[SOLVED] Hard drive makes a clicking sound every time I save

[Josiah_2854]

I recently (a week or so ago) bought a 2TB WD HDD Black. I did some searching and apparently the WD HDD Black is supposed to make some clicking noises. It has been doing so regularly and consistently, without any kind of issues whatsoever. I also read about some drive heads doing lubricant distribution every 5 seconds to prevent lubricant buildup. I've timed the 3 short consecutive clicks it does and it does happen exactly every 5 seconds (unless some more clicking is happening at the same time.

Anyway the reason I'm saying this, is because the clicking I'm hearing seems to just be the hard drive doing it's thing. Especially as it does it way more during bootup and when loading programs. However (and this is the main point of this thread) it makes a single click for every single time I press Ctrl+S to save, or go into the menu and click Save with my mouse.

It specifically does it when I'm saving stuff in Sublime Text 3 (it doesn't do it in any other text editor, or any other program). And I know for a fact it does this, because I can tap S as I'm holding Ctrl in specific rythms, and the HDD clicking will mimic it perfectly. I can also hold both Ctrl and S, and the drive will literally spam the clicking noise, just as some programs make a noise when typing, and spam it when holding input.

The reason I'm worried about this, is something in a HDD usually has to move to make noise, and I'm thinking if I did this for long enough, it could possibly damage the HDD. So far no issues have occurred, but I don't wanna tempt fate until I'm sure there's nothing wrong with either what I'm doing, or the hard drive.

P.S. I know it's the drive making noise because I have my speakers turned off as I'm using headphones (which I took off before putting my ear upto the front of the PC).

tl;dr: My WD Black hard drive is making a clicking noise every time I save in Sublime Text 3.

 

[Colif]

You could run this on drive - https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=3&lang=en

Short and long tests.

 

[zero_l0gic]

Wel its supposed to do little clicking/scraching/taping sounds cause its mehanical, you can check with software Colif sent is the drive healty. Holding ctrl+s in most programs saves the file/work so “spaming” that combination saves the file and if its on that drive it will do small clicking/scraching/taping sounds and that is normal for a Mehanical drive cause its saving the file. Dont think you have to be worried about it but if you want to be sure use the program Colif sent.

 

[Josiah_2854]

Hi guys, just got done using the program. Ran both the quick and extended tests, and both finished with a pass.

When I run the quick test, the HDD makes a much faster click spam, that quickly and steadily increases in pitch, and after around 10-15 seconds (or when the test was quarter way done) it stopped. And during the extended test, it makes the same tempo click spam as the one when I spam save, but did so during the beginning and end of the test.

Wel its supposed to do little clicking/scraching/taping sounds cause its mehanical, you can check with software Colif sent is the drive healty. Holding ctrl+s in most programs saves the file/work so “spaming” that combination saves the file and if its on that drive it will do small clicking/scraching/taping sounds and that is normal for a Mehanical drive cause its saving the file. Dont think you have to be worried about it but if you want to be sure use the program Colif sent.

The reason it worries me is because I've only ever used mechanical drives and I've never experienced this. Though aside from an external 2TB HDD I use for backups, I haven't ever used a WD HDD, so maybe they just work like that.

Also just the fact that it only does it (aside from the extended test) when saving in Sublime Text 3 is very strange and the main part I got worried.

 

[ss202sl]

Drives do make some noise. If the noise changes(louder or more frequent) then it may be nearing death. Not a big deal if you do regular backups.