HDD Makes a loud click noise about once an hour, sometimes slows down the PC.

[lightingft]

Hello guys, so I have a problem. I have 3 drives - an SSD (a month old), and two HDDs, one of which is 4.5 years old and one is about 1 year old. So, I suspect that it's the old HDD, but I sometimes hear a loud click sound, and my PC slows down, as in, when I click on Google Chrome for example, it takes 5 seconds to open it (when usually it's instant) and then it speeds up to normal again. This happens about once in 1-2-3 hours, it depends. Sometimes it doesn't happen at all. Could it be a dying drive? How can I predict it? HD Tune only has errors for the oldest drive:
Reallocated Sector Count (91) (Yellow)
Spin Retry Count (2) (Yellow)
Airflow Temperature - This one's red, but in HWMonitor it's fine though?
Current Pending Sector (16) (Yellow)
Interface CRC Error Count (26) (Cyan)


and by the way, my Windows is installed on my SSD.

 

[COLGeek]

Sounds like a failing HDD. I would highly recommend you copy any critical files/documents to another drive. If still under warranty, start the RMA process.

Good luck.

 

[lightingft]

Sounds like a failing HDD. I would highly recommend you copy any critical files/documents to another drive. If still under warranty, start the RMA process.

Good luck.

Hmm, I will try backing it up and disconnecting it for a day and see if the sound persists. Cheers. Sadly I don't have another drive right now that can fit about ~600GB.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, lightingft!

Unfortunately, @COLGeek is totally right. It does sound like your HDD is failing. The clicking noises indicate an internal physical damage and this is something that cannot be fixed. Backing up ASAP is essential! Just make sure you don't access the HDD too often, until you have found a backup destination drive that would hold those ~600 GB of data. Start by saving the most important files, it's possible that you might not be able to save it all if the bad sector count continues to increase.

You should definitely consider contacting the hard drive manufacturer's customer support for assistance. They should be able to provide you with a replacement product if the HDD is still covered by their warranty.

Hope this was helpful. Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[lightingft]

Hey there, lightingft!

Unfortunately, @COLGeek is totally right. It does sound like your HDD is failing. The clicking noises indicate an internal physical damage and this is something that cannot be fixed. Backing up ASAP is essential! Just make sure you don't access the HDD too often, until you have found a backup destination drive that would hold those ~600 GB of data. Start by saving the most important files, it's possible that you might not be able to save it all if the bad sector count continues to increase.

You should definitely consider contacting the hard drive manufacturer's customer support for assistance. They should be able to provide you with a replacement product if the HDD is still covered by their warranty.

Hope this was helpful. Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD

Hmm, alright. I don't have warranty, as I've bought the PC pre-built... Anyways, as for getting a new HDD, what would you recommend? My 2nd HDD is a WD Blue, should I go the same with a replacement? This old HDD is a Seagate.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, lightingft!

It REALLY depends on what you are planning to use this secondary HDD for.

The WD Blue is a great storage solution for everyday computing and any mainstream PC purposes. There are two more specifications about this product that you need to know about:
The 5,400 RPM-class WD Blue is a great storage solution for your massive data and it's offered in various capacities.
The 7,200 RPM-class WD Blue is only up to 1 TB in size and it's often used as a boot HDD in mainstream desktops.

If you wish to have more performance and extra storage for gaming/demanding software, then you should probably consider the WD Black as another option as well. It has 7,200 RPM and dual-core processor that offers twice the processing capability as a standard single-core processor to maximize drive performance, Besides, it also comes with a 5-year limited warranty.

Hope I was helpful. Let me know if you have more questions!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[lightingft]

Hey there again, lightingft!

It REALLY depends on what you are planning to use this secondary HDD for.

The WD Blue is a great storage solution for everyday computing and any mainstream PC purposes. There are two more specifications about this product that you need to know about:
The 5,400 RPM-class WD Blue is a great storage solution for your massive data and it's offered in various capacities.
The 7,200 RPM-class WD Blue is only up to 1 TB in size and it's often used as a boot HDD in mainstream desktops.

If you wish to have more performance and extra storage for gaming/demanding software, then you should probably consider the WD Black as another option as well. It has 7,200 RPM and dual-core processor that offers twice the processing capability as a standard single-core processor to maximize drive performance, Besides, it also comes with a 5-year limited warranty.

Hope I was helpful. Let me know if you have more questions!
SuperSoph_WD

Alright, thank you. I'll look into it. One more question, can this hard drive failure cause NMI Parity Errors and random lockups? (sound freezing, have to restart PC with reset button)? I seem to get those at random intervals, sometimes once a day, sometimes once in 3 days.

Also, can I just unplug and place the HDD somewhere, and then plug it back after 3 months and copy over my data? It works fine, apart from these random clicks, otherwise I can transfer data fine, apart from MB/S slowdowns.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Alright, thank you. I'll look into it. One more question, can this hard drive failure cause NMI Parity Errors and random lockups? (sound freezing, have to restart PC with reset button)? I seem to get those at random intervals, sometimes once a day, sometimes once in 3 days.

Also, can I just unplug and place the HDD somewhere, and then plug it back after 3 months and copy over my data? It works fine, apart from these random clicks, otherwise I can transfer data fine, apart from MB/S slowdowns.

Hi again, lightingft!

Let's say that I would definitely backup all the data that you store on that drive. This is not a typical HDD behavior, so I'd not trust it with my data. The error you get, however, could be indicating an outdated BIOS version, so I'd suggest you go to the motherboard manufacturer's website and make sure you have the latest one. Be careful when performing this, flashing BIOS (a.ka. updating the mobo's firmware) is a very delicate procedure, so make sure you follow the motherboard manual instructions.
Beforehand, I'd also check the chipset and SATA controller drivers on the mobo's website as well, and reinstall them manually from there.

Hope it helps.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[lightingft]

Alright, thank you. I'll look into it. One more question, can this hard drive failure cause NMI Parity Errors and random lockups? (sound freezing, have to restart PC with reset button)? I seem to get those at random intervals, sometimes once a day, sometimes once in 3 days.

Also, can I just unplug and place the HDD somewhere, and then plug it back after 3 months and copy over my data? It works fine, apart from these random clicks, otherwise I can transfer data fine, apart from MB/S slowdowns.

Hi again, lightingft!

Let's say that I would definitely backup all the data that you store on that drive. This is not a typical HDD behavior, so I'd not trust it with my data. The error you get, however, could be indicating an outdated BIOS version, so I'd suggest you go to the motherboard manufacturer's website and make sure you have the latest one. Be careful when performing this, flashing BIOS (a.ka. updating the mobo's firmware) is a very delicate procedure, so make sure you follow the motherboard manual instructions.
Beforehand, I'd also check the chipset and SATA controller drivers on the mobo's website as well, and reinstall them manually from there.

Hope it helps.
SuperSoph_WD

Thanks alot. After removing the HDD, the PC has not locked up for 6 days. Hope it continues like this and doesn't lock up anymore. I have already updated the chipset and SATA drivers before.