Did I experience the click of death for my hard drive????

nitsuj3580

Platinum Member
Jun 13, 2001
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OK, my computer recently began to randomly reboot. I thought it might have been the power supply but everything seems to power up fine. I shut the pc down for an overnight and when I turned it on the next day, I heard a clicking sound and nothing came up on the monitor. I tried again today, heard the clicking sound (sounded like it was coming from one of my hard drives) but after about 10 seconds, the clicking disappeared and my computer booted up and has been running fine for an hour now.

Is it pretty much inevitable my hard drive is going to fail soon or could the clicking have come from elsewhere? Would a faulty hard drive with the OS installed on it cause random reboots?

thanks
 

zephyrprime

Diamond Member
Feb 18, 2001
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I think it's strange that nothing came up on your monitor. But the hard drive is the only thing in your computer that can make the clicking sound.
 

J1600B

Senior member
Nov 15, 2002
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Could still be the PSU. Even without a harddrive you will still get POST. The clicking/no POST may just be signs of it failing.
 

mastertech01

Moderator Emeritus Elite Member
Nov 13, 1999
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It isnt necessarily the click of death. Ive had random episodes in the past similar with simply a loose pin in a molex connectork, too many drives on one branch of the PSU, and overheating.
 

nitsuj3580

Platinum Member
Jun 13, 2001
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Originally posted by: mastertech01
It isnt necessarily the click of death. Ive had random episodes in the past similar with simply a loose pin in a molex connectork, too many drives on one branch of the PSU, and overheating.

hmm...i do have a IBM 40 gig and a WD 80 gig SE on the same branch. maybe i'll try to switch it up. the computer has actually been fine but i also have kept the one side of the case off. might be helping with overheating issues?
 

Viper96720

Diamond Member
Jul 15, 2002
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It's from IBM don't know if it works with other drives. They usually have their own testing software you can download.
 

wetcat007

Diamond Member
Nov 5, 2002
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Originally posted by: zephyrprime
I think it's strange that nothing came up on your monitor. But the hard drive is the only thing in your computer that can make the clicking sound.

No it isn't dieing fans can do this well, or the PSU could be reseting itself over and over and starting and stopping the HD, i'd just back up I stuff, and see how it goes from there, if you don't notice any noise or other problems in the next week or too, it was prolly just some one time thing.