Hard Drive Makes a Clicking Sound
"My hard drive is making a clicking sound. It started recently and seems to be getting more frequent. Sometimes I hear a repeated click-whir sound and then the computer locks up. Does this mean my hard drive is going bad?"
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Hard Drive Failure?
Generally a clicking sound 
coming from your hard drive is a Bad Omen. It could be a harbinger of horrific hardware happenings, so my immediate advice is "BACKUP YOUR HARD DRIVE!" as soon as possible. If the drive fails, you're out of luck. In fact, even if you don't suspect a problem with your hard drive, it's wise to make regular backups so you can survive a hard drive failure with only minimal inconvenience. See my article Backing Up Your Files to learn about backup strategies, hardware and software.
Scan Your Drive
On Windows XP, you can check your hard drive for errors by running the CHKDSK utility. Restart your computer and hold down the Ctrl key while it's booting up. When you see the option to start your system in Safe Mode, select it and continue. Click the Start button, then click Run, then type CHKDSK C: /F /R then press Enter. The /R option tells CHKDSK to scan for bad disk sectors, and the /F option means to fix any errors found. (On a Windows 98 system, use the SCANDISK command instead of CHKDSK.)
If CHKDSK offers to "convert lost chains to files", recover lost data, or fix something else, you should accept. (If CHKDSK tries to sell you a cheap Rolex, politely decline the offer.) After CHKDSK finishes, restart your computer normally and see if the dreaded click of doom returns. If so, the drive is most likely damaged, and should be replaced as soon as possible. If you decide to purchase a new computer, see Copying Old Hard Drive to New PC for help with transferring your files.
Are You On The Level?
But before you trash your troublesome drive, you should try one more thing... Some hard drives are very sensitive to non-level surfaces, and will not function properly if they're sitting on a slant. Shut down your computer, make sure your system unit is on a flat surface (use a level to make sure), and then restart. I was all set to give up on an older computer that was doing the click/whir routine, but I noticed it wasn't sitting on a level surface. As soon as I fixed that, the problem was gone!
That clicking sound MAY signal impending hard drive failure, but keep in mind you don't always get such a warning. So play it safe... back up your files on a regular basis.
Need more inspiration to back up your hard drive? Listen to music based on the sounds of hard drive failure!
Fiddling While Your Hard Drive Crashes will haunt your dreams until your data is safe.
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Posted by Bob Rankin on February 18, 2006 06:00 PM
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Most recent comments on "Hard Drive Makes a Clicking Sound"
(See all 49 comments for this article.)|
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chkdsk c: /R implies /F |
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i would like to make a comment from my own experiences, sometimes some ppl may think they have the click of doom, if your hard drive is not detecting at all you may also want to have a look at your power supply yes your powersupply it could be a sign of bad capacitors thought youd like to know |
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My computer since the first time I got it made 'clicking' sounds but they rather sound like bouncey clicks or something is scraping it. It doesn't only do it on start up but everytime a program loads. For me this is normal and this computer has ran for like 5 years+ . |
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Hi all, i had the excatly same problem, it started after i inserted another harddisk. after searching the internet, i founded out that it could be that my powersupply could´n handle it After i removed that 2. harddisk, the clicking stopped! So try that guys
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I had ticking sound a few days before and now if i try to turn on my pc , d hard disk cant be detected. when I turn on the switch hard disk starts n then immidiately ticking sound n then it stops working...i have a very important data into it...Cay I recover that data?? Can anyone plz tell me..thanks |
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I'm having a problem like this as well. My hard drive makes a clicking sound and shuts off everytime I try to boot Windows normally But if I boot up in safe mode, no clicking, and no shut off. This is how I was able to find this site, and make this post. |
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Dear readers, On most XP computers, you might push F8 instead of holding the CTRL key to open up the boot options. Chris |
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My secondary hard drive makes a slight click sound when it fires up, and sometimes takes a second to kick in. It has been doing this for about a year now and once it kicks in it works great. When not being used it's like it powers off. I think it started after a reformat of the primary drive. My power supply is very new and 950W. |
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Bob, here's a question for you. Several weeks ago my laptop's hard drive started making a lot of rapidly repeating clicking sounds, and the laptop ran very slowly. I backed up all my data straightaway and expected the worst. After several days or so of it doing this, the noises stopped, and I've not had them since. Chkdsk has found no errors, and the laptop has behaved since. This has me puzzled! Should I expect sudden failure? What could have happened? I'll appreciate any advice. Thank you! EDITOR'S NOTE: In my experience, clicking sounds are always a bad sign. If the clicks came from the drive itself, and not the system speaker, then I would consider it suspect. At very least, keep a good backup! (See http://askbobrankin.com/which_online_backup_service_is_best.html ) |
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I have clicking noise from my hard drive every time i start up my computer and after i start up my pc in freezes on my bios screen can't even press on F things that would bring me in the bios menu or to the xpress recovery things. I have some lights on my mother board all four of them are working but they must not work if there are no errors. My pc is new. Got it together like 3 weeks and it worked perfectly!!! What should i do what is my problem is it all just because of hard drive? Oh, yeah and my power supply is new too it has 750W. The hard drive is Recertified Seagate 500GB 7200RPM 32MB Buffer Serial ATA II 3GBS Hard drive. |
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