Our faithful reader Michael writes in from New Jersey:
HELP!
My hard drive (my largest storage drive h:\) just started to make these light intermittent clicking noises. Sometimes the drive does not show up in bios nor in My Computer. Then it magically reappears after a few restarts - but its getting louder and now there is another click. So its like click - click - LOUD CLICK - whirllllll. What should I do Backup? Ghost? Raid? I have somewhat of a budget and im home sick today! HELP! Did I Say HELP!
Normally a clicking sound coming from your machine is a Very Bad thing. It is probably a precursor to full out drive failure, so my immediate advice is "BACKUP WHAT EVER DATA IS ON THAT DRIVE!" ASAP! Any way you can, as quick as you can! Copy the contents to another drive burn dvd's, cd's, zip disks whatever it takes. (See here how The SlothMan created a simple image for backup) Realize that after another restart the drive COULD never spin up again! If the drive really fails, you're out of luck - unless you have a BIG budget to do data recovery. BUT Seeming your an ATA reader chances are you have a full backup already (hopefully) and then you can continue on to see if we can get you fixed up.
Alright so you feel confident about your full backup and all your data is safe now lets try the following steps to see if the problems with the drive are reversable.
On XP, you can check run a hard drive error check by executing Microsofts CHKDSK utility. Restart your computer and tapping the F8 function key while it's booting up. When you see the option list choose Safe Mode, and continue. Click the Start button, then click Run, then type CHKDSK C: /F /R in the run box and then press Enter. The /R option tells CHKDSK to scan for bad disk sectors, and the /F option means to fix any errors found.
If CHKDSK offers to recover lost data, "convert lost chains to files",, or fix something else, you should let it do its thing. After CHKDSK finishes, restart your computer normally and see if the dreaded click of doom is gone. If not, the drive is most likely damaged, and should be replaced as soon as possible.
I Know It Sounds Weird But - Is Your Hard Drive On The Level?
This blew my mind and definitely worth the read - But before you trash your troublesome drive, you should try one more thing... Some (older) 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 old server that was doing its click-click-whirl routines, but the drive had come loose inside the machine and was no longer on a level surface. The missing screw was replaced some dust was blown off using a can of clean air and Viola 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 BACK UP BACK UP! Did i Say Back Up?
By the way that is a stock photo and no actually hard drives were hurt in creating this post - Mike get back @ us and let us know how it went!
