Hard drive making grinding noise, but not when on external enclosure.

[KarlosMarti]

I know there had been a lot of thread similar to this but I still have a lot of noob questions, please bear with me.

I have a Seagate 1TB HDD, only have it for about 5 months. Recently it's making a lot of grinding noise, and everything freezes or my pc restarts completely. I ran HDTunes and found some bad sectors, so I decided to backup my data, took it out of my case and plugged in it on my SATA enclosure, to do external backup/reformat.

When my HDD is on a external enclosure it doesn't make the same grinding noise, nor do I have problem when reading/writing externally.
I ran HDTunes again, externally, and it came back clean. Whenever I format/re-install windows on my HDD, the grinding noise stops, but comes back a few days/weeks later.

Does having it in the case, or external enclosure make a difference somehow on HDTune's results?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @KarlosMarti!

I'd advise you to make sure you backup all your files somewhere else and not trust any important data with this particular HDD. 🙁 It's also highly recommended to run its manufacturer's brand-specific diagnostic tool as well to check the health and SMART status from there. (Make sure the drive passes both the Short & the Long tests)

Unfortunately, the grinding noises usually indicate internal hardware failure. This basically could go undetected by some software diagnostic tools because the issue is physical. 🙁 I'd recommend you check the warranty of the HDD as well. If it's still covered by it, you should be able to RMA the drive and get a replacement from the manufacturer's/reseller's customer support.

Have you also tried the drive in another working PC? I'd advise you to do so and see if the noises will still be present there.

Keep me posted.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[slyverine]

how are you powering it up when not on external enclosure?Are you using a sata power cable dedicated to it or you are using a sata power cable that has like 2 or 3 plugs?If you do make sure you use the first one.Maybe it's not getting enough power ,had happened to me with a spare old pc i had , almost tossed 3 HDD because i thought they were faulty before i realised what is the problem.