hdd clicking noise

[foureight84]

Long time reader, first time posters! haha. Okay, so I just bought the Seagate Barracuda ST3320620AS (320GB) and I just started noticing clicking noises during disk access. It seems that the clicking would often occur at the beginning and end of data access; so when windows boots up the harddrive clicks then it accesses the data, and after windows goes into desktop it would click once more right before going idle. This pattern would occur randomly as I access files on the harddrive. Should I be worried and exchange it before my grace period expires? I have speedfan installed on my computer and used the hdd monitoring option and it reported that the drive is running at 92%. But then again that's misleading as I can remember one of my harddrive died a few days after speedfan reporting a good bill of health.

EDIT: i'm gonna run the seagate diagnostic tool first and see. but could someone with the same hdd tell me if you notice this?

 

[bornking]

I also get random clicks.
Not as oftern or as predictable as you but they are there...I wonder what they are...

 

[croc]

Long time reader, first time posters! haha. Okay, so I just bought the Seagate Barracuda ST3320620AS (320GB) and I just started noticing clicking noises during disk access. It seems that the clicking would often occur at the beginning and end of data access; so when windows boots up the harddrive clicks then it accesses the data, and after windows goes into desktop it would click once more right before going idle. This pattern would occur randomly as I access files on the harddrive. Should I be worried and exchange it before my grace period expires? I have speedfan installed on my computer and used the hdd monitoring option and it reported that the drive is running at 92%. But then again that's misleading as I can remember one of my harddrive died a few days after speedfan reporting a good bill of health.

EDIT: i'm gonna run the seagate diagnostic tool first and see. but could someone with the same hdd tell me if you notice this?

After many years of working on acft my ears are not the best. I depend on Seatools to tell me that my drives are OK.

I have several of that model, though maybe slightly different firmware, and I cannot detect any discernable clicks on any of them. But I still run Seatools every few months for peace of mind. (I also backup frequently.... To several types of media).

 

[foureight84]

according to another post for a different hdd, it could be caused by an "internal thermal calibration mechanism." the seagate diagnostic is still running. i'll make a post once it's done. but it's a little bit more reassuring that someone else is confirming something similar.

 

[azimuth40]

I have six seagates of different ages and they all seem to click if you listen. Internal thermal calibration was what I have always been lead to believe it was. When it was 114 degrees f here every day for a few weeks they clicked a lot. The air at home could not keep up that well maybe 80-85 in my computer room. Now it is raining and has been un seasonably cool for a week the clicks are very few 70F in the room.

 

[foureight84]

i think you are right. i ran dst on the seatool and everything is fine. and it did get colder in my room later into the night and the clicking seemed to be less persistent. i guess i was being paranoid.

 

[windie]

Well I had a seagate on my laptop that I got replaced by dell (under warranty) couple days back.

"...goes into desktop it would click once more right before going idle. This pattern would occur randomly as I access files on the harddrive"

Something similar happened to me also in the start (although not in the order you said). These were distinct loud clicks (other than the normal operational clicks). Then well it stopped, but then it started clicking continuously. Not as loud as the initial ones, but distinct from normal and very frequent. From previous experience, i knew its death was soon. So i wasted no time in getting replaced. The HD was 5 months old. Now they gave a hitachi one, hope it lasts.
Why dont you contact seagate tech support online? No harm in that and might give more insight into what is going on. Cheers

 

[robhayes123]

i have the same model ST3320620AS set up in raid5 been running it for about a month now have noticed clicks like that when there is a lot of disk activity. i have had a problem with one of the drives it kept coming up as degraded in the raid bios i tried to rebuild it but it didn’t work just kept on failing so i brought a new disk to replace it and seems to be working so far.