agsteague

Distinguished
Jan 14, 2009
9
0
18,510
Hey all,

I just got a 1TB Iomega Prestige USB 2.0 external hard drive and it is making some strange clicking noises and behaving unusually. I haven't used a ton of external drives and my question is whether occasional clicking (even when the drive isn't being accessed or browsed) and some stuttering when watching a video off the drive (coincides with the clicks) is normal. I am running the drive on a windows 7 machine formatted in NTFS. Thanks a ton for any help you can provide.
 

curtains

Distinguished
Mar 11, 2007
59
0
18,660
either your drive isn't getting enough power, (if its just running off USB, if its has external power it should have enough power) or its about to die, clicking noises on hard drives are never good, means theres something wrong with the arm not seating properly.
 

rajich

Honorable
Aug 8, 2012
1
0
10,510
I had simliar problem. My external HD started to make a clicking sound every 3 seconds consistently and would not mount after it feel about 1 foot off a ledge behind my desk. I called Iomega since it was still under warranty and decided to withhold the bit about it falling and they said the problem was the power supply. If I was a betting man I would have said my drive was toast. However, it happened to be the power supply after all. After they send me the new power supply the clicking stopped and now it mounts and works great.