Question What does this clicking noise my external hard drive is making mean?

[inconnaissable]

https://imgur.com/a/aeJ4QQG

View: https://imgur.com/a/aeJ4QQG


I haven't opened this drive in months and now I've noticed it's making this clicking noise. The hard drive health is still 100% when I check Hard Disk Sentinel. And Crystal Disk says its Good in health? Is my external hard drive okay?

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

you could just be hearing the needle/read head clicking back and forth reading data from the platters, but that's kind of odd since most drives in the past 20 years have been designed to be very silent about that, but that's most likely what you're hearing.

 

[USAFRet]

I haven't opened this drive in months and now I've noticed it's making this clicking noise. The hard drive health is still 100% when I check Hard Disk Sentinel. And Crystal Disk says its Good in health? Is my external hard drive okay?

That may mean it is just coming out of a sleep state.
Or, it might mean that it will die in the next 5 minutes.

 

[Bob.B]

https://imgur.com/a/aeJ4QQG

View: https://imgur.com/a/aeJ4QQG


I haven't opened this drive in months and now I've noticed it's making this clicking noise. The hard drive health is still 100% when I check Hard Disk Sentinel. And Crystal Disk says its Good in health? Is my external hard drive okay?

If there is anything important on this hdd copy it out and set it aside.

Continue to use the hdd and monitor its health.