HDD has been making noises for over a year, but seems to work fine? Should I replace it?

Fullmetal_Alchemist · Sep 21, 2014

I have a seagate barracuda 1tb hdd. I thought the noises were normal because that is all I heard from day one. However recent random shutdowns occur without warning and I did some research and discovered that hdds should not make noise during normal operation. I do not think it is my psu that is causing these shutdowns as it works just fine under normal and gaming load. SInce then I have made sure to back up every week to an external hdd.

Is my hdd heading towards catastrophic failure? How much time does it have left if it has been making noises for over a year? What replacement hdd would you recommend? It must be 1tb at least and not overly expensive, and not seagate.

Beezy · Sep 21, 2014

The HDD's do make noises (especially if nothing else is loud around you) it can be easy to hear on a quiet night. I keep my PC on my desk so its pretty close to me and i can hear regular noises, nothing clicky or scratchy or terribly loud, just as if it working.

My SSD is my boot drive and my TB Hitatchi is my media drive, the SSD is indexed but indexing is off for the TB (how i set it), so every single time on a fresh boot, as i navigate into my TB drive for the first time, i can hear it make a distinctive loading noise with each folder i click into, (as if its reading as i go), all normal. The bigger the folder, the longer the noise ( were talking seconds here though).

download CrystalDiskInfo and it will tell you the health status of the drive :]

ThatVietGuy · Sep 21, 2014

Depends on the noise. If it's a grinding noise, yes, it's time to replace the drive. But if it's starting to cause errors in Windows, back up your data immediately and go ahead and replace.

As a replacement, I'd recommend a Western Digital Blue or Black 1TB drive.

tsuneo6 · Sep 21, 2014

yes, you should replace, but noone can tell you how much time you have left. My external drive has been making ticking/grinding noises for 4 years and it still works, but better be safe then sorry right.

Chicano · Sep 21, 2014

All depends on the type of sounds the HDD has been making... Which of these is it making?
http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php

I have one that droped from about 5 inches on a hard floor and immediately started clicking loud 16 times before booting... that was in 2006 and it's still running, it even stopped clicking around 2 years ago when I removed the IDE Jumper.

Hard Disk Sentinel scans show it as bad (low %) and with some 75 days of lifetime left on Hard Disk Sentinel but the time has not come down. This program imho is your best way to know your HDD's condition.. It shows results for Performance, Health, number of bad sectors, days of remaining lifetime, and other results, but the result indicating the HDD health is the one to watch for... if it shows a low % it's time to replace it.. I have several HDDs that give different results but the only one that has failed in the time I have used Hard Disk Sentinel was down to 20% health right before it died.

Fullmetal_Alchemist · Sep 22, 2014

Beezy :

The HDD's do make noises (especially if nothing else is loud around you) it can be easy to hear on a quiet night. I keep my PC on my desk so its pretty close to me and i can hear regular noises, nothing clicky or scratchy or terribly loud, just as if it working.

My SSD is my boot drive and my TB Hitatchi is my media drive, the SSD is indexed but indexing is off for the TB (how i set it), so every single time on a fresh boot, as i navigate into my TB drive for the first time, i can hear it make a distinctive loading noise with each folder i click into, (as if its reading as i go), all normal. The bigger the folder, the longer the noise ( were talking seconds here though).

download CrystalDiskInfo and it will tell you the health status of the drive :]

I downloaded and ran it, says the health is good. Anything I should be aware of in it?

Fullmetal_Alchemist · Sep 22, 2014

Chicano :

Its quiet, but it sounds most like the bad heads and failing heads from the seagate sounds. However it is no where as loud as those and does not sound to be as damaging as those sound to be. The HDD Sentinel says its in perfect health too... Guess I just have a noisy drive.

Chicano · Sep 23, 2014

Fullmetal_Alchemist :

On the first audio: (Seagate desktop drive with failing heads making thrashing, then clicking sound)..
That audio, after the first few seconds it sounds like normal noisy heads... I have a WD40 GB the same one that clicked for years... from the beginning when I first got it, it always like this audio though a bit fainter... it was just noisy heads, that noise along with the 16 clicks disappeared after I removed the IDE jumper, it now works completely silent.

On the second audio: (Seagate desktop drive with bad heads slowly clicks and beeps on spin up).
Those are the clicks my WD had for 6 years but mine was much louder... these clicks also sound a bit fainter and on a different tone than mine just because it's a different make HDD but those are the clicks the head makes when it's trying to read the platter during spin up.

All you can do is check the digital and power connections to the HDD... replace the data cable if it's been used for some years. And run disk checks and defrags to keep it in top shape. A full format may also help but it's not guaranteed to make much of a difference.

Also check the results of the S.M.A.R.T. report in HD Sentinel.

Fullmetal_Alchemist · Sep 25, 2014

Chicano :

Fullmetal_Alchemist :

On the first audio: (Seagate desktop drive with failing heads making thrashing, then clicking sound)..
That audio, after the first few seconds it sounds like normal noisy heads... I have a WD40 GB the same one that clicked for years... from the beginning when I first got it, it always like this audio though a bit fainter... it was just noisy heads, that noise along with the 16 clicks disappeared after I removed the IDE jumper, it now works completely silent.

On the second audio: (Seagate desktop drive with bad heads slowly clicks and beeps on spin up).
Those are the clicks my WD had for 6 years but mine was much louder... these clicks also sound a bit fainter and on a different tone than mine just because it's a different make HDD but those are the clicks the head makes when it's trying to read the platter during spin up.

All you can do is check the digital and power connections to the HDD... replace the data cable if it's been used for some years. And run disk checks and defrags to keep it in top shape. A full format may also help but it's not guaranteed to make much of a difference.

Also check the results of the S.M.A.R.T. report in HD Sentinel.

Thank you for your help!

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HDD has been making noises for over a year, but seems to work fine? Should I replace it?

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tsuneo6

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Chicano

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Chicano

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