Clicking sound from HDD, can detect why

[jayadratha]

I bought new 2TB HDD and i was using a 500GB before. I tried "long test" for both the HDD. and they passed very nicely. But dont know why a slight click sound coming from cpu. I suspect it is from the 500GB. I changed the smps, it is a normal SMPS but last 3year I was using this type of SMPS with 2 500GB HDD and now I just replaced one 500GB with a 2TB.
SMPS has 12volt 19A power rating.

 

[NotSoHonestAbe]

Are you sure it's not the HDD that's making a clicking noise? A CPU doesn't have any moving parts.

 

[jayadratha]

Are you sure it's not the HDD that's making a clicking noise? A CPU doesn't have any moving parts.

Hmm I'm telling that I suspect that it comes from that 500GB HDD, But long test saying it passed.

 

[getochkn]

Take the HD's out and rest them connected near the pc with the cover off and track down the source of the clicking. Could be the HD, I've seen hundreds of HD's that die and just click when they are dying.

 

[jayadratha]

Take the HD's out and rest them connected near the pc with the cover off and track down the source of the clicking. Could be the HD, I've seen hundreds of HD's that die and just click when they are dying.

But HDD "Long test" saying it is a good HDD

 

[nukemaster]

To clear things up. here users call CPU the CPU(Central Processing Unit) it self and not the full system. So that is why one users says "CPU clicking" and another says "what?"

Please let us know what hard drive it is.

Some of the GREEN drives as well as new Seagate drives park the drive head when not in use for a bit. This leads to a clunk/click/chirp noise. This is by design, but seagate has a firmware update for most of the drives that do it.

Western Digital has an unsupported(WDIDLE3) tool that can change the time before a drive parks its heads(WD drives ONLY). CrystalDiskInfo can turn off this "feature", but it comes back on reboot. Works great for my media center since it is rarely powered off

Many laptop drives do this and more. They go as far as to spin down.

 

[jayadratha]

To clear things up. here users call CPU the CPU(Central Processing Unit) it self and not the full system. So that is why one users says "CPU clicking" and another says "what?"

Please let us know what hard drive it is.

Some of the GREEN drives as well as new Seagate drives park the drive head when not in use for a bit. This leads to a clunk/click/chirp noise. This is by design, but seagate has a firmware update for most of the drives that do it.

Western Digital has an unsupported(WDIDLE3) tool that can change the time before a drive parks its heads. CrystalDiskInfo can turn off this "feature", but it comes back on reboot. Works great for my media center since it is rarely powered off

Many laptop drives do this and more. They go as far as to spin down.

I Have
500GB (Segate Baracuda ST3500418AS)
2TB (WD20EARX)

 

[nukemaster]

The 2TB (WD20EARX) is a GREEN drive. it does this kind of thing. In fact it can happen in as little as 8 seconds of idle time.

You can try CDI to turn the feature off and see if it stops it.

I use the portable edition [2.7.5] Portable Edition (zip).
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html#CrystalDiskInfo

Please take note of the load cycle count every time it clicks, that most likely goes UP.

Instructions on the way.

 

[nukemaster]

Instructions.

Open CDI(CrystalDiskInfo)

-Select your drive. It is easy as selecting the drive letter of the new drive(you will see the WD20EARX number).
-Click the Function menu then select Advanced Feature then select AAM/APM Control
You will get a new screen. Disable APM from here. You can check by going back to that screen to ensure it has disabled, but it should have on the first try.

You may see that I have 2700 load cycles, that is in just under 30 days of use.

If all is well, The drive should stop getting more LLC(Load/Unload Cycles) and no longer click. on reboot the drive will start to click again. I know this sucks, but at least it tells you it is the power management causing your noise.

If your LLC is less then 100-200 a day, chances are the drive will still have a long like(5+ years).

WDIDLE3 is an option, but many recommend never fully disabling the idle park and setting it to 300 seconds. This will most certainly be frowned(warranty voiding) on by WDC as they did not make this software for your drive.

Other users have made a script or program that writes a small bit of data to the drive every 7 seconds to prevent sleep.

Some users are also reporting that WDC has stopped logging LLC as it was making customers worry too much(seeing something jump by 100+ a day when the old drive only jumped by the same number as the number of system power ons for the day). Not sure, the drive in my image logs it and is a laptop drive(I wanted quiet and its llc are still quiet for the most part every now and then it is loader then I like in a media pc).

If you need more info, let me know.

 

[jayadratha]

The 2TB (WD20EARX) is a GREEN drive. it does this kind of thing. In fact it can happen in as little as 8 seconds of idle time.

You can try CDI to turn the feature off and see if it stops it.

I use the portable edition [2.7.5] Portable Edition (zip).
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html#CrystalDiskInfo

Please take note of the load cycle count every time it clicks, that most likely goes UP.

Instructions on the way.

Didn't understood which feature i have to off.. I'm so worried, becacuse I bought this 2TB just 3days back, becacuse my another 500GB died with my games,movies,college assignments and all. So you can understand what is going on my mind for this clicking sound

 

[nukemaster]

I added a post above this one. see if that stops it.

 

[jayadratha]

I added a post above this one. see if that stops it.

For the WD drive Enable Disable buttons are not active, for the segate hard disk the AAM buttons are active but APM buttons are not active

 

[jayadratha]

CDI showing that WD HDD does not support AAM & APM , I mean not listed in the features
segate HDD supports AAM only

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

The title of this topic has been edited by SR-71 Blackbird

 

[getochkn]

Could be the click as said above from the green drives powering down. Listening to where it's coming from or putting your hand on the drive will tell you for sure which drive it is. Just because some random drive software say it's "clean", doesn't mean the read/write head is skipping now and again and "clicking".

 

[jayadratha]

Could be the click as said above from the green drives powering down. Listening to where it's coming from or putting your hand on the drive will tell you for sure which drive it is. Just because some random drive software say it's "clean", doesn't mean the read/write head is skipping now and again and "clicking".

The drive is not clicking frequently. There has not such time gap or anything after which its clicking. Its not clicking frequently, and its clicking only single at a time, I mean not clicking multiple times at a time. just clicking one time and then all is ok,

 

[jayadratha]

And by hearing it very clearly i can say that after a click there has a scratch type of sound some time. Can anyone tell me How to update firmware of segate or WD HDD

 

[nukemaster]

Ok, well this makes it all new. Normally CDI can mess with almost any drive. I wonder if WDC wanted to put a stop to it.

They have this(I have not tested it), but it has to be set rather aggressive. like 6-7 seconds.
http://softjock.com/mdis.htm

Other then that would be to try WDIDLE3(Its a dos program and may or may not void the warranty(it should not do anything if it does not support the drive). recommend setting 300s and not /d for disable as some have reported issues.)

EDIt. The Seagate is older and most likely is not making the noise.

 

[jayadratha]

Ok, well this makes it all new. Normally CDI can mess with almost any drive. I wonder if WDC wanted to put a stop to it.

They have this(I have not tested it), but it has to be set rather aggressive. like 6-7 seconds.
http://softjock.com/mdis.htm

Other then that would be to try WDIDLE3(Its a dos program and may or may not void the warranty(it should not do anything if it does not support the drive). recommend setting 300s and not /d for disable as some have reported issues.)

EDIt. The Seagate is older and most likely is not making the noise.

Are you sure any of those HDD is not dying?

 

[nukemaster]

You would have to run some more tests.

I use HDtunes surface scan, but the greens just click. it is a power saving feature they have.

If you are using it all the time, lets say during a the scan(or even if you defrag it), it most likely does not clock because it does not go idle. As soon as the drive detects it is not being used it waits about 8 seconds then parks the head.

If the drive is failing it will start to develop bad sectors in most cases.

 

[jayadratha]

Ok, well this makes it all new. Normally CDI can mess with almost any drive. I wonder if WDC wanted to put a stop to it.

They have this(I have not tested it), but it has to be set rather aggressive. like 6-7 seconds.
http://softjock.com/mdis.htm

Other then that would be to try WDIDLE3(Its a dos program and may or may not void the warranty(it should not do anything if it does not support the drive). recommend setting 300s and not /d for disable as some have reported issues.)

EDIt. The Seagate is older and most likely is not making the noise.

After each click sound the Load/Unload Cycle count increasing by 1. That means you are correct. Its head parking issue. And interesting thing is that there has no attribute in SMART like "Load/Unload Cycle count" in the segate HDD. What do you think???

 

[jayadratha]

Best answer selected by jayadratha.

 

[jayadratha]

Used wdidle3 and you are correct nukemaster it was previously set to 8.0sec. I have set it 300sec. Let see what happens, But thanks a lot nukemaster

 

[nukemaster]

It will still click if idle for 5 min(300s), but it is a lot better then the 8 second thing. The 8 second timer is the same as my WD Blue notebook drive(but it goes as far as to stop spinning so I have to wait 2 seconds to access it, not too bad at times, but sometimes quite noticeable).

You can try the disable, but some users report issues of poor performance with it that way. Lucky for me, I can just use CDI to disable both the parking and spin-down on my media center and just run it over if I have to restart because WDIDLE3 did not seem to work with my drive.

 

[jayadratha]

It will still click if idle for 5 min(300s), but it is a lot better then the 8 second thing. The 8 second timer is the same as my WD Blue notebook drive(but it goes as far as to stop spinning so I have to wait 2 seconds to access it, not too bad at times, but sometimes quite noticeable).

You can try the disable, but some users report issues of poor performance with it that way. Lucky for me, I can just use CDI to disable both the parking and spin-down on my media center and just run it over if I have to restart because WDIDLE3 did not seem to work with my drive.

Why WD did this?? For saving power?? To save power they making users mad. 90% users think that clicking means HDD is dying, so HDD clicking with essential data making users tensed. Its bad....