HDD Clicking

[dyslecix]

So I started UTORRENT and each of the files that are in utorrent are being downloaded to one of my hard drives. Utorrent kind of stalled and stopped responding. After this happened one of my hard drives made a clicking noise. Could this be a virus.. or a hard drive going bad... Anyways, I unplugged the HDD and waited for about 30 minutes, plugged it back in and it works now, with no clicking.. What should I do? I am currently scanning my HDD's for Viruses, just in case.. Because today I also went to a website that happened to have a spyware/or something malicious. Not sure what this could be.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Torrents tend to lead to a virus or two.

 

[thbrett]

Your HDD is going bad so stop using it NOW till you can back up the data. As for when it will fail who knows maybe now, tomorrow, next week, 2 years from now but it will fail better to be safe.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I agree,the hard drive is probably on the way out!

 

[scannall]

So I started UTORRENT and each of the files that are in utorrent are being downloaded to one of my hard drives. Utorrent kind of stalled and stopped responding. After this happened one of my hard drives made a clicking noise. Could this be a virus.. or a hard drive going bad... Anyways, I unplugged the HDD and waited for about 30 minutes, plugged it back in and it works now, with no clicking.. What should I do? I am currently scanning my HDD's for Viruses, just in case.. Because today I also went to a website that happened to have a spyware/or something malicious. Not sure what this could be.

The drive is dying. Replace it soon.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbq8vfs1wYY

 

[Christopher1]

Guys, the hard drive is not on the way out. On 5400 RPM drives, Utorrent sometimes overwhelms the drives ability to move the read head quick enough (especially if you drive has not been defragmented on a regular basis) to get to a section of the disc, thereby leading to that 'clicking' noise and sudden halt in data transfer.
Now, if you were using a hard drive in regular service and it was clicking on a regular basis, that would mean that the drive is dying and you should think about getting a new one.

 

[fzabkar]

Examine the drive's SMART report. Look for reallocated, pending, or uncorrectable sectors.

You could a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo.

 

[Christopher1]

Your hard drive is most likely just fine. uTorrent has an issue that the app makers will not acknowledge where it causes some Toshiba and Seagate brand drives to click when they are 'overloaded with data' coming from the torrent application.
I have this happen on my own hard drive in my bargain basement computer, it is just something that you have to get used to.