Hard Disk Clicking Upon Read Action

[Frequency44]

Hey everyone,

i updated my windows to version 10 yesterday (i did not migrate any settings or data, thus may be viewed at as a clean install), and since then, 4 of my HDDs (all of them being Samsung HD204UI 2TB), produce a weird and short clicking sound when i access the drive and data needs to be read. For example, i open up windows explorer and navigate to a drive: 0,5sec delay, click, showing contents. i open a folder, 0,5sec delay, click. Those clicks are somewhat louder than the usual operating noise of my hard drives, i hardly noticed them before. When actively using the disks, like copying data, everything works ok.

first thing i did after i noticed the clicking, i configured my power options for HDD (and everything else) for maximum performance. Then, i installed Intel RST 14.8.0.1042, but the problem persists. i also updated the firmware of my drives, no success.

This problem doesn't occur on my older 500GB Samsung HD501LJ.

System Specs:

MB: Asus P7P55D (running HDD [strike] AHCI [/strike] RAID Mode)
CPU: Intel i5-750
RAM: 8GB
HDD: 1x Samsung SSD840 (System Disk), 1x HD501LJ 500GB, 4x HD204UI (2 of those in a Raid0)
OS: Windows 10 Professional


This issue is creating only minor performance and convenience problems, but it just doesn't sound too healthy, even though SMART monitors wont reveal any faults. I couldn't find solutions via google (too many "click of death" topics which is obviously not the case for me). Hope someone here can help me.

Best regards

 

[Dunlop0078]

Well usually clicking means a dieing hard drive or hard drives. When a mechanical disk spinning at 7200rpm develops a clicking noise its often not a good sign, I would backup any important data you have on those drives. I would run a checkdisk command and see if it turns up any bad sectors, I linked how to do this below.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd637756.aspx

 

[gillybert]

Hey everyone,

i updated my windows to version 10 yesterday (i did not migrate any settings or data, thus may be viewed at as a clean install), and since then, 4 of my HDDs (all of them being Samsung HD204UI 2TB), produce a weird and short clicking sound when i access the drive and data needs to be read. For example, i open up windows explorer and navigate to a drive: 0,5sec delay, click, showing contents. i open a folder, 0,5sec delay, click. Those clicks are somewhat louder than the usual operating noise of my hard drives, i hardly noticed them before. When actively using the disks, like copying data, everything works ok.

first thing i did after i noticed the clicking, i configured my power options for HDD (and everything else) for maximum performance. Then, i installed Intel RST 14.8.0.1042, but the problem persists. i also updated the firmware of my drives, no success.

This problem doesn't occur on my older 500GB Samsung HD501LJ.

System Specs:

MB: Asus P7P55D (running HDD AHCI Mode)
CPU: Intel i5-750
RAM: 8GB
HDD: 1x Samsung SSD840 (System Disk), 1x HD501LJ 500GB, 4x HD204UI (2 of those in a Raid0)
OS: Windows 10 Professional


This issue is creating only minor performance and convenience problems, but it just doesn't sound too healthy, even though SMART monitors wont reveal any faults. I couldn't find solutions via google (too many "click of death" topics which is obviously not the case for me). Hope someone here can help me.

Best regards

Glad I found this thread.....

I am having exactly the same issue on my Samsung HD204UI 2TB after I added to my new Dell XPS8900 with Windows 10. Lots of clicking sounds and sometimes after sleep of hibernate the drive does not appear in Win Explorer. This drive worked fine for years in my old Dell with Win 7. I think issue is Win 10 because my other Seagate (ST) drive that I added to same desktop developed lots of clicking sounds as well which also worked well in the old Dell.. So I removed it and still get the clicking so not sure if the both Samsung and ST were clicking. But once I removed the ST the repeated clicking that was loud is gone but the slow intermittent clicks are still there on the Samsung.

 

[Frequency44]

Thanks for your answer Dunlop. However checkdisk doesn't find any errors and Smart software doesn't either. this is no surprise for me, since from my understanding, its pretty much impossible for 4 HDDs to fail at the very same time, right after installing windows 10.

The weird thing is, when booting my PC, i get a click (just the same) for each HDD that is being initialized. Therefor, there must have been a change in either the BIOS or the HDDs own firmware from my judgement. Win10 doesn't apply firmware updates to HDDs... does it?

 

[Frequency44]

Update:

i gave wrong information in my initial post, my mainboard is configured for Raid usage. When switching HDD mode to AHCI, the clicking goes away (at least the one click for each drive that is being initialized since windows won't start in this mode). It is then being replaced with a much more subtle access noise instead. If I don't find any other solution, I'll have to set my HDDs to AHCI mode and reinstall windows, and with that, break my Raid0.

I have no idea why this is happening at once, i've been using onboard raid setups for years without any problems. MB BIOS version is up to date as well. Windows 10 updating HDD firmware during installation is the only reason for this to happen that i can think of. Unfortunately, i didnt manage to find different firmware versions for the disks in question, so I can't test that (Samsung HD204UI).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Thorinos]

Hey at least I'm not alone too!

I'm having the same issue with a Samsung HD204UI. I can hear a single and short click noise when reading a large file or accessing data on the Samsung HD. I'm having this HD since a few years on another computer and I never had this issue.

I build a new PC two days ago and I put the Samsung HD204UI into my new build.

Specs:
MB: MSI Z170A PC Mate (AHCI mode)
CPU: Intel i5 6600k
RAM: 16 GB
HDD: Intel SSDSC2CT180A3 (180 GB, system disk), Samsung HD204UI (data disk)
OS: Windows 10 Home 64 bits
PowerSupply: EVGA 750 G2

Both harddrives are on a separated power cable from my power supply.

BIOS is up-to-date. I even did the firmware update for the Samsung HD204UI but I can still hear the noise.

I will try to contact Samsung or Seagate support to see if they can help me figuring out this clicking noise issue.

 

[Frequency44]

I'm not sure whether Windows 10 updates your HDD firmware, seems unlikely but possible to me. thus, uninstalling windows 10 after this issue has been created wouldn't solve it, since oddly enough, the first clicks i heard were during boot progress already. Either way, i couldnt find a proper firmware archive for my HDDs (as to do a rollback), and i couldnt really be bothered.

Changing my BIOS option to run my drives as AHCI, previously RAID, resolved my issues. No clicking, no delays. I didnt have the problem of drives disappearing in explorer, however you may try to change your boot mode to something else (RAID, AHCI or IDE are my options).

Be aware that changing this option in your BIOS will render your installation of windows unbootable (you will receive an error message upon booting, "no operating system found" or something alike), so i suggest you google how to install the respective drivers for your windows installation unless you want to do a fresh install.

Greetz

 

[kyjolski]

Did someone manage to find a solution? My HD204UI drive is set in AHCI, but the clicking is there ever since I installed Win 10...

 

[kyjolski]

Ok friends, my findings:
- removing Intel RST from my PC solved the problem, seems to be no more clicking
- I've read that the 13.x RST drivers force some kind of APM mode if available and supported by the hard drive. which is crap because the increased number of parking actions the header needs to perform will affect HDD longevity etc. Supposedly this should not happen on 12.9, but I have not tested it myself yet
Cheers!

 

[Thorinos]

Ok friends, my findings:
- removing Intel RST from my PC solved the problem, seems to be no more clicking
- I've read that the 13.x RST drivers force some kind of APM mode if available and supported by the hard drive. which is crap because the increased number of parking actions the header needs to perform will affect HDD longevity etc. Supposedly this should not happen on 12.9, but I have not tested it myself yet
Cheers!

Oh yeah this is working for me also!

I uninstall Intel Rapid Storage Technologie. I reboot my PC and I can only hear a single click when the PC is booting. In Windows, I don't hear anymore the click noise when reading or opening a file on the drive.

Thank you very much! Your solution is working!

 

[Apamedvapen]

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I have the exact same issue.
Perhaps others will find this thread from google just like me, so I'd like to give some input too.

Interestingly enough, I also have a HD204UI which is making a clicking noise randomly.
It clicks once, then it's quiet (until something initializes it again).

I use RAID instead of AHCI (due to a RAID0 setup with other hard drives).
I have RST installed - I will try uninstalling it as suggested by others.
Windows 10.

The clicking appears when:
- Booting the PC, when the RAID controller displays the connected drives
- Opening "This PC" and accessing the drive
- Starting RST
- Starting HDTune, Hard disk sentinel, and similar programs
- Starting, for example, defragmentation tool
- Other stuff I can't remember at the moment

It appears this happens when something reads/writes from/to the drive, waking it up.
I use this hard drive as a backup for my RAID0 with CrashPlan, which probably activates the drive randomly as well to perform backups.

The drive has really good health according to S.M.A.R.T, diskcheck, UltimateBootCD tests, etc.
I found this drive in a drawer and hadn't been used for years, which is why I did so many checks on the drive before putting it to use, but the random clicking noise makes me a bit worried.

I will try removing RST and see if there's any improvement.


EDIT: uninstalling RST made no difference, it still makes the clicking noise when starting anything that initializes the disk.


EDIT2:
I found a solution for the clicking noise myself.
First, I'd like to add that a hard drive making clicking noises could be an indication of an imminent failure, so don't simply ignore it and always have backups for your important stuff.

Now for the fix:

Always have a backup. You do this on your own behalf. I will not reimburse you for any data loss and yada yada.

Download Crystaldiskinfo.
You can find it on google, it's a free and very popular hard drive utility if you haven't heard of it.
We'll use Crystaldiskinfo to disable the obnoxious hard drive head parking.

Make sure you also update the firmware of the HD204UI as it has a known bug which could cause data corruption.
Crystaldiskinfo has a built-in work-around for the HD204UI bug, and will not read all data off of the disk to prevent data loss, and this work-around needs to be disabled to be able to use Crystaldiskinfo to remove the clicking noise, so update the firmware first.

- Start Crystaldiskinfo
- Go to Function
- Go to Workaround
- Make sure [Firmware bug] SAMSUNG HD155UI/HD204UI is unchecked

- Go to Function again -> Advanced feature -> AAM/APM Control
- Select the hard drive that is making the random clicking noise
- Under APM, click on Enable and drag the slider to the far Right (for Performance - FEh)

Note: I've read online that other people with 5400RPM drives prefer setting this to Disabled to completely disable hard drive head parking, so disabling it all together might work as well. I chose performance as I've read online that disabling APM all together will affect the performance of the drive, but performance also removed the clicking noise for me, and since it's now fixed I won't be messing around with other settings.

- Go to Function -> Advanced Feature -> Check Auto AAM/APM Adaption so the APM settings are automatically applied when Crystaldiskinfo starts
- Now set Crystaldiskinfo to auto-start with Windows
- Function -> Startup
- Restart your PC

My HD204UI still makes the usual clicking noise during boot, when the RAID controller initializes and reads from the drive, but once Windows has loaded it's finally completely quiet, without any random clicking noises.
Before it would click once or twice when opening "This PC", or Intels RST, or HDTune, or anything else that would need to read from the drive.
For the moment it does not click at all even if I open all the mentioned programs. It does not even randomly click like it used to when browsing the web, watching movies, playing games etc.

One last thing, disabling the hard drive head parking will make the hard drive consume more electricity since it is a power-saving feature, but disabling it might also prolong the drives life as well, as the aggressive head parking now is disabled, putting less strain on the drives head. Whether or not this is true I don't really know, I am simply quoting what I've read after researching the hard drive head parking issue for a few days now.

 

[Apamedvapen]

Sorry for making 2 posts in a row, but I have updated my previous post with a real fix to the clicking issue.
Hopefully this will help others who has the same issue. It should even work with drives that's not explicitly Samsung drives.