Double Hard drive failure? or just a weird noise?

[jlkeenan0]

Hi,

So over the last week or so I've been hearing weird scratching noises and 'clunking' sounds from where one of my HDD's is. (I have a Laptop with 2 750Gb HDDs) I've also been getting some crashes and generally worse performance out of the laptop, so I assumed that this hard drive's time had come. The weird thing was that no matter what test I ran while using the laptop, they all reported back as 100% functioning, no action required etc.

Fast forward to today, I bought a new SSD set it all up, everything running great and buttery smooth. No noises either. I formatted both of the old HDDs and tried to find which one was the problem. I put one in the free slot and booted the laptop. Within a few minutes of trying to download steam and install a game I could hear the scratching and clunking again. So, I turned off the laptop, and swapped the first HDD out for the other one, thinking that I'd found the problem.

But, when I plugged in the next drive and did the same, I could still hear an occasional scratching noise. and a clunking every now and then. no-where near as much as in the first drive but definitely there.

So, are both my drives dying at the same time? or is it possible that there's something wrong with the SATA port? If so, would putting the SSD in that slot and the HDD in the other do anything?

Laptop specs:

Asus g750js
CPU: Intel Core i7-4700HQ
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M (3GB GDDR5)
STORAGE: 500Gb SSD, 750Gb HDD(?) (both SATA 3, 2.5inch)
RAM: 8GB DDR3L, 1600 MHz


UPDATE:
https://imgur.com/a/gjkN7y1
This is a link to screenshots of all the tests I've done so far on HDD drive 2. Still making a few noises, but nothing that extreme or frequent...

HDD drive 1 literally stopped doing anything and stopped being recognised, even by BIOS about 10 minutes ago. So that one's dead.

 

[ElectrO_90]

Download and run Hard Disk Sentinel - look at the stats and it will tell you all you need to know about the HDDs in your computer

 

[jlkeenan0]

Download and run Hard Disk Sentinel - look at the stats and it will tell you all you need to know about the HDDs in your computer

Okay, I downloaded that and HD Tune. Both of which report that the disk is 100% fine and there's nothing wrong with it...right up until it literally disappears from the list of available drives. It will then re-appear a little while later as if nothing is wrong.

 

[ElectrO_90]

HDD's always make a noise because they are physical and SSD's are digital so of course, no moving parts or noise.

If HD Sentinel says the drives are 100% OK, I don't know what the answer is.
Have you tried an external Caddy?
Cable maybe bad if its going on and off, which it shouldn't be doing.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Can you show screenshots from HDtune health section?

 

[seagate_surfer]

Hi jlkeenan0,

We do recommend you to not use the HDD anymore if you already have a backup. If don't, try to do a backup of your files and if you want to do a last test, you can run the Acoustic Test from the SeaTools software.

 

[maestro0428]

Hard drives can get noisy when the are failing. My guess is that one is failing too. Run Disk Chk in Windows to find out for sure.

 

[rgd1101]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from jlkeenan0 : "Double hard drive failure? or just a weird noise?"

Hi,

So over the last week or so I've been hearing weird scratching noises and a 'clunking' sound from what I think is one of my hard drives (I have 2 750Gb HDDs in my laptop), along with a few crashes and general weird behavior. I assumed one of my HDDs was failing but thought I'd give formatting and reinstalling windows a try on the main hard drive just in case. I took out the other drive and only left the drive with the OS in the laptop. To test if this had fixed it I re-installed steam and tried to download a bunch of games, as I found the noises to be most noticeable when I was downloading/installing/ playing games. No sounds for a good two or so hours so I assumed that the problem must be with the other drive.

Fast forward to today, I took both the HDDs out, bought a new SSD and installed windows. Everything ran buttery smooth and not a single noise came from the laptop. I formatted both the HDDs and put the offending one back in the laptop just to be sure. As I expected, within a few minutes of testing it I could hear the same scratches, clunks and beeps as before. So I plugged in the first drive, the OS drive that hadn't made any noise the night before... and after a while started hearing the same noises. Not as often as the other drive, maybe only once every 10 minutes or so when downloading/ moving big files, but still noticeable. worth pointing out that both of these drives were put into the same SATA port.

So, am I unlucky and both my hard drives have failed me at the same time? It is an older laptop so I wouldn't be surprised if one died, but both at the same time seems kinda suspicious to me, especially as i haven't dropped the laptop or anything.

Or is it possible that it's this SATA port? and if so, would swapping the SSD and the least problematic HDD around solve anything?

Laptop specs:
CPU: Intel Core i7-4700HQ
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M (3GB GDDR5)
STORAGE: Crucial 500GB SSD, 750GB HDD (x2)

RAM: 8GB DDR3L, 1600 MHz

drive failure. you can get drive testing software from the manufacturer of the drives to tell you what is failing. SMART should also report issues

 

[jlkeenan0]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from jlkeenan0 : "Double hard drive failure? or just a weird noise?"

Hi,

So over the last week or so I've been hearing weird scratching noises and a 'clunking' sound from what I think is one of my hard drives (I have 2 750Gb HDDs in my laptop), along with a few crashes and general weird behavior. I assumed one of my HDDs was failing but thought I'd give formatting and reinstalling windows a try on the main hard drive just in case. I took out the other drive and only left the drive with the OS in the laptop. To test if this had fixed it I re-installed steam and tried to download a bunch of games, as I found the noises to be most noticeable when I was downloading/installing/ playing games. No sounds for a good two or so hours so I assumed that the problem must be with the other drive.

Fast forward to today, I took both the HDDs out, bought a new SSD and installed windows. Everything ran buttery smooth and not a single noise came from the laptop. I formatted both the HDDs and put the offending one back in the laptop just to be sure. As I expected, within a few minutes of testing it I could hear the same scratches, clunks and beeps as before. So I plugged in the first drive, the OS drive that hadn't made any noise the night before... and after a while started hearing the same noises. Not as often as the other drive, maybe only once every 10 minutes or so when downloading/ moving big files, but still noticeable. worth pointing out that both of these drives were put into the same SATA port.

So, am I unlucky and both my hard drives have failed me at the same time? It is an older laptop so I wouldn't be surprised if one died, but both at the same time seems kinda suspicious to me, especially as i haven't dropped the laptop or anything.

Or is it possible that it's this SATA port? and if so, would swapping the SSD and the least problematic HDD around solve anything?

Laptop specs:
CPU: Intel Core i7-4700HQ
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M (3GB GDDR5)
STORAGE: Crucial 500GB SSD, 750GB HDD (x2)

RAM: 8GB DDR3L, 1600 MHz

drive failure. you can get drive testing software from the manufacturer of the drives to tell you what is failing. SMART should also report issues

Ah, thank you for merging these two posts! Honestly, the first time I hit publish I needed to create an account and by the time I'd done that it looked like my first post hadn't been actually posted...

 

[jlkeenan0]

Can you show screenshots from HDtune health section?

I have updated the original post with screenshots

 

[SkyNetRising]

Drive health is fine.