Hard Drive Clicks Followed by Slow Down

[wessleym]

In the last few weeks, when performing any operation in Windows Vista, my desktop computer will suddenly be unresponsive except for mouse movement. This will be immediately followed by what I can best identify to be one of my two hard drives powering on and spinning up, which is then followed by my computer becoming responsive again. I believe it to be one of two problems:

1. My hard drive is getting ready to crash.

I've witnessed repeated clicks coming from hard drives which are just about to crash. But this doesn't sound like a typical hard drive click problem to me, mostly because I can invariably hear the motor spinning up prior to the clicks. And during an extended read or write, both drives are silent, except for the tone of their motors.

2. My hard drive has stopped spinning to save power before the unresponsiveness. When I attempt an action, it begins to spin up, causing a power fluctuation during which my CPU halts operation and waits for power to normalize.

I've read of such occurrences, but my hard drives are set to power down after 20 minutes of inactivity. This occurs while I am using the computer, often within 5 minutes of each other. Also, my power supply is 400 watts, and I'm not overclocking or using an abnormal number of components.

It is important to note that I have not changed anything inside my computer recently. This began happening without an hardware tampering (or software-controlled overclocking for that matter).

In addition, I have two hard drives, which makes troubleshooting even more difficult. I have tried unplugging my D drive, and this seems to have fixed the problem. Now I wonder if the apparent fix is due to my removal of the offending drive or the ease on power usage.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[+shift. MVC]

This was almost 7 years ago back when I had a 10GB HDD, but I had exactly the same problem as you; and about a month afterward it failed.

No idea if you're encountering the same case, but I would back up all important files just in case.

[Allan]

Try another harddrive in place of D:/ . Or, try installing Ubuntu on the "D" drive and see if ti 'clicks".

Report back here.

[jamend]

It's called the click of death, and it probably means that the hard drive is failing.

If you think it's the power supply, check your voltages. You can use SpeedFan for this if you want to do it from Windows, or find them in your BIOS settings (commonly power options > hardware monitoring). They should be within around 5% of their rated value (ex. the 12V should be between 11.5V and 12.5V). Ignore the negative voltages.

[Windows7even]

actually have one in my computer that does it from time to time..i keep it disabled in device manager most of the time...its been like that for years though....like was said though...dont keep any important files on there

[toadeater]

Try another harddrive in place of D:/ . Or, try installing Ubuntu on the "D" drive and see if ti 'clicks".

Just run any bootdisk or Linux live CD with NTFS support to check the drive, you don't have to install anything. Also, check the drive's SMART status and scan the disk with chkdsk, or whatever Vista uses these days.

Here's a non-warez bootdisk with a few HD utils:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/index.html

Check your drive's manufacturer's site for their HD utils too.

[wessleym]

Okay, installing Ubuntu on my other drive is a good idea except that I'd have to use it for a while before the problem begins occurring. The behavior is too unpredictable to try it for a few minutes and assume everything is cool because it doesn't happen during that period. Sometimes I can go days without any problems, and then out of nowhere it starts up again. But I'll keep Ubuntu in mind. Linux isn't usually my style, but I may have to try it. Thanks.

I'll check the BIOS and Ultimate Boot CD. I have already performed full Check Disk operations on both drives and found 0 bad sectors on each. But I'll try out the Ultimate Boot CD anyway. Thanks again!

[+shift. MVC]

I'd always prepare for the worst whenever I start hearing weird sounds from my hard drives.

[wessleym]

I already am prepared for the worst. I back up like a madman. But that doesn't mean the problem itself doesn't need solving.

I ran the Ultimate Boot CD. According to it, my disks are fine. Also, my BIOS power management indicates voltages are fine. The 12 voltage reading was actually 12.000 to 12.060 or something like that. Everything had very small variations.

Does anyone else have an idea?

[tomasarson]

I already am prepared for the worst. I back up like a madman. But that doesn't mean the problem itself doesn't need solving.

I ran the Ultimate Boot CD. According to it, my disks are fine. Also, my BIOS power management indicates voltages are fine. The 12 voltage reading was actually 12.000 to 12.060 or something like that. Everything had very small variations.

Does anyone else have an idea?

the only thing i think you can try is to mirror your drive onto a different hard drive. boot it up and see if the problem persists. if it's gone you know the old hard drive is your problem.

[wessleym]

I wish I had a spare sitting around so I could try that.

[SIE]

Check the power connector on your drive, i've had this happen with dodgy molex connections, serial ata connectors can be dodgy at times aswell.

[wessleym]

Thanks, SIE, but I've already not only checked it but connected them both to entirely separate molex connectors.

[wessleym]

I still haven't figured this one out.

[aclarke_31]

If its making a clicking noise before it powering down I imagine what's happening is the head on the arm inside the drive is hitting a point it cannot read due to damage (any number of reasons). Its then moving the arm back to the centre of the drive and powering the hard drive down to reboot the drive.

If this is the case the drive will not last much longer and I think you should be backing up everything on that drive before it goes "kaPOOT"

Once you've backed up, run some intensive disk checking utilities that scan the whole drive for problems. Do this as many times as you can and rest assured, it will most probably get fed up of the intensive scan and give up on "life"

Then you'll know it was a drive failure and buy a replacement drive anyway :p

In either case, *crosses his fingers* good luck ^^; b

[+shift. MVC]

AFAIK (From the few times this has occurred to me) there is no way this can be fixed, and usually leads to eventual hard drive failure. But every situation may be different.

[gnuman]

Chances are it is HDD failure. Try running a disk diagnostic program it should be able to see if it is going bad. They can be downloaded from the HDD's mfg website.

[wessleym]

Yeah, I've run several disk checkers with intense scan settings, but none could find a problem.

aclarke, I never considered that the drive would be "rebooted" after the arm hit the disc. Maybe that's the reason for the powering up sound.

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

the drive should not be clicking,, the R/W heads are floating above the platters and are not supposed to impact anything ( what the clicks are from )

backup what you can and replace the drive

[zivan56]

I've had a hard drive that's been doing that for over 1.5 years. It does it under heavy load when the r/w head moves around quickly (especially if the disk is really fragmented). Haven't had issues with it so far...

[unknownsoldierX]

I had one or more of my drives doing this on Vista. I'd hear them spin down, then spin up a few seconds later and this happened constantly. I just disabled hard drive power saving. I had similar issues with XP machines, but not nearly as severe.

What hurts is that I leave my PCs on 24/7. I'd love to be able to save energy when I can, but I don't want to damage my drives.

[Xerino]

let me guess.... Hitachi or IBM Deskstar?

[SirDarkness]

The click you hear is the reader arm snapping back to position and because of this the hard drive resets and will spin down, Then up again this will progressivly get worse as long as you use it. If you have important info, pic, music or other files back them up now while you still can. I had this happen to an old WDHD and when it came time for me to copy all contents over it would click off and reset in the middle of the transfer. This would also lock up the computer for a bit then error out and I would have to search and find out what the last file copied was. Dont let this happen to you.

On the other hand if you have an external hard drive somtimes this is normal as the drive is simply shutting off or going into standby.

Good luck but back up now. And replace.