HD is making clicking noise on "balanced" pwr scheme, but not "

[moeburn]

So I got my new Crucial M4, and boy is it ever fast.  But after installing it, I guess I jostled around my old HDDs too much, and now my oldest (WD2000 200GB) is making rather loud clicking noises, once every 4 seconds or so, louder than what you would expect from a simple power-on cycle.  I think this means the head is crashing?  

 

But I'm still able to access all the files, it seems.  I am right now in the process of copying all 160GB from it, and I noticed something odd:  If I change the windows power scheme from "balanced" to "high performance", the clicking noise goes away completely, and I'm able to copy at about 30mB/s.  But as soon as I set it back to "Balanced", the loud clicking starts happening again, and the copy rate plummets. 

 

I thought the only significant differences between these two settings were minimum CPU clock speed, and HDD idle timeout.  Well CPU speed shouldn't have anything to do with it.  And the HD shouldn't be reaching its idle timeout if I'm busy copying from it.

 

What the heck is going on here?!

[patseguin Global Moderator]

That's indeed pretty weird. HD prices are pretty low now, so you are right to copy everything off it and then you can just replace it with another one for under $100 (assuming you want around the same capacity). I'm wondering if high performance means it accesses the drives less and relies on RAM whereas balanced is a combination of RAM and virtual memory on the HD. I could be way off though.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

It puts less power to everything connected to the motherboard. Backup everything and RMA it or get a new drive. Clicking is never a good thing.

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

See if there is a firmware/software update for your drive.

Edit (+1 on making sure you have your stuff backed up)

[roguekiller23231]

download and install this. it will be a month trial

 

Ashampoo HDD control

 

https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/0165/System_Utilities/Ashampoo-HDD-Control-2

 

let it run in the background, if SMART status monitoring is off, switch it on in the options. if there is a problem with the HDD it will get logged on the HDD SMART status and Ashampoo HDD control will come up with a warning that the attributes have changed.

 

you can also use this to check the SMART status of the drive. i've used it before to find defective HDD.

[moeburn]

I used SpeedFan to check the SMART values, because its what I have installed.  I've actually never had a problem with this drive, even though it is the oldest one in my system.  It was once used as a system drive, so I've gotten some good years out of it.  The newer WD5000 500GB started to have bad sectors already, but this WD2000 didn't.

 

Here's a link to the SMART analysis of the drive:

 

http://www.hddstatus.com/hdrepshowreport.php?ReportCode=7309392&ReportVerification=1FD8D6DA

 	  Attribute	 	Current	 	Raw
Raw Read Error Rate		200		000000000000
Spin Up Time		     	206		000000000898
Start/Stop Count		98		000000000872
Reallocated Sector Count	200		000000000000
Seek Error Rate			200		000000000000
Power On Hours Count		8		0000000107BB
Spin Retry Count		100		000000000000
Calibration Retry Count		100		000000000000
Power Cycle Count		99		0000000005DC
Reallocated Event Count		200		000000000000
Current Pending Sector		200		000000000000
Offline Uncorrectable Sector #	200		000000000000
Ultra DMA CRC Error Rate	200		000000000006
Write Error Rate		200		000000000000

All the attributes of your hard disk are above the S.M.A.R.T. thresholds set by the manufacturer. This is good.

NOTE : your hard disk Power On Hours Count attribute current value (8) is below the normal range (74 - 99) reported for your specific hard disk model. Basically your hard disk was powered on for more than the maximum time the average user did. This means that either all of the reports collected are from hard disks that were not powered on for too long (this is realistic for recent models) or that your hard disk is becoming old. Usually this is not considered as a pre-failure advisory, but you should check whether you want to replace the hardware or keep an eye on its performances over time.

The overall fitness for this drive is 100%.
The overall performance for this drive is 100%.

 

 

I managed to copy all 160GB off it just fine, using TeraCopy so that it could perform a CRC check on each individual file copied, and every single file's CRC checked out.  So that means that I was able to read the entire drive just fine, although it doesn't mean none of the data is corrupted.

But I just tested it out again, to see if maybe the fact that I just moved the head over the entire drive will have made any difference.  In 'performance' mode, I can read from it at 30mB/s, and there are no clicking noises.  But if I switch to 'balanced' mode, the copy speed instantly drops to ~5mB/s, although the clicking doesn't start until 1 or 2 minutes later.  Same with 'power saver' mode, there is absolutely no difference (in terms of this drive's performance) between 'power saver' and 'balanced'.

 

It puts less power to everything connected to the motherboard. Backup everything and RMA it or get a new drive. Clicking is never a good thing.

Where did you hear that it puts less power to everything?  I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just curious, and I would like to be sure.  I know it lowers the CPU clock speed and voltage, if you have AMD Cool 'n' Quiet or whatever the Intel equivalent is.  I know it can reduce power to things like USB devices, PCIE cards, and wireless cards.  And I know it can change how long it takes for the HD to idle and turn off.  But all these settings are configurable and visible in the Windows Power Scheme dialog.  The only option under 'hard drive' is the idle timeout.