM hard drive without recalibration usually occurs when the controller is replaced and the service information versions do not match.

The sound of an IBM hard drive when the contact between the controller and the HDA is broken or the presence of BAD blocks.

Sounds made by a fully functional IBM hard drive.

IBM hard drive knocking caused by a faulty head unit.

FUJITSU Hard Drive Sounds

The sound of the FUJITSU hard drive when adaptive settings are lost occurs only on the MPG3102AT and MPG3204AT models.

Sounds produced by a fully functional Fujitsu hard drive.

FUJITSU hard drive knocking caused by a malfunction of the magnetic head unit.

Assessing the health of the hard drive using S.M.A.R.T.

As I said before, after suspicious sounds appear, copy all important data from the hard drive to other media. Then you can begin to assess the condition of the hard drive. Before moving on to the actual description of the test, let's start with the acronym S.M.A.R.T. What is it?

S.M.A.R.T. - (English Self Monitoring Analyzing and Reporting Technology) - a technology for assessing the condition of a hard drive using built-in self-diagnosis equipment, as well as a mechanism for predicting the time of its failure.

So, there are utilities that allow you to read and analyze S.M.A.R.T. attributes. In this post I will look at one of the easiest to manage - HDD life (I also recommend reading the article about HDD scanning with the Victoria program -).

H DD life

Supported Windows OS: XP, Vista, 7, 8

What's good about this utility? It is probably one of the most visual: it allows you to very easily and quickly control all the most important parameters of the hard drive. The user does not need to do practically anything (nor does he have any special knowledge or skills). In fact, it’s easy to install and run!

On my laptop the picture is as follows...

Laptop hard drive: worked for a total of about 1 year; disk life is approximately 91% (i.e. for 1 year of continuous operation - ~9% of the “life” is eaten, which means at least 9 more years of work in reserve), Excellent performance (good), disk temperature - 39 degrees. C.

After closing the utility, it minimizes to tray and monitors the parameters of your hard drive. For example, in the heat of summer, the disk may overheat, which HDD Life will immediately inform you about (which is very important!). By the way, there is also a Russian language in the program settings.

Another very useful option is the ability to customize the disk “for yourself”: for example, reduce its noise and crackling, but at the same time, however, performance will decrease (“you won’t notice it by eye”). In addition, there is a setting for disk power consumption (I don’t recommend reducing it, it may affect the speed of data access).

And this is how HDD life warns about various errors and dangers. If there is too little space left on the disk (or the temperature rises, a failure occurs, etc.), the utility will immediately inform you.

Hdd life - warning about running out of space on your hard drive.

For more experienced users, it is possible to view S.M.A.R.T. attributes. Here each attribute is translated into Russian. Opposite each item the status is shown as a percentage.

Attributes of S.M.A.R.T.

Thus, using HDD Life (or a similar utility) you can monitor important parameters of hard drives (and most importantly, find out in time about impending trouble). Actually, I’ll end here, long work HDD to everyone...

If your hard drive is clicking, it may indicate a serious problem with your PC or laptop.

A hard drive is the main data storage device in any PC, be it a desktop computer or a laptop.

The safety of data and the possibility of their recovery directly depend on its serviceability and normal operation.

Therefore, it is very important to monitor the operation of this device. What to do if your hard drive is clicking, why does it happen, and how to deal with this problem?

This is discussed in the material below.

Hard drive structure and operating principle

Often the appearance of extraneous and atypical sounds when a hard drive is operating is associated with its design.

Accordingly, to troubleshoot the problem you also need to familiarize yourself with the hard drive structure.

The device can be glass or metal. These materials are used to make round plates on which a special ferromagnetic layer is applied.

It is on the ferromagnetic layer that information is directly recorded.

One device may include one or more plates. If there are several of them, then they are separated by layers of non-magnetic material.

This material and these layers play an important role in the distribution of airflow within the unit.

They also largely absorb the noise that appears when the hard drive (hard drive) is operating.

This structure has a part that directly stores information. But there is another part of the hard drive – one that reads and transmits existing data.

They are read using magnetic heads mounted on relatively movable bases.

The head is fixed a few nanometers from the ferromagnetic layer.

It remains at this distance due to the air flow that is formed during the rapid rotation of the plate with the information layer.

The faster the plates rotate, the faster information can be accessed. It is the speed of their rotation that is one of the main operational characteristics of the layer.

At rest, when the computer is turned off, the read heads return to a special parking zone.

This zone is located at the center of rotation (spindle). Being in it, the heads cannot damage the disk.

Such discs have a fairly long service life. This is ensured by the fact that information is recorded and read contactlessly.

Rice. 1 How a hard drive works

Normal and abnormal sounds when the device is operating

In fully working condition, the new hard drive should not make any sounds during operation. However, there are acceptable deviations in this area.

This may be a quiet and short-term hum that appears when the program starts.

However, there cannot be knocks or clicks in a working disk. Therefore, if such sounds occur, then this is a reason to be concerned about the safety of the recorded information.

Also, acceptable noise occurs when the disk does not receive sufficient power.

In this case, you need to install a new power supply or connect a charger.

And also sometimes the disk can make noise when the system overheats.

Previously in our materials we wrote about how to cope with system overheating using simple steps:

In this case, you need to connect a cooler. If the hard drive overheats, it may not be detected by the system at all.

However, if such problems are not observed, and the disk continues to click, then it is necessary to take care of the safety of information.

Since there is a high probability that it will soon become unavailable. You need to save everything important on removable media and take the computer for diagnostics.

Without qualified diagnostics, it is impossible to determine whether certain clicks are dangerous or not.

There is a possibility that their causes are not so serious and can be easily eliminated, but it is worth being on the safe side for the safety of important information.

The principles of their operation and access to the media and system are such that in case of some breakdowns they can only aggravate the situation.

This applies to an even greater extent to programs for debugging the hard drive.

Causes of clicks and creaks in the hard drive

Why does the hard drive click or knock? Technically, this sound occurs when the read heads are positioned.

That is, they return to the spindle, to their parking place.

The hard drive clicks for a number of reasons. The most harmless of them are:

Device self-test, during which the hard drive “marks” bad sectors;
Switching to power saving mode causes the hard drive to turn off (with appropriate power saving settings);
Power outages are also a cause (can occur due to a faulty laptop battery or power surges in the network);
Increase in temperature inside the thermoblock.

One of the most unpleasant and difficult to eliminate causes of clicking is damage to the ferromagnetic layer or servo marking of the disk.

Because of this, the positioning of the read heads occurs. This state of affairs threatens the loss of all information stored on the disk.

Not only knocks and clicks, but also squeaks occur when the heads stop “seeing” the servo markings due to a malfunction.

They receive no signals from it, and they begin to move and “search” for this marking.

As a result, extraneous sounds arise. Similar sounds occur when loading the hard drive firmware fails.

The HDD brand is also important. Although their devices are similar, they can signal a particular problem in different ways.

Also, the hard drive may knock after the laptop is dropped. In this case, this indicates that the heads have failed.

You might be interested in:

Why is the hard drive clicking? Main causes and solutions to the problem

Troubleshooting yourself

It is very important to at least approximately determine the reason why the problem occurred. To do this, you first need to exclude all the most likely causes.

Check what power saving mode settings are set on your computer.

Perhaps it turns off the hard drive when it enters this mode. Because of this, the read heads return to their place.

If you suspect a power outage, try installing a different battery in your laptop.

Or, on the contrary, install a known-good hard drive into your device. If clicks are heard in this case, then problems with the HDD can be ruled out.

You can find out the status of the hard drive using the system resource:

Left-click on the hard drive image;
Select "Properties";

Rice. 2. Local disk properties window

Open the “Service” tab;
Run the function "Run check";
Check the boxes "Automatic troubleshooting" And "Checking and restoring sectors".

Fig.3. Checking the local disk

After completing this check, you must restart the computer. In some cases, no other measures are required. Such an impact can eliminate the problem.

However, immediately after rebooting the operating system, all data on the disk must be saved. And replace the disk itself with a new one as soon as possible.

Checking the hard drive temperature is carried out using the HDDlife or HWMonitor programs.

The normal hard drive temperature is 40–50 degrees. If its temperature is higher, then most likely the knocking appears precisely because of it.

By the way, in order to accurately determine the normal temperature for your iron, read our materials:

If the scan reveals that the temperature of the hard drive is above 45–55 degrees, then it needs to be lowered.

To do this, you need to carry out the following set of measures:

Clean the device from dust and dirt;
Connect an external cooler for general system cooling;
Raise the laptop above the table, place it on legs or a stand so that the external openings are not blocked by anything and air passes through them freely.

In any case, the hard drive itself, after the first clicks appear, is already beyond repair.

Therefore, the main actions in this case should be aimed at saving important data. Since at any moment such a disk can turn off at any moment.