HDD Ticking noise?

[Basix]

My HDD is making this ticking noise. It is incredibly annoying.

Is there a way to fix it?

Here is the noise:
https://vid.me/azWo

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, Basix.

Similar clicks are usually normal when a drive spins up or down, as the head moves to or from it's "parking spot", but could potentially be a cause for alarm if this happens while the drive is being used.
In order for you to try and find out if there's something wrong with the drive, I'd first recommend that you backup any important data which you might have on that HDD, just to be on the safe side. Then, go ahead and download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics tool and run the tests on the drive, to see if anything alarming pops-up. You should also try the hard drive with a different computer (if possible), or at least with a different SATA port and cables on yours, to see if the problem reoccurs.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Basix]

Hey there, Basix.

Similar clicks are usually normal when a drive spins up or down, as the head moves to or from it's "parking spot", but could potentially be a cause for alarm if this happens while the drive is being used.
In order for you to try and find out if there's something wrong with the drive, I'd first recommend that you backup any important data which you might have on that HDD, just to be on the safe side. Then, go ahead and download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics tool and run the tests on the drive, to see if anything alarming pops-up. You should also try the hard drive with a different computer (if possible), or at least with a different SATA port and cables on yours, to see if the problem reoccurs.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

Hello @Boogieman_WD

Well I downloaded manufacturer's software and I have done all the tests (except Advanced - says that data loss is possible) and everything is fine. I havent done the Advanced one because I have no place to backup the data to. The whole disk (1TB) is almost full and the rest of the HDD/SSDs I have combined, dont have enough space to cover the backup, so that part will be hard for me to do.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xoo2in9uksu7b5d/Screenshot%202015-12-17%2021.58.39.png?dl=0

I have a laptop. Inside I have SSD and HDD (problematic one). My primary partition is on SSD. Files are on HDD. When my laptop was cold for some time and I power it on and access HDD partition, the clicking noise starts. I then turn it off and power it on again, but clicking noise doesnt appear again. Then when laptop is turned off for few hours and becomes cold, the cycle starts again.

Do you have any suggestions (maybe on previous experience) on how to (if possible) fix this HDD?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

There might be an issue with the drive's arm. Or it might just be the arm moving over the platters. You could try the HDD with a different computer (as suggested in my previous post), to see if the issue reoccurs. Unfortunately the most important thing would always be to backup anything valuable which might be on the problematic drive. The extended test basically scans the drive sector by sector, which might cause data loss if the drive has physical damage. This way, the more it is being used, the greater is the chance of further damaging the HDD.
Unfortunately if there's physical damage, there's nothing you can do. Right now there's at least good news regarding the short tests. You might also want to contact the HDD manufacturer's customer support and ask for further assistance

For some reason I can't see the screenshot.