Question Western Digital Blue Mobile PC WD10SPZX-24Z10 Constant 'whir-click' 'whir-click'

Oct 1, 2020
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I have a 15 month old Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Laptop. Hard Drive is WDC WD10SPZX-24Z10.
The laptop boots up and runs normally, but today I noticed for the first time the HDD is making a constant noise;
'whir' like the drive is starting up and then a 'click' and it stops.
This constantly recycles about every 3 to 5 seconds when the laptop is idle.
If I am accessing files the HDD operates normally and the 'whir-click' stops until the PC is idle again.
Closing the lid into sleep mode and it stops making the noise.
Does this indicate that the HDD is failing?

So far I have done the following:
Checked and the driver is up to date.
Ran Lenovo Vantage hardware diagnostics and it shows nothing wrong with the drive.
Turned indexing off but it still makes the recycling noise, so I turned indexing back on.
Backed up my files on an external drive.
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

For both HDD's and SSD's you should turn off drive indexing. Also make sure Defragmentation is turned off. I'd ask you to make sure you've backed up all data from your HDD(regardless of how many partitions it's got) to make sure that if the drive goes sideways, you don't loose your valuable data.

Also, might want to see if the L340 has any BIOS updates pending. Might also want to see what resource monitor shows.
 
Oct 1, 2020
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Thanks for your welcome and reply.
When I turn off drive indexing which option should I use, "Drive c:\ only" or "Drive c;\, subfolder and files"?

My auto defragmentation was already turned off.

Unfortunately I downloaded Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and I'm running the 'extended test' right now and it shows it will take another 2 hours to complete so I don't think looking at the Resource Monitor now will tell me anything. I ran the short test and it shows nothing wrong with the drive. I suspect the extended test will also pass, as the drive is functioning correctly right now. Of course I'm not getting the start stop cycling while the diagnostic test is running. While I'm waiting I will have to do some research on what to look for on the Resource Monitor; I've never used it before.

I'm also going to download Acronis True Image WD edition so I can clone the drive if I need to. maybe I should do that before I need to.
 
Oct 1, 2020
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I think I may have solved my problem. Coincidentally, since I started hearing the constant 'whir-click' noise, accessing files from file explorer or programs like OpenOffice, Photoshop, is much slower than it used to be. Opening photos from file explorer freezes frequently. I had the slow file access problem several months ago, and a fix I found on-line is:
In File Explorer > View Tab > Options > Change Folder and Search Options > on each of the three tabs; General, View, and Search, click the Restore Defaults box and click Apply. Also in the View tab click the Reset Folders box. This brings back file access speeds to where they should be, and the 'whir-click', 'whir-click' seems to have stopped, at least for the time being.

In the meantime, I found the service manual for my Ideapad L340-17API. The way I read it, and from upgrade videos I've seen on-line, my laptop has an available M.2 'slot'. As purchased, mine isn't used. So, since it looks like my HDD is OK, I think I will purchase a 480 GB SSD in an M.2 form factor. And use that for Win 10 OS, and the few apps that I use, Open Office, Photo Shop, Audacity, and my frequently used file folders. I'll just have to figure out how to transfer those over to the SSD.