Hard Drive Makes a Clicking Sound
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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Article information: AskBobRankin -- Hard Drive Makes a Clicking Sound (Posted: February 18, 2006 06:00 PM)
Source: http://askbobrankin.com/hard_drive_makes_a_clicking_sound.html
Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
Most recent comments on "Hard Drive Makes a Clicking Sound"
(See all 53 comments for this article.)Posted by:
Luke
15 Aug 2009
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
Posted by:
Eric
22 Aug 2009
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.
Posted by:
Chris
12 Sep 2009
Dear readers,
On most XP computers, you might push F8 instead of holding the CTRL key to open up the boot options.
Chris
Posted by:
qjkxc6
15 Sep 2009
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.
Posted by:
Andy
15 Oct 2009
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 )
Posted by:
Konstantins
17 Oct 2009
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.
Posted by:
equinox
26 Jan 2010
I'd like to just say, Thank You. I don't know much about computers and last week mine starting clicking. I was sure I'd have to buy a new one. Then I found your site and did exactly what you said, about the check disk and it worked perfectly. Now my computer is making the normal revving sound of the processor and it seems to go much faster than before. Again thank you very much!
Posted by:
Sean Wade
03 Mar 2010
If your drive is clicking or grinding immediately power the drive down. Clicking can mean that you have a damaged head assembly. If your heads are damaged they can cause media damage. Media damage can render your data unrecoverable. Also, grinding is the sound of media damage.
If you have important data to recover and hear either of these sounds take the drive into a Professional Data Recovery Firm like www.24hourdata.com They will offer a Free Quote & a No Data, No Charge policy.
Posted by:
chris
14 Jun 2010
I have a problem with my simpletech 500gb mini series portable hard drive. i'm a film student and dumped about 40 GB of footage of a compact flash card to the drive. i was watching a few clips just before i was going to back the data up. the program i was using to priview the .mov files was VLC player. The player froze as i was watching so i disconnected the portable hard drive. now no computer will show the icon of my p.hard drive under my computer. it makes a whinning whirry noise and then one click. about 1 click per second. a computer tech says the cheap way to back it up probably won't work (open the casing and try to pull the data directly off the motherboard or disc) He says best chance is sending it out to pay a few thousand dollars to have each piece individually taken apart. a few others said it sounds like the power supply is shot and i should take it apart and put the hard drive into a computer and pull the files off that way. no physical damage done, only internal. any advice? and what are the odds that my data is salvagable? i will fail film school w. out this.
Posted by:
tanga
21 Jun 2010
my compaq presario cq 41 laptop is making a "chis chis" low sound ...what could this be????
EDITOR'S NOTE: Hard to say, but probably a fan or hard drive.