Question Weird click-like HDD noise

[fastshot]

I've got a WD black 3.5" @7200 1TB HDD (WD1003FZEX-00K3CA0) with only 580 working hours within a desktop PC. This is the weird noise I'm talking about. I herd it about a month ago for the 1st time and it occurs not regularly so I spent a lot of time to record it. Some days I don't hear it at all while other days it occurs every about 2 hours but consider I can hear it only at evening and night because at daytime there's a lot of noise around me (road traffic, etc.).
I've already run both tests with official WinDlg WD utility, I mean quick and extended, and they're "pass". Moreover CrystalDiskInfo says "good".
If it can be important consider that I pointed to the particular switching off noise here and you ensured me it was normal, maybe the 2 things are linked I don't know.
So is it a severe noise to be worried about?

 

[Ralston18]

Interesting little squeak/scrap sound in the links.

Any other patterns? E.g., you hear the sound more when computer/drive are cold or hot?

Have you looked the HDD's mounting screws: all firmly in place and snug? What about the "cage" - any adapters or brackets involved?

How is the drive mounted/oriented in the case?

 

[fastshot]

Sorry but I'm not able to tell about patterns because I can hear it only when there's almost no noise around me so mainly at night time. Anyway it can happen to hear that squeak at daytime too but very rarelly and I guess it's due to the other noise that covers the squeaks and not because it happens only at night, I mean when the machine/hdd are hotter, but this is just a bet of mine.

The case is an ATX sharkoon s25-w and you can see the HDD position in this pic extracted from the pdf manual. As you can see there're 4 screws (2 for side) that link the HDD to the plastic rack. I used the inferior position within the plastic cage to put the rack in. That's all but please consider it's my first PC building. Anyway if you want more visual details I can take some real pics of that, let me know.

What do you think about a noise generated by a head? I've googled a bit but I'm very newbie so I really didn't understand very much the matter anyway I wonder if a head doesn't park properly and makes this noise. Am I wrong? If that could be the way, is it useful a tool like RE2GP Idle Mode Update Utility?

This firmware modifies the behavior of the drive to wait longer before positioning the heads in their park position and turning off unnecessary electronics.

I'm afraid I'll damage something if I'll try that tool. Have you ever experienced RE2GP or tools like this?

 

[USAFRet]

All spinning drives make some sort of noise.
A drive making new noises is not a good thing.
All drives die eventually.

Your best way forward with any drive, no matter the type or condition, is a good backup routine.

 

[fastshot]

All drives die eventually.

In my case the matter is I've bought a 5 years warranty HDD spending about 90euro (about 100$) VS other cheaper 3 years warranty HDDs (like toshiba and seagate) that cost circa the half price. After few months of light working I hear these squeaks and I can't get any explanation until now (heads or not? severe or not important?) nor solution therefore I'm a bit angry and a bit reconciled to that. I bought it from WD official site and I think I'll contact WD support but I guess there'll be nothing they can do for me because of the negative test results (both "pass"). Of course I back up my data regularly but all that sounds like a fraud.

 

[Sgt_Sykes]

Wait, how old is it? A 1GB WD Black has to be pretty old? I've had mine close to 10 years I think.

Clicking noises can be just due to your OS turning the drive off when it's not in use. Or a bad cable causing the drive to disconnect. I used to have problems with drives randomly disconnecting when I was using AHCI mode of my motherboard.

I don't have my speakers hooked up so I can't hear the sound you posted but you want to troubleshoot whether the wound comes from the HDD turning off or not.

Another thing is those pass/fail tests are pretty useless. You may want to look at some specific data (such as data reallocation count or startup retry count), however modern HDDs are packed full of all sorts of redundancies that almost nothing in SMART data is a real cause for alarm. Until it just dies.

 

[fastshot]

I've got it from nov 23rd 2018 and used it firstly within an external fantec box then put it inside my pc desktop since last feb.
These squeaks occurs both under win10 and ubuntu as far as I remember.
I've got 2 sata cables from my MSI MB's package: one is with both stright plugs and it's the one working right now and the 2nd one is with a 90° plug. Moreover there're "6xSATA 6Gb/s" ports (if no m.2 devices are present) on my MB. Are you suggesting me to try the angled cable or to put the actual cable to any different port or both solutions?
I've got HDD Regenerator 1.61 and hdtunepro 570 (trial) as well. Can they be usefull?

PS
My mp3 track lasts just few seconds: @Sgt_Sykes you can plug your smartphone earbuds in and listen, maybe you've already heard it and can tell me what it is Unluckily I couldn't find that noise among the ones listened randomly from youtubers.

 

[DSzymborski]

In my case the matter is I've bought a 5 years warranty HDD spending about 90euro (about 100$) VS other cheaper 3 years warranty HDDs (like toshiba and seagate) that cost circa the half price. After few months of light working I hear these squeaks and I can't get any explanation until now (heads or not? severe or not important?) nor solution therefore I'm a bit angry and a bit reconciled to that.

A warranty isn't a promise that something won't break, only a promise to provide repair or replacement in the event that it does break. Any hard drive, with any warranty, can break at any time from one second to one year to one decade.

A hard drive under warranty should always be approached by the consumer the exact same way as a hard drive not under warranty, with regular backing up of important data so that when a hard drive does die, it's only a minor inconvenience. The warranty doesn't provide protection for your data or for your hard drive, it protects your money.

 

[Satan-IR]

There's no fraud. HDDs are subject to wear and tear like any other component and having mechanical and fast-moving parts make them a bit more vulnerable over time.

HDD makers (obviously) have standards and rigorous QC, however, there are some minor faults that are not evident in QC tests and some occur over time due to work loads.

As said above, they break like any other device and as long as they're under warranty the company would somehow compensate the user, usually by replacing the faulty device. If you have proper backup the only thing you should worry about, come the day the drive dies, is the warranty process of refunding or replacement.

 

[USAFRet]

I have working HDD's that are near 20 years old.
I've also had a brand new one die at the 5 week point. Replaced by WD.
I also had an SSD die 33 days beyond its 3 year warranty. SanDisk did me a solid, and replaced it anyway. With a slightly better model drive.

The only thing I lost in that SSD death was an hour or so to slot in a new one, and recover the data from yesterdays backup.
I mostly don't care why they died.
All the reconstitutor software in the world does not guarantee 100% continuing perfect performance.
It's electronics, and sometimes they die. Electronics with moving parts, even more so.

When your drive eventually dies, replace.
If under warranty, its free.
If not under warranty, replace anyway.

 

[fastshot]

I emailed WD just to ask some info, I haven't already opened an RMA. I could attach a file so I uploaded the mp3 with the noise and asked to let the technicians to hear it. They replied the noise was normal and they told me to use "Data Lifeguard Diagnostics" to test the drive and, in the case the tests failed, I could open a RMA. Finally they wrote I'd pay shipping cost for a RMA and, in the case of a replacing, they'll give me a refurbished hdd.

Now consider it's about from 2 days I hear a new sound and it's a metallic "tak" and it's louder than the squeak. I'm sure it comes from the case but I can't know if it's generated by the hdd as well or other things. In a couple of cases I've heard the tak+squeak noises one sunddenly after the other one in this sequence. I don't know if it's casuality or not anyway this night I'll try to unplug the 3 fans and let only the cpu fan run so I'll check if it's hdd's fault too.

Anyway what can you suggest me to do after the WD reply? What do you think it's the best thing to do (or the least worst)?

 

[USAFRet]

The "best" thing to do?
Institute a comprehensive backup plan.

Use the drive, and wait for it to die.
It its still under warranty, you get a free replacement.
If not under warranty, you buy a new one.

Then, copy your data from the nightly backup to the new drive.

All drives die, eventually. Yours may last years, it might die next week.

 

[Andresito1979]

So is it a severe noise to be worried about?

The clicking noise You hear is probably the heads parking noise.

Please check HDD S.M.A.R.T parameter Nr. 193 (Load/unload cycle count or Load_Cycle_Count).
If this number increases after each clicking noise (You have to REFRESH this value) than head parking could be the source.

You could be worried if this number approaches 300.000, which is the number of how many parking cycles the manufacturer designed the the head moving mechanics. (I also read that some drives could withstand 600.000 parking cycles, but to be on the safe side use the smaller number.)

WD Green and Blue and my Skorpio Black have the same symptom. I'm playing with hdparm -B and hdparm -S settings under Ubuntu trying to disabling power management initiated HDD head parking. There are also tools for Windows users to set these parameters, AFAIK Hdsentinel can set it, but maybe not permanently.