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Does a fragmented drive cause failure/clicking?

sygyzy

sygyzy

Lifer
My primary hard drive started clicking heavily a few months ago. It would click, pause (silence) for about 3 full seconds, then click back. During the pause, the entire system would half as if time froze, then it would resume back to normal.

I got worried that of course the clicking meant hard drive failure. Anyway, not wanting to RMA, I ran defrag. It turns out I hadn't run it in a very long time. Anyway, after it defragged, all the problems went away.

So is my hard drive dying or was it just fragmented?

Thanks,
David
 
Run the diagnostic from the drive maker. That will let you know if it is ok or not. Clicking is not normal and is not related to defrag. The RMA process with most drive makers is easy, they send you a drive, you back up all your stuff, you send your broken one back. Easy.
 
drive fragmentation simply means that the files are broken up into lots of pieces and spread all over the surface of the drive. This makes your system spend more time piecing the file back together before you can read it. It will not cause noise unless your drive has other issues. Some older drives make more noise when reading data, and maybe that's why it is clicking as you describe.

Based on your description of the noise though, I'd be a little nervous. You should definately run the mfgr diagnostic software.
 
All the health monitoring tools I have run have reported that all my drives (clicking one included) are healthy. What is it called again? ACTIVE or something. Some abbreviation to monitor the drives. Anyways, all greens, all healthy. Can I trust them?
 
no you cant. the drive is about to fail. clicking is a sign that the hard drive is about to go out. ive had the same thing happen with 2 western digital drives and both went out within 2 months of the clicking noise starting! check to see if the drive is under warranty and rma it if it is!
 
You are thinking of S.M.A.R.T. That is not the same thing as the drive diagnostic from the drive maker. Take the advice, run the diagnostic, it tests the drive thoroughly.
 
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