Question Clicking sound with Seagate 2TB

Nov 24, 2020
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My Seagate Barracuda has been making some rather odd clicking noises and has been incredibly slow to find my files and run games. This is what it sounds like. It'll play every ~5 seconds when trying to access something it can't reach immediately. It began a few days ago and has generally been getting more noticeable. It passed a ridiculous amount of drive health tests with Seatools and Windows and is in good condition according to CrystalDiskInfo, but this certainly is not the case.

It finally failed a test when Seatools tried a random read test and it found an error before reaching even 3%. It found a bad LBA but didn't report anything else since it didn't complete the scan. I was able to fix it after a while with windows' Error Checker utility but it only solved the problem for 12 hours.

Does anyone know what the sound could be/how to fix this issue? This drive isn't even 5 months old and I'd rather not have to replace it so soon, especially since Seagate's customer service and warranty don't seem like inviting options.
 
Nov 24, 2020
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How to "fix"?
Send it back to Seagate for a warranty replacement, and recover your data from the backup.
That seems to be my best option but I want to avoid it if I can. This drive is rather new and Seagate makes it difficult to even make warranty claim. This also seems like it could be a solvable issue so I want to try to resolve it before anything else.
 
alas, there is no easy user fix for a clicking drive, difficult to find files, slow access....(short of a quick format/start over....; if it still clicks and is slow to read/wrtie/find files, ....it is on the 'bad path' to data loss, most likely!)

Ditch it for a replacement...as already suggested. (There are occasionally 2 TB SSDs for as low as $150-$170 on sale these days....)
 
Nov 24, 2020
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Thank you guys. I will file a warranty claim with Seagate.

That aside- anyone have an idea as to what the clicking is specifically? Obviously something is broken but I'm just interested in the specifics if it's possible.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Thank you guys. I will file a warranty claim with Seagate.

That aside- anyone have an idea as to what the clicking is specifically? Obviously something is broken but I'm just interested in the specifics if it's possible.
That is almost certainly the arm snapping back and forth.
Can't quite get to the actual place it needs to be, and snaps back to resting position. Again and again.

It is a physical issue, not fixable by any clicky software.