Hard drive click?

Hey all,
Every so often my maxtor 80 gig hdd has been making a semi-loud click sound. This sound is similar to that made when the drive powers up or shuts down. Should I be concerned? According to a probe program I have the S.M.A.R.T. status is fine, and no errors seem to be arrising. THanks

 

Keep monitoring the S.M.A.R.T. data, and make sure that you have any serious data backed up. Not much else you can do unless you are willing to replace the drive now.

 

I have to agree with winbob......
Backup, backup, backup.....
When the hard drive starts clicking this is not a good sign. As for how long the drive should last its unknown. It could last 10 mins to months. It's really up to you if you want to replace it or ride out the drive till it dies...

FYI:
When the drive does decide to go south. See if the drive is still under warranty and rma it if possible. If it still is this will save you a few bucks.....

 

Does the click sound happen after a minute or two of downtime?

 

Download and run Maxtor PowerMax http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm and see what that reports (you'll need a blank floppy disk to write the program to). In my experience a hard disk making loud clicking sounds that aren't a) the drive spinning up or down due to powersaving, or b) normal drive accessing noises (like my Quantum Fireball Plus KA, which has very loud seeks) are head-crashes which at best generate bad sectors on the disk surface, and at worst make the drive totally inoperable. New, modern drives are just as prone to this as old ones. A good quality active PFC powersupply is a good idea since voltage fluctuations on the 5V and 12V rails can damage your drive.

 

Yea, i think this case came with a cheap power supply so maybe that's it? Additionally, I used this drive in an external enclosure so maybe that caused problems? It might still be under warranty? But would they rma it?

 

Would they RMA it? More than likely, if you can show it fails the diagnostic test, unless it's obvious that you wrecked the drive yourself (e.g. dents in the casing).

 

Well i just ran the diagnostic test and it passed both short and advanced tests. It isnt a read kind of sound, more like a physical click sound....as if someone pulled the arm back and then let it go

 

Best of luck - I have a Maxtor 120 (DiamondMax Plus 9) that I have just about decided to throw away. Had all kind of problems (freezing up and etc) - Maxtor diagnostic found nothing wrong. I guess it really makes no difference, since warranty expired less than 1 month ago. I replaced with a Seagate, (would you believe a 5 year warranty?) everything now works fine.

Anyway, as has been said before -- backup your important info.

 

I'd go the RMA route if it's still under warranty. Call in instead. Tell them it's clicking, but you can't get a fail error code yet and you don't want to take chances. Maxtor is really good with their RMA policy, at least, from my experiences.

 

I think with BOTH Maxtor and WD you can RMA online. One of them...don't remember which will ship you a replacement BEFORE you send in the bad drive...you can use their packaging to send it in!!

 

Maxtor will RMA it online, but I THINK you need a fail error code. They will also take your credit card number and ship one first so you have the box to send the defective one back in Been there, done that a couple of times, unfortunately.