Clicking noise

[Snifferdog3]

Hello. I got a HDD about 6 months ago. It's not in a HDD bay as the cable wouldn't reach so it's somewhere where i can hear it all the time. Here:

Ever since I got it, it makes a quiet clicking noise. There are no Smart warnings and it's only got 2900 hours on time. It mostly makes this noise when In use but also a lot when the pc is doing nothing. Here is some audio. Voice 001.m4a 

Is this normal? Thanks

[Uptivuptiz]

It sounds like the read/write head is just jumping back and forth in the drive. That's not normal... You might want to have a professional take a look at that drive or replace it. If it still works take a backup immediately.

[Snifferdog3]

4 minutes ago, Uptivuptiz said:

It sounds like the read/write head is just jumping back and forth in the drive. That's not normal... You might want to have a professional take a look at that drive or replace it. If it still works take a backup immediately.

 

 

yes, it still works. it's fast when transferring files it's not slow. I've had no files corrupt.  its been like that for 6 months now (since I got it). I don't have a spare HDD to back it up to...

[Uptivuptiz]

Just now, Snifferdog3 said:

 

yes, it still works. it's fast when transferring files it's not slow. I've had no files corrupt.  its been like that for 6 months now (since I got it). I don't have a spare HDD to back it up to...

That's very strange... Well if it's been working fine for the last 6 months, then I don't know if that's just a thing the drives is suppose to do or not. I suppose if it works like that it should continue to work.

[Tibon]

Click of death good idea to backup your important files.

 

There's an audio sampe of hdd click of death in that Wikipedia link, try and compare it to yours.

[Snifferdog3]

Just now, Uptivuptiz said:

That's very strange... Well if it's been working fine for the last 6 months, then I don't know if that's just a thing the drives is suppose to do or not. I suppose if it works like that it should continue to work.

ye. it's not got a lot of on-time either so it's not like it's at the end of its lifespan. the read speed is 45.7mbps and write is 44.3 Mbps. so it's not slow either. ill just leave it for now see what happens thanks for the help 

[AskTJ]

Your best option would be to backup the files over to a cloud service or external drive, and proceed using the drive normally.

[Snifferdog3]

Just now, Tibon said:

Click of death good idea to backup your important files.

Its defo not making that noise. but now i know what to look out for

[Snifferdog3]

2 minutes ago, AskTJ said:

Your best option would be to backup the files over to a cloud service or external drive, and proceed using the drive normally.

ye I don't have any spare HDDs but I could do a cloud save. thanks for the tip

[Tibon]

I'm just curious, is your hdd happens to be a black western digital caviar, with 32mb cache?

[Snifferdog3]

Just now, Tibon said:

I'm just curious, is your hdd happens to be a black western digital caviar, with 32mb cache?

no its a sea gate ST3400832A 400GBs 7200rpm with an 8mb cache size.