Hard Dive making clicking noises

[Duckweed]

So i left my computer on overnight, which i usually don't do, and this morning i woke up to it at around 7 making loud clicking noises around every 10 seconds from the hard drive. I got up and turned it off, hoping that it was no problem. Three hours of sleep later I turn it on and it is still clicking. Is my drive dying? Thanks

 

[evilharp]

Questions:

1) How old is the drive?
2) What make/model is the drive?
3) Is the "drive activity" light on when the clicking occurs?
4) Is it under warranty (most are 3 years, Seagate is 5)

Your drive may be dying, or it has a noisy sweep/head.

If the drive is old (3+ years), and the sound is new, death is imminent most of the time. I have an old Maxtor ATA33 (it is 7 or 8 years old now) in my kids PC that has been grinding (ie. the bearings are going) for about 4 years, but it is still chugging away. I'd recommend that you start backing up your data ASAP, and look into a new primary drive.

 

[brunswickite]

Copy all your data off it.

 

[Duckweed]

Well, that is the strange thing. The drive is only 3 months old. It is a Western Digital 200GB 7200 Rpm SATA. But what is even weirder after 3 reboots just now, the clicking stopped and it seems to be working fine. I just hope it won't recur.

 

[Gronich]

Do NOT assume that the problem has gone away! Back up all your data and RMA the drive.

 

[RichUK]

i had this aswell with one of my old drives, one day it just failed completely .. and i lost all of my data .. lucky i made weekly backups so not much was lost, be smart and backup your data