Storage forum: Hard Drive Clicking

I never did back up my photos and various documents. I should have. Does that mean I have to format my drive? Its not the end of the world if I do, just wanting to know.

Thanks again

I have been reading the posts on clicking and no booting hard drives. Don't ask me where my back up files are, as I bought the thumb drive tow months ago to do it, but I couldn't figure out how! Techno-tard.
So how do I determine what new hard drive to get? And what do I do?
Kathy

try tapping the hard drive on start up with a small hammer. if it starts up you may have enough time to backup your data good luck

Now it's just a decision to install a new drive and reload from your restore CDs and backup.

Bob

I tried adding the cables to the back of the drive when I get into windows and it shows that nothing is on the drive just from the properties button but I downloaded a free trail recovery program that shows that 120 gigs of data are still on the drive, but when it tries to access the information it just keeps clicking? Any ideas? If I could just get into the drive one more time then I could back up all the information that I wanted. Thanks for all the help so far.

OMG I can't believe this actually worked! I tapped the drive with the back of my screwdriver saying "bad drive!". Next attempt to boot it gave one click and then booted properly! WTF!

The drive may or may not be failing. If this is a new sound it probably will fail. As someone else suggested, since the price of hard drives have come way down, buy another drive and keep your old one. Put it in a good external case and use it strictly for data. If it has already failed, there are a number of good data recovery programs to be had (and some were mentioned) that may enable you to recover your data. If you are primarily concerned with only photos, many programs exist to recover them - even those that have been ''deleted''.

I've had this problem many times and luckily stumbled across what was causing my hard drives to keep failing...and you won't believe this.
I use externels alot and the power connectors that go to your drive widen from frequent removal and so forth causing a small short that will eventually fry your drive board after so many clicks.
This click is caused by what I believe to be a short in the power pins to the drive and a simple cure is to tighten the pins and your good to go.
I did this and have not heard 1 click since I fixed the power connectors.. Hope this saves every 1 alot of money cause it has me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I read with interest your posting about the power pins to the drive. Can you explain to me exactly what I need to check and possibly fix?

from the rear of the drive. If not, replace it. Better back up everything you have on it, ASAP. Sound coming from a hard drive is always bad news. Arching does not make a clicking sound it's more of a crackling sound, like bacon frying. Your arm might be dragging on the platter or the bearing maybe going out.

Are you having erratic problems with software while using it? Things not starting and stopping smoothly? At times programs slowing down then returning to normal speed? Minor hesitations with no consistent pattern. A very hot hard drive. These are all signs of a hard drive that will soon be scrape.

Try a "check disk" and do a "defragmentation". Sometimes, a very poorly maintained drive can be the problem but doubtful.

Fortunately you might be able to "scrub" this drive to insure your privacy before it completely fails. A sledge hammer will always do in a pinch, however.

Temperature monitoring software:

The first ones listed on each page.

http://www.download.com/1770-2001_4-0.html?searchtype=downloads&query=SpeedFan

http://www.download.com/1770-2001_4-0.html?searchtype=downloads&query=PC%20Wizard

This thread untracked.

Glad I could help you out. After many drives and about 4 years of replacing drives I Stumbled across this trying to fix 1. Found the Power connectors loose on my ide to usb drive, tightened them up and never had a problem again. This can also happen to the pins on the drive too. You can spread them apart for even tighter connections but be carful not to spread to much or the will get caught and bend leaving your drive useless....ENJOY

Hi,

I just wanted to say THANKS for your post on changing the psu on the external hard drive. My external hard drive that I use to backup my computer started clicking and I was freaking out because all my wife's pictures and 90 gigs of itunes music were also stored on it. I called all these data recovery places and the cheapest was $900.00! I was going to send off the drive and thought I would just google clicking hard drives to see if there might be something I could do on my own. This led me to this forum and your post. I had another external hard drive with the same psu and tried it on the clicking one. IT STARTED RIGHT UP and has been working ever since! UNBELIEVABLE! Needless to say, I am backing all the data up right now and thanks to you, I saved a ton of money!!!! THANKS!

"You can try the freezer trick if the drive is acting flaky and/or not much else has really been helpful in getting data off the drive. First, let the drive reach about room temperature before proceeding. A sudden change in temperature is not all that healthy for a drive. Afterward, put the drive in a freezer bag (a Ziploc bag will do if there arent any freezer bags handy) and squeeze out all the air (leave a little space at the opening of the bag for the air to escape). This is so you avoid condensation while the drive is put into the freezer. Leave it in there for an hour or so. Finally, take it out and slave it to another machine and try to copy over any data you want. This process may need to be repeated a few times in order to copy over everything you need.

What the freezer trick does is cool down all the components of the hard drive. It will cool down the overheating chips on the hard drives circuit board (which is a known problem with some models of Maxtor Quantum drives), and as well as allow the platters contract a bit, making it easier for the heads to read the data, thus decreasing read errors. All this trick does is buy some time in order to recover your data. In other words, the drive will need to be replaced. If it is still under warranty, RMA it back to the manufacturer."

http://www.pcmech.com/show/harddrive/664/7

I have also had a bit of success in cooling the drive with compressed air before and during boot.

Both of these fixes are temporary. You still need to get the drive out of service ASAP.

Thanks sea4th, your solution worked for me.

I had the same issue described in this thread (a wd 320gb drive stop working .. upon startup, drive started spinning ... then click click click .. then shut down .. repeat many times, then screen stating boot drive could not found, press F1 or F2). I replaced the drive, and then tried to recover data from the crashed drive.

I tried many things listed in this thread, including (*) trying two different external enclosures to see if the power supply was a problem, (*) tightening/squeezing the power connectors to make sure a solid power connection, (*) tapping the drive with a small hammer lightly while starting up to see if it would un-jam something, (*) twisting and moving the drive around while starting up, and starting it up at different angles, again to see if it would un-jam something. None of this worked. Same click-click-stop.

I was about to put it in the freezer for a while (which worked years ago for me on another problem drive), but decided to warm it as my next test. I put it in a toaster oven at low temperature (160 degrees) for 30 minutes .. assuming this would be low enough to not damage anything, and warm enough to expand metal to mimic a longer-running hard drive; selected 30 minutes to allow all parts to heat up. I connected the drive, and it worked ... suprised, but there it was .. external drive was recognized. I quickly copied important files, then copied the entire drive, and then shut the problem drive down and will use it as a door stop.

Again, thanks sea4th for the heating suggestion.