External drive 'CLICK' of death? Worth taking apart?

wunkley · 31 Oct 2014 at 15:10

My Hitachi 2TB usb3 external hard drive has started acting up a bit and making audible clicking type noises. As it has important backup up data on it I've already retired it and bought a new WD 3TB drive instead.

I've had an external hard drive fail before (a Seagate) and this had similar symptoms, but made a different type of noise. My question is, do you think it's worth taking the Hitachi external enclosure off, and trying the drive as an internal one, or is it likely to just cause bother?

Anyone any experience of this type of thing?

On Holiday · 31 Oct 2014 at 15:11

If it's failing then it won't make much difference.

ChocolateStarfishRammer · 31 Oct 2014 at 15:15

Absolutely. Its extremely often that the external enclosures fail but the drive inside is fine.

Had this with customers more times then I can remember.

Archeum said:
If it's failing then it won't make much difference.

You wont know this for sure until you test directly the drive outside the USB enclosure.

On Holiday · 31 Oct 2014 at 15:19

If it's clicking then I don't see how removing enclosure would affect/resolve this?

UnworthyBean · 31 Oct 2014 at 15:27

It's possible (although to be honest, unlikely) that the enclosure isn't providing enough power to the drive.

No harm in trying to remove the drive and plugging it directly in to the PC.

wunkley · 31 Oct 2014 at 15:29

Well, I've read that it can be the enclosure itself that can cause problems. I guess there's only one way to find out and do it. Just not sure I can be bothered. And if it seems to work ok I might risk possible data loss down the line as I just don't trust it now.

postmanfw · 31 Oct 2014 at 15:53

Do the drive show up at all when plugged into pc?

If it does then you might be able to run data recovery programs on it even if its faulty.

Also try running it on a linux/ubuntu live disk/usb as sometimes they can read it when windows fails.

sometimes giving the drive a gentle tap can free up the seek arm if its stuck/failing...long shot but worth a try before binning it.

Last resort would be to open the drive itself...(presuming that you dont intend to send it away for professional recovery)

ChocolateStarfishRammer · 31 Oct 2014 at 15:58

Archeum said:
If it's clicking then I don't see how removing enclosure would affect/resolve this?

UnworthyBean said:
enclosure isn't providing enough power to the drive.

This. Enclosures get worn out and can no longer spin the drive up properly.

Again, back in the days of working at popular IT stores, this would be the problem over 50% of the time.

wunkley · 31 Oct 2014 at 16:18

Data recovery isn't a problem. This is one of 3 drives I've got as backups.

Also Just to elaborate, the drive still shows up when plugged in, and the data on it can be accessed, but it makes these noises and doesn't operate at usual speed.

Thing is I could do with a 2TB internal drive to replace a current 1TB that's almost full, and this one would do nicely I guess if I take it apart and try it out.

I just wanted to know if others had done similar with good success rates or not.

almighty15 · 31 Oct 2014 at 17:08

I had a clicking drive and the enclosure wasn't giving the drive enough power, plugged it into my PSU and the drive was fine.

JonJ678 · 31 Oct 2014 at 17:50

I once took a failing hard drive out of an enclosure and connected it directly to the motherboard. It produced a brief, localised fire on the drive PCB and killed the motherboard.

I'm now slightly more cautious about plugging bad hardware into good.

InfiniteNoise · 31 Oct 2014 at 23:11

Test with SMART, it gives you a good idea if it's on its way out.

A clicking drive usually means it's dying but not always, I have a 3 year old VelociRaptor drive that clicks but it still works fine.

daz87uk · 1 Nov 2014 at 01:02

JonJ678 said:
I once took a failing hard drive out of an enclosure and connected it directly to the motherboard. It produced a brief, localised fire on the drive PCB and killed the motherboard.

I'm now slightly more cautious about plugging bad hardware into good.

yup I did this. Dads external backup drive went faulty so took it out of the case and plugged it into my computer and POOF. like a mini atom bomb of smoke

. was a bit gutting as I had just back'd up the whole laptop on it and done a reinstall. Lost EVERYTHING...

luckily my pc was fine, tried replacing the circuit board on the drive with one that matched the serial ID but alas no joy and a lot of valuable data gone...

wunkley · 1 Nov 2014 at 10:47

JonJ678 said:
I once took a failing hard drive out of an enclosure and connected it directly to the motherboard. It produced a brief, localised fire on the drive PCB and killed the motherboard.

I'm now slightly more cautious about plugging bad hardware into good.

daz87uk said:
yup I did this. Dads external backup drive went faulty so took it out of the case and plugged it into my computer and POOF. like a mini atom bomb of smoke . was a bit gutting as I had just back'd up the whole laptop on it and done a reinstall. Lost EVERYTHING...

luckily my pc was fine, tried replacing the circuit board on the drive with one that matched the serial ID but alas no joy and a lot of valuable data gone...

Whoaah. Thanks for the feedback chaps. I know the chances of anything like this happening are low, but I don't think I'll risk it now. Really not worth the risk to tank my motherboard or rest of system on a whim.

I think I will just retire the drive and archive it as a still working but 'unreliable' backup drive.

jkb · 2 Nov 2014 at 23:51

I took my external drive out of the enclosure and put it in my case about two years ago, it used to click all the time. I have had no problems with it since.

APM · 4 Nov 2014 at 09:05

I have an old AMD socket 939 system here that I'm happy to plug anything in to,but then I hate chucking old stuff out.