Drive ticking....

Conrad11

Conrad11

Conrad11

Soldato
Joined
12 Jun 2005
Posts
5,361
Hi there,

I have a Seagate 7200.10 500GB in an external enclosure (Icy Box)....every few seconds there is a ticking noise....

....I am not specifically using the drive at the moment, although it is plugged in.

...is this normal or is it the sign of something wrong?

Thanks.
 
Is it a loud clicking - and does it sound like the drive is straining away?

Check your connections first (something e.g. a power connecter might be slightly loose).

Then start backing up, don't do this too late! (As it's an external drive may I assume that it's a back up volume? In which case get a replacement or RMA it quick just to avoid a sod's law situation :)).
 
I dunno...i think it might just be seek, but what would it be seeking and why is it seeking when i am not using it?


...but it still happens when i safely remove the drive and remove the usb cable (but still have it powered on).

Haven't run seagate diagnostics....can i do this from windows?
 
Last edited:
Boscher said:
BACKUP data asap incase it goes.
Click to expand...

lol...nowhere to back it up too :/....skint as i just spend all my money on holiday and gigs for the summer so can't buy a new drive.

I'll just see how it plays out. I have all important files on other mediums....its just movies/music/disk images on there tbh...so nothing critical....

...I have noticed that the seek light blinks when it makes the ticking sound so im going to assume that its just....

....is there any tools to make the drive quieter or spin slower (or more reliable), as its at a bottle neck due to being plugged in via USB, so doesn't need to be full speed.
 
Funny I saw this thead... I am currently running diags on a 7200.10 320GB thats been giving me problems for the last few weeks...

Hmm... 84% done and iits found errors..
 
ive heard HDD's clicking that are as lould as sony ericson phones with the click sound instead of beep when you press buttons... thats an old like 40gb or sumthing, prob heavily fragmented... works pretty fine though
 
platinum87 said:
ive heard HDD's clicking that are as lould as sony ericson phones with the click sound instead of beep when you press buttons... thats an old like 40gb or sumthing, prob heavily fragmented... works pretty fine though
Click to expand...

Every HDD I've ever heard tick has usually failed within 2-4 weeks after the first noticeable ticks. I understood the ticks were the heads constantly moving to the same sector trying to read some bad data over and over.

That said, I have a 20GB Notebook Hitachi that ticks like its a Grandfather clock, and has been doing that for more than 2 years. It's also getting noisier by the day, when I power it up it drowns out all 4 my other PCs altogether :)
 
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